Ginger Baker's Jazz Confusion
Wilbur Theatre
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
June 29, 2014 [2014-06-29]


PERSONNEL
Pee Wee Ellis (saxophone)
Alec Dankworth (upright bass)
Ginger Baker (drums / attitude)
Abass Dodoo (percussion)

TRACKLISTING
01 - Footprints
02 - pee break / Crazy / band introductions
03 - Twelve And More Blues
04 - Ain Temouchant
05 - Ginger Spice
06 - St. Thomas
07 - Cyril Davis
08 - Aiko Biaya / <Ginger Baker cheer>
encore:
09 - Why?

total duration = 84:05 (2 CDs)
Edited so as to fit onto 2 CDs (a la artwork). But even if you don't wanna go oldschool and bother with the disk thing anymore, the intermission between the 1st and 2nd sets ineluctably demands fades down & back up.

PERFORMANCE NOTES
After the first song, GB takes an unscheduled departure from the stage, apparently to take a whizz. To fill in the gap until The Drummer's return, Pee Wee Ellis starts playing an impromptu song: a version of Crazy (the Willie Nelson composition / Patsy Cline hit). A google search reveals that this song IS on one of his [PWE's] albums, so it might just have been something he knew and pulled out of his hat in a pinch. Or was it a sly editorial comment in reference to Our Hero?? We report, you decide.

Musically interesting is the fact that Pee Wee Ellis plays Crazy as a shuffle, but when AD falls in on percussion, he plays a straight four [any musicians out there will know what I'm talkin' 'bout]. Wonder if he was creating a counter-rhythm on purpose, or just wasn't familiar with the song (or country music in general?).

When GB introduces the other players, he does the Cream 'please' thing
("Pee Wee Ellis please...Alec Dankworth please...") That was nostalgic.

After the last song of the 2nd set, it is percussionist and Ginger Baker sidekick (GB describes him as his "bodyguard" during the band introductions) Abass Dodoo who leads the audience in the Ginger Baker cheer to [ostensibly] eventuate the [inevitable] encore.

PS: I love how audiencemembers shout out "Peter" as a salutation, like calling out his given name is somehow gonna endear them to GB as True Fans. It reminds me of the people who would greet Dylan's stage entrances with hollers of "Bobby" (as if they were buds of his from back in the Village days). Do people still do that? Do people call out "Gordon" at Sting concerts? Or "Reg" at Elton John shows?? There's even a "We love you, Peter" at the beginning of the 2nd set. If you do, brother, it's unrequited.

RECORDING NOTES
source: audience

recording gear: Zoom H4N (internal mikes)

recording location: front row of balcony

recorded by: Isotope Feeney

AUDIO NOTES
imaging: stereo

sound quality: good (7 out of 10?)
(mp3 samples in comments)

TECHNICAL NOTES
generation: mixdown from MASTER recording

transfer lineage:
44.1 kHz / 16 bit stereo MASTER wav files > HD >
Sound Forge v. 4.5 (volume adjustments, edits)
WaveLab v. LE7 (EQ, stereo imaging expansion) >
Audacity v. 2.0.6 (track splits) >
Traders Little Helper v. 2.7.0 (align SBEs, create level 8 FLAC files) >
bitTorrent >
DIME >
The Larger World

format: 44.1 kHz / 16 bit [CD compliant]

file size: 443 MB

MIXING/EDITING NOTES
Some uploaders tout as a selling point the fact that the native sound of their recordings is unchanged for torrenting purposes. They seem to regard any kind of ex post facto adulteration as an impurity at best, an evil at worst. I don't. Every commercial audio release --- even if produced under ideal conditions, with complete control of the recording environment --- has been mixed and sweetened after having been recorded. All the more justification [IMO] for the [hopefully] tasteful tweaks (EQ adjustments or removing overwhelmingly loud handclaps) which can make stuff recorded in less than optimal conditions more enjoyable to listen to. Doesn't seem evil to me.

Plus: what�s wrong with trying to make something sound better??

sound design: Isotope Feeney:
Overall levels boosted +4db.

GB discourse between songs boosted an additional +2.1 db.

Audiencemember cough during Crazy removed.

1 instance of tinkling sound (ice in glass?) removed?

Applause between final song and <GB cheer> truncated (over-all by c. 30").

Steinberg StudioEQ applied to bring sax up.

Separate Kjaerhus Classic EQ applied to each channel to bring bass up.

Steinberg StereoEnhancer applied to increase stereo separation.

Usual fades: up @ beginning and down @ end.

Even though I had what on paper would seem an optimal spot for recording (front of balcony, pointed straight at PA), the capture came out echo-ey, as if it were recorded from a lot farther away than it actually was. This has happened to me at that venue before, and I've scratched my head trying to figure out what I could do differently (i.e., where else I could try to place myself & my equipment) to circumvent it. I still don't have an answer. One theory I have is that the venue's house PA just isn't beefy enough (probably originally intended for plays, not for music), and therefore there's not much anyone could do. I tried a couple of de-verb tools (including SpectraLayers) on this to try to bring the listener "closer" to the music, but didn't really hear much of a difference (if any), so decided to just leave that aspect of things as is. Maybe down the road I'll take another crack at the issue.

ARTWORK
in comments

UPLOADER'S REQUEST
Please don't upload this anywhere else. If that's something I'm comfortable with, I'll take care of it myself. Thanks.

As always, at yr. service :
- IF -
December 2016