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Nine songs recorded over two-day session
Published on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009
It's a surprisingly clear and beautiful Sunday afternoon in the rural hamlet of Painesville. Off Vrooman Road sits an understated cottage that happens to be the home of Suma Studios, where hits by the James Gang, Grand Funk Railroad and Wild Cherry were recorded, as well as albums by local legends such as Michael Stanley, John Bassette, Pere Ubu and, more recently, the Black Keys.
In the wooded control room, engineer Paul Hamann lightly taps his foot and watches the monitors, listening as a jazz quartet runs through Take 3 of an uptempo bossa nova.
In the studio's main room, pianist Jackie Warren, bassist Peter Dominguez and drummer Ron Godale, all well-known veterans of the Cleveland jazz scene and music educators, are jamming in full swing. Warren, the Salsa Queen of Cleveland, sits at the grand piano, deftly improvising over the Latin tune's chord progression while bobbing her head and swaying to
and fro. The musicians in the rhythm section can't see each other very well behind their isolation screens, but the groove is as smooth as if they were right next to each other onstage at a club.
In the isolation booth stands trumpeter Josh Rzepka of Akron, who is by far the youngest person in the building, and also is the leader of the recording session.
This is the young trumpeter's second full session. Last year Rzepka, now 25, and his buddy, Cleveland pianist/singer Harry Bacharach, the self-described Funky Honky Monkey, recorded, mixed and engineered Bacharach's CD Velvet Tango as a team in Rzepka's professional-quality portable studio.
But leading a two-day recording session of your original tunes, in an actual studio, is an altogether different beast.
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''It's cool. It's takes a little getting used to the separation,'' the soft-spoken Rzepka said at a picnic table outside the studio after the four-hour session.
''I can't see the drummer or the bass player too much. I can see Jackie all right, and I sound different on headphones, but the communication — it took me a little while to adjust.''
Besides the jazz album, Rzepka, a Firestone High School and Oberlin College grad whose clean-cut appearance and bright clear eyes make him look like the hip, jazz-playing cousin of young comedic actor Michael Cera, also plans to do a classical album later in the summer, featuring a chamber orchestra that will record baroque and classical pieces. At Oberlin, Rzepka studied under highly respected jazz trumpeter Kenny Davis, and the versatile player is currently working on his master's degree in trumpet performance from Boston University. He calls the still-in-the-planning-stages classical session a ''logistical nightmare, figuring out who's going to play on it, getting the venue.''
''They're both such different characters. This one is charts I wrote and there's improvisation and there's only so much you can prepare for. It's a different atmosphere than the classical disc, which is music that I've been practicing for months now and still practice every day, just to keep everything fresh,'' he said.
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Back in the studio, as the band brings the as-yet-untitled bossa nova to a smooth close, Warren — who teaches part time at Oberlin, plays with Sammy DeLeon y Su Orquesta (where she and Rzepka met) and has a few standing solo gigs around Cleveland — is clearly pleased with the take as she looks over the sheet music.
''I really like that tune, Josh. Can I keep the charts? I want to add that to my set,'' she says.
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''I was thrilled to hear Jackie say that,'' Rzepka said after the session.
''That's a great compliment from her and she's so great, and Peter complimented me on a couple of tunes, 'I like these changes,' and that's a good thing from him. Not that he's mean or critical, but he's at such a high level and a great performer, and he didn't have to say that. To be able to hear that they like some of the tunes I write is great.''
The nine songs being recorded over the two-day session are among the first Rzepka has written.
''I don't think a year ago I would have been able to tell you what I'd be doing now. I certainly wouldn't have said, 'I'll be recording a CD of music I write.' I never wrote anything until this past August,'' he said.
''I just decided, hey, I'm going to record these CDs of my own music, so I guess I better get some of my own music.
•
With the clock becoming more of a factor, the quartet runs through a couple of takes of a lovely ballad, Song for a New Year, featuring Rzepka softly improvising on a stylish all-black flugelhorn (he also plays cornet and some piano). Between takes, they discuss the arrangement, change the order of solos and alter the tempo slightly. After Take 3, they gather in the control room to listen and are pleased.
''It doesn't get much lusher than that. That's 3-inch-deep shag carpet, right there,'' Dominguez says, leaning over the console, smiling.
Next they take on an uptempo bop tune, Mid West Coast, whose bouncy staccato primary melody resembles the theme from the Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
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Rzepka took up the trumpet in fourth grade at Lippman Day School in Akron, where his mother is an educator. With the encouragement and CD-buying power of his music-loving father, he was introduced to his first major trumpet influences, Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson. But the standard hallmarks of those jazz legends' styles — Gillespie's dizzyingly intricate bebop lines, Ferguson's forceful bleats and piercing high notes — aren't immediately evident in Rzepka's soloing. Rather his improvisations mirror his demeanor: calm, cool and confident.
Rzepka makes his living as a full-time musician, playing jazz and classical gigs, musicals, weddings and pretty much anywhere someone's got a paying job.
When not in school, Rzepka said he can average as many as 15 gigs a month, and a week may include jamming with Bacharach at the Velvet Tango Room on Thursday, then sitting in with someone at Nighttown on Friday, then hoofing it down to Akron on Saturday to sight-read through a single performance of Man of La Mancha at Weathervane.
''I really try to be able to play as much as I can. That way even if things are slow, there's always something that can keep you busy, and as a performer, it keeps things real interesting,'' he said.
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It's a little after the official 4 p.m. ending time and the quartet is trying Last Call, a syncopated tune with an Afro-Cuban groove, and it's not going very well. All the musicians are tired, Rzepka's solo drags a bit, and Warren is not enjoying her playing and feels limited by the chord progression. After a better Take 2, they gather in the control room to listen, and they grimace and shake their heads at the playback, quickly concluding that they'll revisit the song the next day.
With Rzepka standing by, Warren, Godale and Dominguez discuss the tune and ways to open it up for better improvisation. Though these are his songs, he is not inflexible and happily soaks in the advice from the veterans.
''A lot of the reasons I picked these guys is because of the input they'd be able to give me as well,'' Rzepka said, adding that he picked a couple of Latin tunes specifically for Warren.
''They're all tremendous on their own and as a group everything works better if you have a good dialogue,'' he said.
''Jackie's got several years on me and Peter and Ron have at least 15 years on her, so there's a lot to be learned from all that; if they have a suggestion or idea, I'll listen to it. If I don't like it, I'll say let's do it his way, but a lot of times it's a good idea and everyone is so musical, they are able to help out,'' he said.
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Rzepka has another year at Boston University before trading in his musician/student designation for ''working musician,'' and though he said he would enjoy having a full-time band to tour and play his tunes or play with an orchestra, he also enjoys the variety and challenge that his still-growing skills afford him.
''I've done polka bands, Renaissance fairs; if someone needs a trumpet, I try and put myself in the spot where I can say yes, because as a performer, the opportunities are getting fewer and fewer, so you need to have that versatility.''
Rzepka doesn't have a label for his records and he's not overly concerned with finding one. It's another challenge to be mastered.
''If I could shop them out for distribution that would be good, but I think just having the recording and trying to put myself out there and make a couple of discs is just another step in the process.''
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
It's a surprisingly clear and beautiful Sunday afternoon in the rural hamlet of Painesville. Off Vrooman Road sits an understated cottage that happens to be the home of Suma Studios, where hits by the James Gang, Grand Funk Railroad and Wild Cherry were recorded, as well as albums by local legends such as Michael Stanley, John Bassette, Pere Ubu and, more recently, the Black Keys.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Lorain, oh
Posted 11:03 AM, 06/22/2009
nice article.
akron, oh
Posted 04:43 PM, 06/23/2009
What a wonderful article!!!! Too bad all the pundits aren't reading the good stuff!!!
