Maurice Ditmer Jazz Quartet entered the studio to record an EP. The brief was: jazz meets Bach. The quartet consists of Maurice Ditmer on trumpet and flugelhorn, Wim de Vries on drums, Bart Tarenskeen on bass and Marcus Schinkel on piano. The compositions are classic jazz, incorporating pieces by Bach, with trumpet and piano playing the leading role. In addition to the audio, a promo video was also recorded, in collaboration with HEAVEN HEAVEN productions.
Except for the trumpet, everything was recorded simultaneously in the live room, with judicious use of baffles. These were used to get some “critical” separation, placed around the upright bass and the piano. For the rest, the motto was: keep it simple, and live! For this music, making good use of crosstalk provides a plus in ambience and feel.
The trumpet and flugelhorn were recorded separately, in the vocal booth, as the volume of these instruments could cause issues on mix down. Drums recording was minimalistic, using a mono overhead (Flea U47) and accents on kick (U47fet) and snare (SM57) and a few spot mics just in case. The piano, our beautiful Yamaha U3 upright, was mic’ed from behind with a stereo XY set up (Telefunken M260, cardioid capsules). Bart’s upright bass was recorded with a combination of his own DPA mic and an RCA 77Dx. The trumpet and flugelhorn were recorded with a combination of RCA74j ribbon and SM7b mic.
After a morning of recording, we spent a fun afternoon on the mix. Everything was mixed through the SSL, with EQ and a hint of outboard, and bounced straight to stereo from there through the BURL B2 ADC. A minimalist approach, with only one revision, to place the trumpet/flugelhorn more up front.
The tracks were mastered by Lars at E-mastering, the video was edited by Sara Smit and Quenne Lyon from HEAVEN HEAVEN.