Episode #73

This was an episode of Studio Jams that I will always remember. Not only for the wonderful music we recorded, but unfortunately, for the unanticipated and untimely stress we all had to work through in the hour and a half before our scheduled hit. Most all of the musicians were already at the studio setting up when I received an email from our guitarist telling me how he was feeling under the weather and consequently wouldn’t be able to join us after all. Well, that came out of left field. As a result, it sent us all into a frantic “now who can we call to fill in on such short notice” headspace. I quickly started to scan my Rolodex and make a few calls. So did the studio engineer. Well, as fate would have it, we really lucked out. Bigtime. There in the facility, in another smaller studio, was one of Philadelphia’s bright young guns…a guitarist named Josh Nussbaum. Josh was there giving a guitar lesson to a young student. Well, the studio engineer kindly introduced me to Josh and although I had never heard or heard of him, I stepped out on a limb and asked if he would like to join us in our session. Surprisingly, Josh also happens to be a big fan of Studio Jams and said he would love to be a part of it.

The band we assembled that day consisted of Andrew Neu on saxophones, David Hanlon on drums, Jonathan Smith on bass, Jason Long on piano and as I just mentioned, Josh Nussbaum on guitar. Other than Josh, everyone else has appeared on Studio Jams in the past so they all knew what to expect. Josh quickly fell into place.

As a warm-up, Andrew started to play the Joe Henderson-penned song “Recorda-me,” which proved to be a great way to kick things off. We recorded two nice takes of the song. Next, drummer Dave Hanlon wanted to play some funk and first suggested perhaps something from the Average White Band. Andrew liked the idea of playing some funk but instead offered up “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now”…a tune from the great Philadelphia American songbook. The guys took 15 minutes or so to work out an arrangement before we recorded a single take of the song, which featured a very nice and fresh guitar solo from Josh.

After a short 15 minute break, the guys reassembled in the studio for the second half of our session. As one of the day’s more interesting moves, Andrew thought it would be a golden opportunity to work out a song he had just finished writing two days earlier. He had never performed it with anyone and thought that, in this context, he would be able to iron it out some. At this point, the song did not even have a title. The guys thought this would be fun, so Andrew handed out a short chart for each of them to follow. He then led them through about 15 minutes of rehearsal before we recorded two takes of the song.

To wrap things up, guitarist Josh Nussbaum suggested “Crazy,” a song written by Danger Mouse and CeeLo Green, and released back in 2007 as a single by Gnarls Barkley. But rather than play it straight, Dave and Jonathan thought it might be nice to give it a little reggae feel, which they did. So with no rehearsal whatsoever, we recorded a single take of this track.

All in all, it was a very nice session, despite of the high level of stress we had to unexpectedly deal with due to a musician’s decision to cancel at the very last minute. Lesson learned.

– Tom Emmi / Producer