Transcontinental Ska/Young and Wild
(City Beat Records 1980, Crossfire Studios, NYC)
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This was our first record (my first record, Marc and Dave had done a couple before - but only as artists) We produced, executive produced (financed), contracted manufacturing and distributed ourselves on our own label. Ska revival anyone? I'm not one to brag, but please note when we were doing Ska. Marc took on the role of dub master, with Connie Garcia's help, ripping horn playing by me (trombone) and Douglas' phenomenal alto sax. Dave and I produced. I arranged the horns. It's Dave's bass lick. We recorded, mixed and mastered. We distributed by showing up at the local East Village record stores with a box and try and talk the proprietor in to taking them. Sometimes they did, sometimes not. Crossfire Studios in Chelsea, NY was an extremely beautiful project studio that was as nice and as equipped as any professional studio I had ever seen. Hardwood everywhere, truly sound proofed drum booth, classic 60s Ampex 16" (on 2" tape) tape deck, quality mics, pre's and outboard and (I think) a Trident board. I think the room cost us USD $35.00 per hour.
These cuts were ripped from a brand-new, never-been-played vinyl 45RMP phonograph record. Then I remastered the tracks using modern digital tools. Even though the original record was professionally mastered at Masterdisk, one of the premiere mastering houses in NYC and supervised by Dave and me, these re-mastered MP3s presented here sound 100 times better even with low-res encoding.
Transcontinental Ska - A chance for me to blow a horn solo behind Marc's impression of U-Roy ("I'm going to the palace with Saran wrap on my chalice."). I put some weight into Dave's bass part and Douglas and I just fit together oh so good! That's Dave (all keyboard players are frustrated guitar players) "doodling" on the guitar in the background. "I'm a knotty dread on Wonderbread... This slice is for you."
Young and Wild - Dave's haunting opening riff. Can you believe we used to do a whole set at this tempo? Shows off Tommy's jackhammer drumming which was perfect for the tune.
Personnel: Marc (vocals, guitar), Dave (keys), George (bass, trombone, guitar), Doug (alto sax), Tommy (drums), Barry Ruth (studio owner/engineer), Pete Darmi (engineer), Rick Gallager (artwork).
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Transcontinental Ska (NY, Chi, LA) (Streams)
Young and Wild (Streams) |
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(c) 2003 City Beat Music Co.