Having recorded the BLUE cd, the band toured Japan and various clubs in the U.S, recording all the shows to multiple ADAT's.
When it was all over, all the performances were studied (not an easy job!) and the best were chosen for this project. Mixing proved a pretty big job - blending the sounds of different nights in different clubs into a cohesive package.
Too many good pieces to sqeeze into one CD, so we decided to make it a double. Then the idea arose of having some remix engineers take our live playing and use it for material for remixes.
Possibly a good idea for future PapaBear release, but we only had room for one remix on this project - it's by SplatterCell, and is presented as a bonus track, after a long pause at the end of CD2.
THE PACKAGE
As is usual with Papa Bear releases, there's a lot in the package. The booklet contains excerpts (text and photos) from the Road Diaries that appeared here on the site during the tour.
There are some other photos in the package, taken of the group onstage, and some shots of audiences peek through from behind the cd's.
This is the first of Papa Bear Records releases to NOT have a custom cardboard package - it's just the usual jewel case with insert panels and booklets. The reason for the change is twofold:
we've had mixed comments from our buyers about the cardboard packages - some loving them, some requesting a more durable package (hey, it's ART!) But the bigger reason is economical; to print the previous packaging required as large a printing volume as possible, to hold down the higher cost. So we estimated the eventual sales of World Diary, From the Caves, and BLUE.
Trouble is, when those initial runs are all sold, it won't be possible to re-print in the same way. The good news: anyone who has, or gets, any of the first runs of those earlier cd's will have something of a collectors item - future runs will be to jewel box.
THE TRACKS
Notes from the cd booklet
Piercing Glances
We started off many shows with Bill entering the stage alone - then one at a time, we
would each join in. Having no plan for the piece, we were as entertained as the audience
to hear what would transpire at each performance. On this night, after we'd each solo'd and eased into some kind of piece, there was an unplanned
segue into Etude Revisited.
Deeper Blue
As many songs have a life of their own, playing this one live changed it a lot. The Botti/
Torn intro, free from drums and bass, developed out on the road as Bill and I would sit
and listen to the other two musicians make magic.
Cobalt Canyons
Astute listeners who have heard the BLUE CD version of
this piece will notice the unusual addition of a vocal sample,
strummed live into the guitar pickups by electrical wizard Torn,
to set up the tempo of the rollicking live version.
Picnic on Vesuvius
This piece was born one night, at The Knitting Factory in
New York City. On playing an improvised piece, the band
almost magically came up with chords, a melody, rhythm,
sections - all from out of the air. After the show we ran to
Robert Frazza, to check that the ADATs had been recording
the marvelous event. They hadn't. In fact, due to technical
problems, no tape had been running at all - we had no record
of the music. I knew we wouldn't remember all the intricacies,
so I came up with this solution; on the web site I re-quested
any fans who might have taped the show to please send a copy, so that we could learn the piece that had only happened that one time. After
some initial reluctance (it's not kosher to tape shows) we were sent no less that four tapes of
that night. Though the quality was rough, we were able to learn the piece, and played it
thereafter. We called it "the Industrial Improv" until Bill came up with the current title.
Cerulean Sea
On the BLUE cd this piece starts off with David Torn's outer space loops, then the bass
enters, and then the vocal drone on it's one note. On tour, it seemed more challenging to
start off with the vocal note unaccompanied, and ... see whether the pitch was still in
when the bass joins in. (Many nights it wasn't!)
Torn Drumbass
The original composition is only the last minutes of this much more complex version,
where David Torn gives reign to his electric oud. He titled his lead in Bent Taqasim
which refers to an Arabic word for an improvised out-of-time introduction.
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Bill Bruford is known to most of the visitors to this page. He's a longtime member of King Crimson, and has been a member of the influential groups Yes and U.K.
When not out with Crimson, Bill tours and records with his own group: Earthworks. Bill recently started his own web site.
On Blue Nights you hear Bill at his wildest, and most expressive. The CD starts, as did the live shows, with Bill playing alone on stage. There are a few drum solos, a few improvised pieces where he shines, and a couple of Bill's compositions from the earlier BLUE CD.
Tony Levin, (who's site, of course, you're looking at), plays all his basses on this cd: the Chapman Stick, NS Electric Upright, and the Music Man bass (with funk fingers.)
There's some featured Stick playing, a bowed bass solo intro, and some featured wierdness from the Funk Fingers with ring modulation(!)
David Torn, well known for his own albums and sound tracks, plays guitars - but that doesn't describe much of the unique element he brings to this music.
Unearthly loops, electric oud, bouzouki... things like that give you a better idea of how he sounds in the group.
Also here is one of David's better known compositions: Three Minutes of Pure Entertainment, from his classic Cloud About Mercury CD. That CD had Bruford and Levin on it, which led to the group doing 3 Minutes as an encore piece. (It lasts closer to 9 minutes now!)
Chris Botti on trumpet provides the lead voice for the group. His own releases, on the Verve Forcast label, are more jazz oriented than the playing with BLUE.
Here, Chris gets pretty wild, with the other players, but at many times pulls things together with a great melodic sense, and sparse playing.
Some of the tracks feature duo introductions with Chris and guitar, which weren't on the studio cd, but developed as the pieces were played live.
MORE ABOUT THE TRACKS
Presidents Day
On the BLUE cd, this was a piece mixing Bill's furious electronic drumming loops with
improvised acoustic kit playing - all with the band playing over it, and samples of various
bits from elsewhere in the cd thrown into the pot. Unable to match this concoction, we
avoided the piece on tour until one night, at the Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia,
when we decided, on the spur of the moment, to try it.
3 Minutes of Pure Entertainment
A David Torn composition, from his classic CD Cloud About Mercury. Bill and I had
played on that release with David, and the wild playing opportunities of this composition made it an ideal encore for the BLUE group.
The cd has Bill's introduction of the piece, where he chides David Torn for having had too little drums in the mix of the original album.
All compositions:
A Palace of Pearls (on a Blade of Grass)
Bent Taqasim
Cerulean Sea
Cobalt Canyons
Cracking the Midnight Glass
Deeper Blue
Dentures of the Gods
Etude Revisited
Fin de Siecle
Outer Blue
Original Sin
Picnic on Vesuvius
Piercing Glances
Presidents Day
3 Minutes of Pure Entertainment
Torn DrumBass
WHICH CLUBS
Track on BLUE NIGHTS were recorded at:
House of Blues / Boston
The Bottom Line / NYC
Theater of Living Arts / Philly
The ParkWest / Chicago
Orion Sound / Baltimore
The Birchmere Theater / Alexandria
TECHNICAL INFO
The shows were recorded to multiple ADAT machines. To mix, we used the EMAGIC Logic Platinum system. Our recording and mixing engineer: Robert Frazza, assisted in mixing by David Torn. Mastering was done by David Torn. In the mastering process, we utilized the LINN Hi Fi System, which was very helpful in fine tuning the sound, and revealing sound problems.
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