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In 2005, The Triangle Tuba Quartet recorded a Christmas CD with our
friend and popular TV meteorologist, Greg Fishel. Over the past several years, we’ve enjoyed playing with Greg in
Salvation Army Red Kettle bands and at one of his company’s recent
holiday parties. So when Greg asked us to help him make a Christmas CD
that his company (Capitol Broadcasting Company) could give to their
employees as holiday gifts, we were glad to oblige. Because
this was our first CD, however, we had no idea what we were agreeing to!
We began the process in the fall of 2004, thinking that would give us
plenty of time to produce a CD in time for holiday gift giving in December
of 2005. As it turned out, it took every bit of that time to select music,
secure permission to record it, find a producer/recording engineer,
develop a letter of agreement between all the parties involved, schedule
rehearsals and recording dates, rehearse and record, approve the edits and
the cover art, and write the liner notes.
We were fortunate to have the able assistance of
Joel Leipzig from Carolina CD. Joel located
a recording site (a large room at Glenaire Retirement Community), recorded
both of our four-hour sessions, did the editing, mixing and mastering, and
developed the cover art, using photographs of the group taken by his wife,
Kay Williams. Even with this expert help, we still had to put in quite a
bit of time listening to takes and making recommendations for edits.
The CD includes music arranged by Eugene Anderson, Norlan Bewley,
Jeff Kirkpatrick,
Ken Schneider, Rodger Vaughan, David Werden, and Alec Wilder. We are especially pleased
that it includes Tuba Manger, arranged by our 1st euphonium
player
Paul Gramann, and featuring Greg as soloist. Most
of the arrangements are for 2 tubas and 2 euphoniums, so Greg doubles the
bass line -- you can never have too much bass! The final number on the CD
is a jazzy tuba trio arrangement of Let It Snow, with our 1st
tuba player Joe Lowman adding a nice bongo drum beat.
Now that that this effort is completed, we
are looking back on the experience with satisfaction and anticipating
giving copies to family and friends as Christmas gifts. We also certainly
have a heightened awareness, appreciation, and profound respect for the
effort and artistry involved in producing the professional
quality CDs we enjoy listening to, but often take for granted.
Update (April '06): We are permanently out of stock of our
Christmas CD but some of the songs on the CD can be heard on our Sound
Bytes page.
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