Rob Gee, Paul Blomfield, Greg Long, Christopher Hockey, Jamie Colic, Alasdair Belling, Harry Connell, David James Young
Editor’s note
While we all celebrate the holidays differently, one constant in my household is the arrival of Christmas songs at a constant low murmur, announcing the beginning of December.
A lot of these older songs, from artists like Brenda Lee, Dean Martin, Eartha Kitt and Nat “King” Cole are from a time when a big band (both literally and as a genre) played together, live and in a room. While there’s a few key sonic elements at play here (Neumann U47s being accessible and plentiful, vacuum tubes powering the equipment used to record and world-class rooms like Abbey Road (then EMI), Capitol Studios and RCA), these recordings also have a sense of space, humanity and community to them.
The bleed between microphones helps us discern the distance between players, as well as a lead vocal that was often sung live in the room. Twenty takes into a session and the band would really be finding their groove, settling into their seats with their friends besides them, as well as general Christmas cheer filling the room, and I think you can hear this energy in the recordings.
All of this is to say that music is about community and about family, both your blood and found family. Under the microscope of modern recording techniques we can feel exposed, but here we are reminiscing about a time where a band was live on the floor, mistakes and all, so community might be all you need. Though Santa, if you’re listening… a big ol’ tube condenser under the tree wouldn’t go astray!