Improvisation

A rock or pop song is generally very well written indeed. Everyone knows exactly what notes they should be playing, in what way, and at what time. At a live performance, there may be a little elaboration on the solo, the band may drop out so the crowd can sing the chorus and there might even be a nice big ending..but the song will pretty much remain the same.

Alas, not with jazz.

The soul of jazz, the reason it survives so well in a live music environment, is improvisation. There are countless examples of albums which contain two versions of the same song - not out of laziness, but simply because the two takes - by the same band, in the same studio - are really quite different, and wonderful in their own way.

This makes recording with just three people very challenging indeed. On some pieces we have six instruments playing, so clearly just recording a live 'take' of the song won't work. As such - what do we do? Play through the piece, improvising, with just three instruments, and then try to play over the top later with three more?

We want to preserve the feel of the improv ideal, but also be able to improve and perfect upon every section of every song, so that we have something which really epitomises the piece we're playing. It's a difficult set of choices to make.

We've ended up with a few different approaches for a few songs, but mostly what I think we'll be doing is playing with all the instruments, but only recording the one which really drives whichever song it is. We'll then do new takes of the other instruments, so that the person playing knows exactly what is coming up, and has a few chances to get it right.

Hopefully it'll work out :)