Putting on a clinic

Serious students of music would've been wise to attend the Washington Jazz Society's Sunday Jazz Buffet a couple of days ago.

I was limited by time constraints to the first couple of sets of performers: Dan Baker (guitar) with Josh Dunlevy (saxophone), followed by Dan playing with fellow guitarist Tony Janflone Sr.


All three are teachers, and they could have put on a clinic with their performances on Sunday. I certainly was enthusiastic about capturing them on video, particularly the guitarists. I want to take a closer look at their finger work for a tip or two to possibly help my own playing ... although I'll never have that kind of agility!

As for the video footage, I'll put in my usual two cents about how it could have been better. The concert was in the ballroom of The George Washington, a grand old hotel in Washington, PA, and a great venue for this type of event. The performers played in front of a large window, and it was sunny that day, meaning a lot of light in the background and the camera often capturing shadows of the musicians. Fortunately, I was stationed on a balcony overlooking the proceedings, and the angle allowed a sufficient amount of light for the recording, particularly during zoomed-in close-ups.

For the audio, I used one microphone on the balcony and the other one down on the floor, figuring that might make for good separation in the recording. It did, but the mikes also picked up all the chatting that was going on during the performances. The resulting product had kind of a "jazz club" vibe to it, but I wish I would have had the microphones closer to the guitar amplifiers. (Josh's horn playing generally came through loud and clear.)

Here are videos of songs performed by Josh and Dan:

"Red's Blues"

"Ornithology"

And here are Tony and Dan performing a couple of Tony's compositions:

"I Heard Wes Do It"

"The Tent"