Jazz From The East Bay
Our gift to you is 510JAZZ’s brand new song “Three Little Words”. We hope you’ll give it a listen today.
Click on the below link to listen with your favorite download or streaming player.
https://510jazz.com/three-little-words
Every time you listen, you’re helping independent musicians. Thank you for your support.
We are honored to announce that our song “Called To The Sea” has been entered in the 62nd Grammy Awards.
Our song has been entered into these two categories:
– Song Of The Year
– Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
If you are a Recording Academy Voting Member, we would truly appreciate your consideration of our song, when you vote in the 62nd Grammy Awards.
Listen and Learn More: https://510jazz.com/grammys
Listen Now:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Google Play
Music and lyrics: David Vargas
Featuring: Ricki Wegner (vocals), Matt Blaque (vocals), Stan Muncy (vibes)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
What They’re Saying…
A tribute to a beloved mother and grandmother, Jesusa Estrada Cerezo. Ironically the only track where the Bossa beat is almost hidden, this is the most Pop sounding and modern track on the album. Could be easily placed within the 70s and 80s R n’ B and Pop Soul of these eras’ superstars. Lovely end to an intriguing album.
Andrew Goodwin
New Music Ear
When it came to recording the latest 510JAZZ album January 16, we incorporated many new musicians that played instruments which I have never recorded before. Not only was this diversity of instruments refreshing and key to forming our new album’s sound, it also required a new recording skillset to ensure optimal sound.
Depending on what song we’d be recording for a given session, as the engineer, I would do my best to prepare a couple of weeks beforehand. This usually involved researching best-practices for recording a certain instrument, what types of microphones would work best on that particular instrument, and rooms that would offer the best acoustic characteristics.
For January 16, I decided to purchase a stereo pair of Cascade Fathead II ribbon microphones. Prior to this purchase, I only owned condenser and dynamic style microphones. Going into recording the album, I knew that at some point that we’d be recording an electric guitar. Two microphones strategically placed on a guitar amp can achieve great results, especially with a ribbon microphone. That’s exactly what I did. I learned about microphone placement techniques from watching audio guru Bobby Owsinski’s Audio Recording Techniques video series on Lynda.com. The end result was that I was able to get a great electric guitar tone from combining a Shure SM57 and the Cascade Fathead II. Our songs Stormy Weather and The Long Way Home are examples of songs found on January 16 that include electric guitar.
On four of our other songs: You’re Everything to Me, The Moon and You, San Juan Island Sunset, and Serendipity, my father John Vargas wanted to include a string quartet. I knew once we set the date for the string quartet’s recording session, I needed prepare by gathering as much information as possible. I turned to YouTube to try to soak up information that would lead me in the right direction. I stumbled across this Audio Technica video that was very useful. Bobby Owsinski’s Audio Recording Techniques was also extremely helpful as it contained a segment on recording strings.
Since I am a Music Technology student at Foothill College, I was able get advice from my instructor Eric Kuehnl regarding this matter. He gave me great advice on placement, how the microphones should be positioned above the musicians, and he suggested recording the string quartet in a room with a higher ceiling. Eric also recommended having room microphones set in an X-Y configuration to capture additional content. Professor Kuehnl’s expertise and advice really paid off, as we captured a great sound.
The main takeaways from this blog post is that great information regarding music recording can be easily accessed online. This information is geared to help anyone to prepare for an upcoming recording session. You’ll get out of your recording session exactly what you put into it – when you take the time to research. So please, if you care for your sound, do your due diligence.
Until next time, happy recording!
Listen to January 16 now, available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, & Spotify.
God Bless
David “D-Varg” Vargas
Audio Engineer for 510JAZZ
Listen Now:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Google Play
Music and lyrics: John Vargas and David Vargas
Featuring: D-Varg (rap vocals), Matt Blaque (vocals), John Lewis (tenor sax), Gil Cohen (flugelhorn). Horns arranged by Tom Povse
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion), Jay Midnight (DJ scratches)
What They’re Saying…
A mass fusion of styles incorporating Hip Hop, Jazz and a little R n’ B but still keeping that minimal Bossa drumbeat. Experimental and in some ways reminds of me of some of Prince’s mid 80s phase with orchestration, electronics and Jazz mixes.
Andrew Goodwin
New Music Ear
Listen Now:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Google Play
Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: Oshra Sedan (vocals), Tom Povse (flute), Gil Cohen (flugelhorn)
Strings: Matthew Szemela (violin), Mads Tolling (violin), Emily Onderdonk (viola) and Lewis Patzner (cello); Strings arranged by Stan Muncy
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion); Horns arranged by Tom Povse
What They’re Saying…
A real Latin-influenced Jazz track. Brings up images of sitting on a beach with not a care in the world, not only just brought up by the title of the track. The horns and strings make this a happy little track that gives you a good feeling of well being.
Andrew Goodwin
New Music Ear
Listen Now:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Google Play
Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: Nikki Rey (vocals), Mr Mego (ukelele)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
What They’re Saying…
This upbeat Pop/Jazz track fills the listener with a cool, relaxed summer sensation. This time there is a Hawaiian element in the sound and you feel your head nodding to that Bossa beat and see yourself under a parasol drinking cocktails. A really lovely song.
Andrew Goodwin
New Music Ear
Listen Now:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Google Play
Music and lyrics: John Vargas and David Vargas
Featuring: Matt Blaque (vocals), D-Varg (rap vocals), Tony Song (guitar)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
What They’re Saying…
The album opens with a medium paced Samba crossover with a big summery vibe. It is a fun, bright and breezy number with hints of Michael Jackson (“Off The Wall” era) and Gloria Estefan’s Miami Sound Machine. D-Varg’s rapping gives it an updated appeal to younger listeners who may not have heard music like this before.
Andrew Goodwin
New Music Ear
In last week’s blogpost Songwriting: Jazzing It Up, I talked about the thought process that we went through in composing our four jazz-inspired songs.
This blogpost will lead you through the steps that we took to compose four songs which convey a bit more emotion than our other songs.
Every one of our songs tells a different story – and each song has a different story of how they came to be. The four songs listed below have unique styles yet all have a ballad foundation:
4. The Moon And You
My concept for this song was simple: Summer nights, the moon and stars – and that special someone.
The style that I was hoping to evoke was like so many beautiful ballads written by master composer Ivan Lins. This song was incredibly special to me, so I decided to sing it myself on the production release. Tom Povse arranged beautiful flugelhorn parts rendered by Gil Cohen. The coups de gras is the amazing strings arranged by Stan Muncy. In the studio, we were Blessed to have a second visit from superb violinist Matthew Szemela, where he gave the ending a sweet romantic feel.
Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: John Vargas (vocals), Gil Cohen (flugelhorn)
Strings: Matthew Szemela (violin), Mads Tolling (violin), Emily Onderdonk (viola) and Lewis Patzner
(cello); Strings arranged by Stan Muncy. Horns arranged by Tom Povse
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida
(drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
8. You’re Everything To Me
This is the second love ballad that I composed for this album. I wanted this to start out with a darker feel, about a person that didn’t take the time to let emotions sink in — always moving on to keep their distance from love and commitment. The story then evolves into a discovery of that perfect someone. It sounds a bit formulaic, I know. Interestingly, this song is one of our most popular with radio listeners around the world. Maya Victoria has the perfect voice to tell this story.
I wanted this song to have a dreamy quality, so I asked Stan Muncy to arrange strings. He did an incredible job, bringing in this amazing pizzicato feel and a superb lift during the chorus. I asked John Lewis to give us the dark, sultry feel in places, with his beautiful tenor saxophone. I was surprised at how easy it was to come up with the chorus, melodically and lyrically. Composing the verse was even easier, with just nine rapid notes in succession. Telling the story on top of that was more difficult.
Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Video: directed by Carolyn Vargas, produced by Roy Reyes.
Featuring: Maya Victoria (vocals), John Lewis (tenor sax)
Strings: Matthew Szemela (violin), Mads Tolling (violin), Emily Onderdonk (viola) and Lewis Patzner (cello); Strings arranged by Stan Muncy
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
12. The Rock Of Light
When I arranged the rhythm for this song, I was feeling something akin to Spanish Flamenco. My mind traveled to a family trip that we took to beautiful Malaga on the southern tip of Spain. I came up with the idea of a fantasy or dream sequence that the lead character envisions. The idea was of a businessman visiting Malaga, and took a day off deciding to tour the beautiful Moorish castles that overlook the city. During this tour, our lead character has a vision of how the city might have looked over 500 years ago.
David carried this concept to something much more coherent: This daydream shows a vision of what it might have been like to live in the city of Malaga during King Ferdinand’s brutal assault in 1487. This was a pivotal battle in the Reconquest of Spain, to take back the country from the Moorish invaders.
What David and I were trying to convey in this story is that all war is a nightmare. While some may see glory in war, we can’t look away from the human element — the victims. It’s especially painful to think of the many innocents that were caught in the crossfire of a King leading his forces to take back a country that was lost in war hundreds of years before. I’m sure that some very bad people lost their lives in that seige. What is tragic is the number of civilian lives lost (mothers, fathers, children – and their homes and property). These innocents had no political agenda.
Tony Song’s guitar truly holds the listener, with a haunting rhythm accentuated by flamenco-styled turnarounds. We were delighted to see the feeling brought to the song by vocalist Mr Mego. What a storyteller! The perfect final touches came from Stan Muncy with a wide array of Spanish percussion including guitar-body-tapping and handclapping. We feel that all of these elements give our song a true Spanish feel.
Music and lyrics: John Vargas and David Vargas
Featuring: Mr Mego (vocals), Tony Song (guitar)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
16. January 16
Here’s David to tell you about the composing and producing of our title track…
My dad John Vargas and I collected compositions that we wanted to produce in our new album “January 16” (which was untitled at that time). We had literally dozens to choose from.
After selecting 15 solid candidates, I felt that our album could use just one more song written by myself. I browsed through our rhythm arrangements library and one stood out to me. It had an R&B vibe to it. At that moment all these ideas rushed into my head.
What really resonated with me was a tribute song to our beloved grandmother Jesusa. Her birthday is January 16. She taught us about love and putting family first. I know it was meant to be that God inspired me to create a song to pay homage to her.
Most of the lyrics were put together in a matter of a few hours. The creative juices were really flowing that night, and composing the melody seemed effortless. I played the first version of the song to my immediate family and they gave me their feedback which I used to put the finishing touches on the lyrics.
My initial thought on the ending of the song was to have some interview footage paying tribute to my grandmother. In speaking with our family one day, it was brought to my attention that my brother Andrew had some archived video of my grandmother speaking about life, and the importance of empathy, love, and Faith in God. I knew this was the ultimate message of the song – and it is delivered superbly by my grandmother in her own words and voice.
16th of 16 songs on our album, “January 16” for me is a song that I’m incredibly proud of, as it tells the story of my amazing grandmother who will always be a part of me.
I’m still amazed that we were able to record such a meaningful song.
We love you, Grandma!
Music and lyrics: David Vargas
Featuring: Ricki Wegner (vocals), Matt Blaque (vocals), Stan Muncy (vibes)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)
We hope you enjoyed this four-part blogpost on Storytelling. We hope it will inspire the composers out there to get started on their own songwriting journey.
Blessings to you all.
John Vargas
510JAZZ
Listen to all 16 songs now in the Spotify player on our “Our Music” page. Please follow 510JAZZ and give likes to our songs when you’re listening.