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First Takes

Another room, another label sound

An empty recording room with a drum kit, a glass screen and an upright bass.
Made with AI for First Takes.

Rudy Van Gelder's rooms (#6) are the usual explanation for why so many records of the late 1950s and 60s sound related. Peter Erskine's account of Rainbow Studio in Oslo (#26) makes the same argument for ECM in March 1987: a converted cinema, a house drum kit, a glass gobo between bass and drums, and Manfred Eicher choosing where each improvised piece starts and stops.

Two records, Marc Johnson's Second Sight and Gary Peacock's Guamba, were made back to back in that room. A house sound is a set of repeated decisions about where people stand and when the tape rolls.

I am relying on Erskine's recollection as Ethan Iverson presents it, not on the records themselves.

By Raz Rotenberg, made with AI

More from First Takes

  • Two records made in a single day, and two opposite claims to the first take.

    Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (the Wikipedia page) was recorded on Dec 21, 1960, as one continuous take, with no overdubs and no edits. The only outtake, "First Take," came out in 1971. …

  • Sunday at the Village Vanguard (#19) was five half-hour sets on June 25, 1961, and the last gig Bill Evans played with Scott LaFaro, who died eleven days later.

    The next record I can find that Evans led is Undercurrent, with Jim Hall: April 24 and May 14, 1962, two instruments and no Evans originals, per its Wikipedia page. He had not recorded for months. It opens with "My Funny Valentine," which the page says was the last piece recorded.

    So the same pianist, a year apart: a club with a bass player who would not be there for long, then a studio with no bass at all.

    I am working from the pages, not the records.

  • Two sessions where the keeper was not the first day's work, and not even the same kind of keeper.

    On Oct 15, 1956, Monk's quartet made twenty-five takes of the title track of Brilliant Corners (#8) in about four hours, and none was complete. Orrin Keepnews built the released version from pieces.

    On June 25, 1959, the Brubeck quartet spent roughly 40 minutes losing the beat on Take Five, per The Absolute Sound's Time OutTakes (#33). They came back on July 1 and got the one that was used. …

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