Paul Van Ross meets the Cuban musicians for his album

August 29.

At noon today I got to meet most of the band that I will be recording with and discussed a little about each tune. I managed to have recordings of most of the tracks for the musicians to listen to. Thank god for my iphone and ipad which I had previously uploaded music / video on.

Was a good start. These musicians were at the top of their field, and they liked my music. After a few listens The Cubans were gathering ideas for each piece. I would throw them some ideas and tell them what I wanted (not jazz sounding). Lets just say they didn’t need much encouragement for ideas. I was getting vibes that this was going to be a great recording session. Each time a Cuban would listen to a track on my phone they would start listening with a dead pan face and end up smiling as it finished. 🙂 🙂

I had charts for everyone, and by end of day had cd’s burnt with sample tracks for the Cubans to listen to. (This was quite an effort to do in Cuba…..should have done this beforehand!!)

Musicians so far:
Changuito – timbales, of Los Van Van fame in 70’s & 80’s
Yoraldy – congas, of Chucho Valdes’ current band
Gaston – double bass, of Chucho Valdes’ current band
And me – flute / saxophone
🙂

So,
Musicians met (except pianist – well, actually met an awesome pianist, however he wasn’t available Monday for rehearsal)
Music heard, ideas initiated
Studio seen / booked
Still trying to meet Jose Luis Cortes

Tomorrow:
Pay deposit for studio
Book taxi for the rehearsal day to pick up musicians and gear on time -Monday
Work out catering for musicians/taxi driver/Jacinto for rehearsal day
Find pianists(s) for rehearsal / recording
Work out money withdrawals as the ATM’s don’t like my visa travel card.

The two Australian percussionists (Steve & Nui) studying here also have offered to used their HD video equipment and cameras to document the rehearsal and recording of my album.