Studio Archives - Lisa Hilton Music

Grammy Season Begins…

October 4, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Chalkboard Destiny, Grammys, J.D. Allen, Studio

I’m sending you a sunny California hello today. The smoke in SoCal has receded – thankfully – and we have B L U E skies again. Although it’s hot, there is a touch of fall with the shorter days now.

Fall is the time when everyone in the music biz gets excited about the Grammy Awards. The preliminary voting for nominees started Sept 30, so it’s exciting to find out who is on this early ballot. What most people don’t realize is that getting nominated is actually harder than winning! In most categories a musician or engineer has about 2% to 10% chance of being nominated.

If you get nominated – this year they will be announced November 20 – then your odds get better and you have a 20% chance to win. So you can see how it’s exciting, but always a long shot for everyone and certainly an achievement for those that win.

This year our album is on the preliminary ballot in these categories:

Chalkboard Destiny: Best Jazz Instrumental Album

Chalkboard Destiny: Best Engineered Album/non classical – Engineers: Fernando Lodeiro/tracking,

Al Schmitt & Chandler Harrod/mix, Gavin Lurssen & Reuben Cohen/mastering

Best composition: Rush Hour Rhapsody (Lisa Hilton)

Best Jazz Solo: JD Allen – Sympathy for Blues

Of course, even with long odds it’s fun to fantasize about, right? My favorite part of the recording session was the truly volcanic jazz solo from JD Allen on Sympathy for Blues about 3 minutes in on that tune. I really love it and can listen to it over and over. JD is one of the top improvisors of our time – a great tenor sax player originally from Detroit, and we have worked/toured together about 10 years now, (he calls me “sis”). I really hope he gets this award because he deserves it!

Our engineers are all my favorites so I hope that they will be considered too – I have been working with most of them over 15 years. Very coincidentally the concept of our 2020 album, Chalkboard Destiny was that our lives can be changed in an instant; little did I realize how accurate that would become this year with our lives being radically altered by a corona virus just about a month after our release date! So it would be exceptionally cool to win an award under these circumstances I think. (One reviewer even said it was perfect music for “quarantine”).

These days when my work is up for an award or competition I think of it as important to women and girls everywhere. Votes for women as composers, producers, bandleaders are really votes for your daughter, your granddaughter, your niece or neighbor. Women in jazz continue to have many challenges, but we are determined to make it easier for the next generation.

Please wish us a bit of L U C K and wishing you sunny B L U E skies too!

– Lisa

IN THE STUDIO

August 19, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Luques Curtis, Recording, Rudy Royston, Social Distancing, Studio

Yep, we did it! We recorded a new jazz album, and it was the culmination of six creative months composing during an unprecedented time in America’s history. Whew!

This year recording new music, like everything else, was different of course. Every studio date seems like a miracle to have the band/engineers/studio/piano all available on the same day. The logistics – more like a complex dance – to find a studio that was open and had good safety procedures in place, were more involved than in the past, but thankfully everything finally came together. I decided on recording at The Village Studios in West Los Angeles this year because they are a top studio, (with an illustrious history), and also have approval from the City of Los Angeles to remain open despite any lock down in California. In addition, they were very kind to me during my evacuation from the Woolsey fire almost two years ago, and I like to work with kind people.

Despite all the preliminary work, scheduling, and pandemic precautions, once we enter the studio, everything changes for musicians. We are able to focus 100% on our art, our instruments, the moment, and sound itself. You do hear stories about musicians having difficult times in recording sessions, and there is stress to get things “right”, but I love the act of creating music in the moment with the highest quality sound. Awesome bandmates Rudy Royston and Luques Curtis, top engineer Chandler Harrod, (with Karl Wingate assisting), perfect studio acoustics, and of course, the big nine foot Steinway D that was loaned to me for recording. (This year I was told the piano was a favorite of film composer John Williams – well, it was fabulous!)

So, how did we do? Hmmm… I have a rule that I don’t “judge” until I’m all done. In the studio your senses and emotions are heightened: I think the worst thing you can do is judge under those kinds of conditions, because the tendency is to think it’s the best thing, or the worst thing you’ve ever heard! So in the studio we play at the top of our abilities with freedom from over-analyzing. Those are the euphoric moments for me – when the music comes alive after months of thought, trials, and efforts magically blossoming in real time into a creation we will share with the world. To say that it is an incredibly cool experience is a huge understatement – those are the moments the composer lives for – it feels like the birth of music itself.

Enjoy these last couple weeks of summer,
Lisa