This week, we review a fresh take on a classic as this episode dives into the all-star rendition of "Cool" from West Side Story, featuring powerhouse musicians like Patti Austin, members of Take 6, Branford Marsalis, Jerry Hey, and Bruce Hornsby. From lush vocal textures and a beat-heavy instrumentation, this track bridges the original musical's intent with a contemporary, funk-infused sound. We cover the creative process, the significance of each artist's contribution, and the broader context of the benefit album celebrating Bernstein's legacy.

In the Mailbag segment, the conversation shifts to the evolving landscape of music production, sparked by a discussion about preparation in the context of modern recording. Trist and Elaine share real-world studio experiences, discuss the balance between preparation and technology, and reflect on how accessibility to recording tools shapes today's music.

Listen to the song

• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3MfF3J-HwE
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/2qh6LKRa61QMKupv6DoZlH?si=0f7dcd3255cf4cf9
• Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/song/cool/298515474
• Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/albums/B073HH293K?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_nDOb5fb1JaFZRgwjEAbqMEW9t&trackAsin=B073HFBFQ5

Other links

• Playlist of the songs we’ve reviewed
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5bn23baJ4xQ1t0TMqukELY5W95HwuMoT
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uCOVpr4NcWT5SGWlZEnnw?si=8j8p7QwlQxmTNNFwFMvCeg
• Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/songs-reviewed-on-the-musicians-loupe/pl.u-V9D7maah06JNo
• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/57132299c0b9470dbd67fcab0b41db79sune?ref=dm_sh_LYPlw2RWiTdf09DUmvLHjqGve

About us

Trist Curless is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, educator, and sound engineer. As a performer, Trist has toured worldwide as a co-founder of the pop-jazz vocal group m-pact and a 10 year member of the Grammy-award winning The Manhattan Transfer. In addition to these two vocal powerhouse groups, he’s also performed with Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, New York Voices, Vox Audio, Naturally 7, and The Swingle Singers. His latest venture, The LHR Project, is a new vocal group collective celebrating legendary jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.

As an audio engineer, Trist has toured nationally with several vocal groups and bands in a large variety of venues, working for Grammy award winners Pentatonix and Take 6, as well as prominent a cappella vocal groups Straight No Chaser, VoicePlay, and Accent.

Elaine Chao, M.Ed is a San Francisco Bay Area-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, vocal percussionist, and songwriter whose career spans a cappella, contemporary worship, and classical music. She has leveraged her training in classical and choral music over the course of her contemporary performance, including in orchestras for musical theatre and in sacred spaces. In addition to music, she also is a martial artist and published author. She currently leads a product management team at a major software company dedicated to creative expression. All statements in this podcast are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.

Elaine: Hey, Trist!

Elaine: What do we have this week?

Trist: Oh. Today we have a song that's

Trist: kind of has a collection of

Trist: people we have talked about

Trist: before.

Trist: I think this is the amalgam of that.

Trist: There are at least five artists

Trist: that are on this particular

Trist: track that we have discussed in

Trist: previous episodes.

Trist: How about that?

Elaine: All right.

Elaine: Well, is this a pop quiz for all

Elaine: of us, including our longtime

Elaine: listeners?

Trist: Well, maybe.

Trist: We'll probably get into it.

Trist: But, this happens to come from a musical, a

Elaine: Okay.

Trist: musical that, mostly everyone

Trist: has seen, from the musical "West

Trist: Side Story."

Trist: And of all the great songs, this

Trist: is a version of the song,

Trist: "Cool."

Elaine: Hm!

Elaine: Okay.

Trist: And it features a lead vocal by the great singer Patti Austin.

Trist: She's not someone we talked

Trist: about before, but many of the

Trist: others that are on this track

Trist: are.

Elaine: Okay. I am familiar with her.

Elaine: I am not as familiar with this track.

Elaine: But before we get into this, can

Elaine: you remind our listeners how we

Elaine: should be listening to music as

Elaine: a part of the Musician's Loupe

Elaine: community?

Trist: Oh on The Musician's Loupe, we strongly, highly recommend,

Trist: encourage you to take that extra moment and just upgrade.

Trist: Give yourself an upgrade of listening situation.

Trist: You know, get the good headphones, put it on the good

Trist: stereo, get a nice quiet spot that you can enjoy the song that

Trist: we're going to discuss and just take it in.

Elaine: All right.

Elaine: So with that, we are going to pause and come right back.

Elaine: We will have links to the songs in our show notes.

Elaine: So take a listen, two, or three, and we'll be right back.

Elaine: And we are back.

Trist: Mhm.

Elaine: Okay. This was something that I was not really expecting, but

Elaine: there were elements of it that sounded very familiar, but

Trist: Mhm.

Elaine: I also realized that I did not know the base song, and so I had

Elaine: to go and look it up.

Elaine: And then when I watched it, I was like, I have no idea what's

Elaine: going on right now,

Trist: Oh.

Elaine: because I had never watched the musical all the way through.

Trist: Ohhh-kay.

Trist: You know, that's one of those

Trist: things, Elaine, that I'm

Trist: supposed to give you a hard time

Trist: that you've never seen "West

Trist: Side Story," but there are

Trist: probably 20 things very

Trist: similarly that you could throw

Trist: out at me that I just haven't

Trist: seen.

Trist: We all have those little spots, like, "Oh my God, you've never

Trist: seen Star Wars?!" So wow.

Trist: Okay.

Trist: Well, then... actually, I think that's even more fascinating

Trist: because a lot of the things that interest me is its relationship

Trist: to the original.

Trist: So actually, this is even cooler than I planned.

Trist: I would love to just have you continue telling me just your

Trist: thoughts about it in general.

Elaine: Okay. So I did go back to the 1961 version of it, and

Elaine: apparently there was a newer version of it in, I don't know,

Elaine: somewhere in the 2000s or so that I didn't watch.

Elaine: It made a lot more sense to me after I watched the 1961 version

Elaine: because – and then also I had to look up on Wikipedia like, what

Elaine: is this entire piece about?

Elaine: Because they're just basically dancing and people are shouting

Elaine: "cool" at random times.

Elaine: And I just couldn't figure out what was going on.

Elaine: And I think after I read the article and then listened to it

Elaine: again and watched it again, it started to make a little bit

Elaine: more sense to me.

Elaine: I think, though, that listening

Elaine: to it for the first time just

Elaine: completely raw, I had not

Elaine: listened to the 1961 version as

Elaine: context for what I was listening

Elaine: to.

Elaine: I was familiar with Patti Austin, but I've only really

Elaine: seen clips of her singing.

Elaine: I actually hadn't heard her sing an entire song.

Elaine: And then I heard a lot of stuff in the background that sounded

Elaine: very, very familiar.

Elaine: So I was like, I don't know, is this The Manhattan Transfer?

Elaine: Is it like this arrangement?

Elaine: And I looked at I'm like, oh yeah, two members of Take 6.

Elaine: And I'm like, okay, that's at least two people that I know.

Elaine: And those people were Merv

Elaine: Warren and Mark Kibble, of

Elaine: course, who are both brilliant

Elaine: and longtime members of Take 6,

Elaine: people who you know pretty well

Elaine: because the Manhattan Transfer

Elaine: and Take 6 spent a few years

Elaine: touring together.

Elaine: But the things that I was really kind of confused about: there

Elaine: sounded like there were female vocals in there, but I didn't

Elaine: see anyone credited in the link that I had.

Elaine: And then I was like, oh, well, wait a minute, that horn sounds

Elaine: very familiar, too.

Elaine: And of course, it was Branford Marsalis who we had had in a

Elaine: track late last season.

Elaine: And then I also saw Jerry Hey,

Elaine: who we'd had a conversation

Elaine: about.

Elaine: And I can't even remember whether it was the Michael

Elaine: Jackson track or the Paul

Trist: It

Elaine: Simon

Trist: was.

Elaine: track.

Trist: It was

Elaine: It

Trist: Michael

Elaine: was okay.

Trist: Jackson.

Elaine: Okay. So we did talk about him as well.

Elaine: So really, I was like, okay, this is an all star group that

Elaine: we have talked about.

Elaine: There are a lot of very familiar names here.

Elaine: It sounded very familiar.

Elaine: There were a lot of really

Elaine: interesting musical elements of

Elaine: it.

Elaine: But from a musical structure perspective, it didn't really

Elaine: make sense until after I watched the original musical.

Elaine: And then I was like, oh, okay, I

Elaine: understand where all of these

Elaine: random, "cools" and "heys" and

Elaine: stuff

Trist: *chuckle*

Elaine: were coming from because it didn't make sense to me.

Elaine: And even watching the video, I was like, what's going on?

Trist: Mhm. That's really interesting.

Trist: Yes. All of those things.

Trist: Yeah.

Trist: Branford Marsalis was on the track with Kurt Elling.

Trist: And Jerry Hey is really just an incredibly well known trumpet

Trist: player and horn arranger and his horn sections, which this

Trist: includes most of the guys that usually play with him on the

Trist: hundreds and hundreds of albums and songs that we've all heard

Trist: in our lives.

Trist: And so they're a part of this.

Trist: And Greg Phillinganes plays some keys who was also a part of some

Trist: of those same sessions that we've talked about.

Trist: And another one that I actually usually forget and we haven't

Trist: covered him yet is that the piano on this track was played

Trist: by Bruce Hornsby, of all people.

Trist: Also, a super interesting thing.

Trist: Really all those background voices are all Mervyn Warren.

Elaine: Interesting.

Trist: They're all him.

Trist: Yeah. Co-arranged with Mark.

Trist: It was a long time ago.

Trist: I talked to one of them and maybe if one of them hears it,

Trist: they'll chime in and let me know, but it feels like either

Trist: Mervyn or Mark said it was more of the other guy, I forget.

Trist: I think I was talking to Mervyn's like, oh, I got

Trist: credited, but really Mark did all those arrangement vocals,

Trist: and Merv sang them.

Trist: But yeah, Mervyn sang those, and he's got quite a range, so he's

Trist: covering all those parts as far as I know.

Trist: It's

Elaine: well.

Trist: very Take 6, of course, the

Trist: sound is very much of that

Trist: thing.

Trist: Especially when it's just in a

Trist: texture like that, it's easy to

Trist: not necessarily pick out that

Trist: it's just one person

Trist: multi-tracked.

Trist: It almost as easily could be all of them.

Trist: If you aren't as fine aware of

Trist: exactly those voices and the way

Trist: they sound when they're all

Trist: together, as opposed to one of

Trist: them multi-tracking when the

Trist: arrangement is as such, it kind

Trist: of lends itself to just that

Trist: style and what that sound is, no

Trist: matter who's really replicating

Trist: it.

Elaine: One of the things that really

Elaine: threw me off was that they

Elaine: didn't have as much of the

Elaine: brassy tone that Take 6 will go

Elaine: into sometimes when they're

Elaine: trying to replicate horns, for

Elaine: instance, and instead it had a

Elaine: much more lush, laid back sound

Elaine: that I more associate with The

Elaine: Manhattan Transfer and other

Elaine: types of things that they've

Elaine: done, because most of what I've

Elaine: heard from them in these more

Elaine: lush orchestral things, like,

Elaine: for instance, the latest album

Elaine: "50," which you sang on, was

Elaine: very much this orchestra, but

Elaine: the voices were also very

Elaine: textural.

Elaine: Nothing really stood out in

Elaine: terms of brassiness or a

Elaine: different placement.

Elaine: A lot of it was really focused

Elaine: on the blend and really the

Elaine: voices coming together as one

Elaine: sound.

Elaine: And that's really what I heard in this one as well.

Elaine: And I don't know whether it's the additional voices or what,

Elaine: but the arrangement was definitely very clearly Take 6.

Trist: That would definitely explain

Trist: just the difference in the sound

Trist: where it sounds the same but a

Trist: little different, is that it's

Trist: one person's voice, recorded

Trist: over and over and over, rather

Trist: than the whole group of them and

Trist: all of their different sounds

Trist: together.

Trist: So that's what that is.

Trist: And then of course, just the horns are the horns.

Trist: And also having the little solo things from Branford, like the

Trist: licks that they all kind of play together, especially at the end.

Trist: And a lot of that stuff, the big

Trist: cacophony of sound, it's really

Trist: interesting to me now to even

Trist: think about, okay, if I'd never

Trist: seen or heard this original

Trist: track, what do I think of all of

Trist: that cacophony of sound at the

Trist: end?

Trist: Because I relate it to what I've seen.

Trist: So that's an interesting point to bring up.

Trist: Like if you're doing a cover of something like that, how much

Trist: are you relying on the listener knowing the original material?

Trist: Or do you want to present it as if it can stand alone?

Trist: Now I will say, here's the other

Trist: caveat to this is, the song is

Trist: featured on an entire album

Trist: that's a collection of people

Trist: doing songs of "West Side

Trist: Story."

Trist: So even contextually, sure, I

Trist: suppose it could break out on

Trist: its own.

Trist: Like if you're listening to a

Trist: random podcast where two people

Trist: talk about songs and suddenly

Trist: the song shows up and you don't

Trist: know that it's from "West Side

Trist: Story," you might be like, what

Trist: is this?

Trist: But the project that it comes from isn't as out there.

Trist: It's loaded with all kinds of artists.

Trist: We've got Trisha Yearwood, Tevin Campbell, Little Richard, Aretha

Trist: Franklin, Kenny Loggins, Brian Setzer Orchestra, James Ingram,

Trist: Michael McDonald, Phil Collins.

Trist: So it was done in the late 90s, '96, I believe.

Trist: And it was actually a big benefit project involving the

Trist: Leonard Bernstein Education through the Arts and the NARAS

Trist: Foundation – that's basically the folks who do the Grammys.

Trist: So it was a big production taken on by David Pack.

Trist: And, yeah, it's involved a lot

Trist: of really amazing artists,

Trist: probably many of them even

Trist: donating time to this charitable

Trist: cause.

Trist: So pretty cool thing.

Elaine: It was definitely very interesting.

Elaine: Now I have another question for

Elaine: you, which is much more related

Elaine: to the original question that

Elaine: you had around: how do people

Elaine: think about covers and how do

Elaine: people think about referencing

Elaine: the covers.

Elaine: There was something about Patti

Elaine: Austin's placement in her voice

Elaine: that seemed a little bit

Elaine: different, and I'm wondering how

Elaine: much of that placement, the

Elaine: swallowing of certain words is

Elaine: more her.

Elaine: Because I don't know as much of her discography or how much of

Elaine: it is reference to the musical and the piece itself, because in

Elaine: the context of this musical, they're trying to tell each

Elaine: other not to go out and fight the opposite gang.

Elaine: This is the dance number of the

Elaine: Jets as they have just lost to

Elaine: the Sharks.

Elaine: And they're trying to not go out for revenge because they could

Elaine: get caught by the police.

Elaine: And so really, it's a conversation between two of the

Elaine: characters just to say, let's cool it off.

Elaine: And they're popping off in the midst of this.

Elaine: So I just wonder, you with your

Elaine: knowledge of Patti Austin and of

Elaine: West Side Story and the various

Elaine: recordings, how much do you

Elaine: think it influenced each other

Elaine: and how she interpreted the song

Elaine: being the primary vocalist on

Elaine: this?

Trist: In something like this, she's

Trist: going to be featured on this one

Trist: track of this compilation, at a

Trist: point in time, I don't recall

Trist: whether she was necessarily

Trist: recording another album right at

Trist: this moment.

Trist: You're catching someone at a

Trist: time where there's not an entire

Trist: album to listen to what like her

Trist: sound is.

Trist: What is her sound now?

Trist: What is she doing now?

Trist: So, I think a little bit of all of those things.

Trist: She's probably a little bit into

Trist: character, especially with the

Trist: way that the track is, knowing

Trist: some context about what her

Trist: character is.

Trist: She's playing a character in

Trist: this show that she's likely seen

Trist: and understands what the role of

Trist: that voice is, not to mention

Trist: all those other vocals and horns

Trist: and all the stuff in the track

Trist: around it.

Trist: It might be easy to feel more

Trist: chameleon like and try to fit in

Trist: to what your ear hears about

Trist: what that sound is rather than,

Trist: oh, I need to bring Patti Austin

Trist: to this and trying to be herself

Trist: in it, like trying to almost be

Trist: an actor in this new version of

Trist: this show and playing that

Trist: character.

Trist: Yeah, I think everyone probably goes about that differently.

Trist: I think the next time I listen to this whole album, I'll

Trist: probably consider that.

Trist: How many people are singing this just like it's a song they could

Trist: add to their repertoire and doing concerts, and how much of

Trist: it is more like, ooh yeah, what is that character in the show?

Trist: And what if I were playing it?

Trist: How would I sing it?

Trist: etc. So I think they're both valid ways to do it.

Trist: But that's probably what I think you're hearing.

Elaine: Let's switch over also to the

Elaine: orchestration because obviously

Elaine: this is not a classic

Elaine: interpretation of the

Elaine: orchestration.

Elaine: I'm interested in hearing your thoughts around the

Elaine: percussiveness of it, because as I was listening to the 1961

Elaine: version, there is a lot of percussiveness in these

Elaine: characters first getting angry and then also telling themselves

Elaine: to keep it cool.

Elaine: And so there was this back and forth between it where there are

Elaine: these dance numbers.

Elaine: And then the emotions would get high and then they'd reassure

Elaine: each other that it was cool, that they should stay cool.

Elaine: But each time they did that, it was incredibly percussive.

Elaine: And I'm interested in hearing how that came out in this

Elaine: version of it.

Trist: Well, I think the main difference is in being instead

Trist: of a little bit more like the original, where it's a little

Trist: more just swing oriented.

Trist: It doesn't have like a big backbeat to it.

Trist: This is more like a funky pocket, has this heavier

Trist: backbeat to it.

Trist: And everything then plays off of that different groove.

Trist: So I think the way that it comes off and the way that it's

Trist: percussive varies because of the very nature of the difference of

Trist: the feel of the two.

Elaine: So we've been talking a lot

Elaine: about my impressions of it, as

Elaine: someone who has come into it

Elaine: from a brand, brand new

Elaine: perspective.

Elaine: I'm really interested in hearing

Elaine: why did you choose this

Elaine: particular song from Patti

Elaine: Austin or choose this song

Elaine: altogether?

Trist: I gave zero thought or consideration that it was Patti

Trist: Austin singing it.

Trist: Like the fact that it was Patti

Trist: Austin had zero to do with my

Trist: choosing it.

Trist: I think she's amazing and she does a great job.

Trist: But that wasn't like, oh, everyone needs to hear this

Trist: performance from Patti Austin.

Trist: No, just the whole thing.

Trist: I wanted to share the entire

Trist: concept in a little bit of a

Trist: way, much like we do here on The

Trist: Musician's Loupe.

Trist: Another example, there's a whole bunch of artists that people

Trist: might have heard of, but there's this thing that maybe you

Trist: haven't heard before.

Trist: So twofold.

Trist: You might have heard of Patti

Trist: Austin before, but you never

Trist: heard this.

Trist: And we've talked about Jerry

Trist: Hey, we've talked about Take 6

Trist: and both Mervyn and Mark Kibble,

Trist: we've talked about Branford

Trist: Marsalis.

Trist: In all of those cases, did you

Trist: know that they worked on this

Trist: thing?

Trist: And then also, oh, you've seen West Side Story.

Trist: Did you know that there was this version of that song?

Trist: And subsequently, did you know there was this recording, this

Trist: benefit that was put together to commemorate and celebrate the

Trist: songs of the musical?

Trist: And of all of them, it's my favorite.

Trist: Because we've talked about all

Trist: those artists, it's obvious that

Trist: those are all artists that I'm

Trist: interested in.

Trist: So having them be all together was fascinating.

Trist: And I wanted to share that.

Trist: And the very thing we just mentioned, the fact that it's

Trist: the song we know, if you've seen or heard the show before.

Trist: And so I like to point out the

Trist: cool differences, excuse the

Trist: pun, the differences in the

Trist: recording, the different feel of

Trist: it.

Trist: Bringing it to the late '90s instead of the '60s.

Trist: So I just like the collection of all of those forces that I love

Trist: so much together, the great vocal arrangement, backgrounds.

Trist: And I can envision it in a contemporary version if I like

Trist: went to a local playhouse that was maybe doing a version that

Trist: was set in the late '90s, I could hear that as that version

Trist: of the song.

Trist: I think it does a good job of

Trist: painting what that would sound

Trist: like.

Elaine: Well, is there anything else that you want to mention about

Elaine: the song before we move on?

Trist: Not really.

Trist: This is definitely one of the

Trist: weeks that it's not really too

Trist: deep.

Trist: It's mostly like, hey, are you aware of this very hip thing

Trist: exists, joining forces of some favorites that we've covered

Trist: over the weeks, and just bringing you an enjoyable

Trist: alternate of this tune.

Elaine: Well, thanks for bringing it to us.

Elaine: And with that, we're going to

Elaine: transition to our next segment,

Elaine: which is.

Trist: Mailbag.

Elaine: That's right. The Mailbag.

Elaine: And if you have something that

Elaine: you'd like to share with us,

Elaine: please feel free to email us at

Elaine: themusiciansloupe, that's L o u

Elaine: p e, @gmail.com, or feel free to

Elaine: send us a message on either

Elaine: Instagram or Threads at

Elaine: @themusiciansloupe.

Trist: Yeah, that's a good opportunity to let us know your thoughts, if

Trist: you've seen West Side Story and have some other versions that

Trist: you might want us to check out or recommend or just any other

Trist: comments or thoughts that you have about the things we discuss

Trist: or if you need to correct us on something we ran afoul of, let

Trist: us know there.

Elaine: All right, so this week's

Elaine: Mailbag is a message once again

Elaine: from Threads.

Elaine: This is by a musician named Dan Bailey under D Richard Bailey.

Elaine: And he is the drums and music

Elaine: director for Father John Misty,

Elaine: who's a currently touring indie

Elaine: musician.

Elaine: So he writes: "Most modern

Elaine: records are overproduced and

Elaine: underperformed.

Elaine: Instead of tweaking with audio on the back end, why not just

Elaine: capture a more important performance on the front end?

Elaine: Twenty hours of well spent tracking time will yield a

Elaine: better result than two hundred hours of post-production.

Elaine: If you want to know the

Elaine: difference between quote

Elaine: unquote, those artists and most,

Elaine: albeit talented, modern artists,

Elaine: it's the amount of takes

Elaine: performed and pre-production

Elaine: rehearsals held."

Elaine: So the question that I have here, because, obviously this is

Elaine: his opinion here, is how have you seen this intersect with the

Elaine: change in music technology?

Elaine: And I know that you and I have talked a bit about how much more

Elaine: accessible music recording is to most people, now that we all

Elaine: have our fancy microphones and our home computers that can run

Elaine: digital audio workstations.

Elaine: The question is now: how much of this is driven by the fact that

Elaine: it's so accessible?

Trist: Yep, all of the things that that engineer said were spot on.

Trist: Just because you can fix it in post production doesn't always

Trist: mean that you should.

Trist: Yeah, I think you have to be careful.

Trist: I think as that changes, you

Trist: always have like a rebellion

Trist: against that.

Trist: It's like, oh, it's become so easy.

Trist: I don't want to become lazy and

Trist: not, hey, that whole line was

Trist: great.

Trist: There was that one little phrase

Trist: that I think I should sing

Trist: better.

Trist: Let me just do it again right now, and that'll save you the

Trist: time of a) trying to remember it later and then having to go back

Trist: and fix something.

Trist: Again, just because you can.

Trist: To me, the post-production and the fixing of mistakes, I think

Trist: the ability to do that is great, and it's nice to have.

Trist: I like to think it should get

Trist: used more when it's absolutely

Trist: necessary.

Trist: There's an artist that has a

Trist: small amount of time, oh, I've

Trist: got to sing these three lead

Trist: vocals today.

Trist: I leave for tour tomorrow.

Trist: I don't want to make any time on tour to do these.

Trist: I don't want to fix any.

Trist: So I have limited time.

Trist: I've prepared as best I can.

Trist: I don't really want to do stuff over and over and over.

Trist: Also sometimes frankly, the

Trist: range or what's required of a

Trist: particular lead vocal just won't

Trist: allow a performer to do it six

Trist: times.

Trist: It's like, I want this according to have all of me.

Trist: There are stories about some of

Trist: the classics, some old Mariah

Trist: Carey tunes.

Trist: Those early recordings, there's so much power and there's so

Trist: much in a certain part of her range that you're like, she had

Trist: to have done that once or twice and then called it a day.

Trist: There's no way we got her to do

Trist: that six or seven times in a

Trist: row.

Trist: I think there are just factors where, oh, great, we have the

Trist: ability to do this.

Trist: That's awesome.

Trist: But not relying on it as the way

Trist: that we're going to fix

Trist: something.

Trist: It's like, okay, I sang it twice and you can spend the rest of

Trist: the week now tweaking it and making it sound like it should,

Trist: rather than me just being prepared and singing it well.

Elaine: So let me ask you about your more recent studio experiences.

Elaine: How much and what did the preparation look like?

Elaine: Because your most recent big studio experience was with the

Elaine: Manhattan Transfer, I think, although you've done some other

Elaine: things recently, right?

Trist: I've been on a few album

Trist: projects for people where

Trist: there's a group of ten to twelve

Trist: singers that come in, in the

Trist: middle of the summer for

Trist: somebody's vanity project for

Trist: Christmas.

Trist: And they want the old timey choir.

Trist: Those I walk in, I've never seen

Trist: the music before, but I know

Trist: "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,"

Trist: or "Jingle Bells," and there's

Trist: some version of it that's on the

Trist: stand and we get the headphones

Trist: on and we look at the music and

Trist: we kind of play back the

Trist: orchestra we're singing along

Trist: with.

Trist: We listen to it a couple of times while we're getting the

Trist: levels, and then we sing it.

Trist: And I don't know that there's a lot of fixing.

Trist: It's in a room with a lot of very good singers that we find a

Trist: pretty good blend.

Trist: It's maybe twelve of us on four or five microphones.

Trist: So it's a bit group miking.

Trist: It's not one on one where if one

Trist: of us makes a pretty egregious

Trist: mistake, you flag it down

Trist: because it's going to be on

Trist: there.

Trist: There's no way to fix it.

Trist: So everybody has to be on their game.

Trist: So those are the probably the

Trist: most recent recordings I've

Trist: done.

Trist: Haven't really had anything.

Trist: I think if there's any quote unquote fixing in that, it's

Trist: probably some balancing of those microphones where maybe we as a

Trist: group didn't blend or balance exactly as they want, but they

Trist: can at least balance the microphones that are there.

Trist: But there's probably not a lot

Trist: of fixes, because the singing

Trist: that's done is usually pretty

Trist: spot on to what they want, or

Trist: they wouldn't let you leave if

Trist: they didn't have what they

Trist: wanted.

Trist: That's the most recent thing I've done.

Elaine: And that's actually much more of

Elaine: the session singing experience,

Elaine: right?

Elaine: Where you walk in, the expectation is that you would be

Elaine: able to sight read the music, and that you'd be able to work

Elaine: with whatever voices are there, and that you'd find a blend

Elaine: pretty much immediately.

Trist: Yeah.

Elaine: So I think my question is much more along the like, let's take

Elaine: "50," which was the album that you did with Manhattan Transfer,

Elaine: what, four or five years ago at this point now?

Elaine: And so as you were preparing for that, there must have been a lot

Elaine: more of rehearsal and planning, that went into this project that

Elaine: you did in the studio with an orchestra and with each other,

Elaine: something that you were doing as a professional project.

Trist: So there, all of the rhythm section and the orchestral parts

Trist: are recorded separately.

Trist: And then by the time it gets to us to put the vocals down,

Trist: that's all there.

Trist: And we even did all of our parts individually.

Trist: This is also coming off the end of Covid where I don't think a

Trist: bunch of us could be in the studio at the same time anyway.

Trist: Regardless, we would have done it this way, usually from the

Trist: top part down.

Trist: So by the time I got in, most of the other voices are there.

Trist: So I'm matching the other voices that I'm hearing on the track.

Trist: I do have the music already, so I have plenty of time to have

Trist: looked at it.

Trist: I know what it is.

Trist: Then it's just do the best performance I can.

Trist: And that's the situation, too,

Trist: where the producer, they're

Trist: balancing out.

Trist: Okay, if they hear me deliver the line that I'm recording 99%

Trist: exactly what they want.

Trist: And there's like literally maybe

Trist: one note that dips a little

Trist: lower than it should be, but

Trist: they've got the performance and

Trist: the sound and everything is

Trist: great.

Trist: They probably even don't say anything out loud to me.

Trist: They put a little note there,

Trist: hey, that one note, we're going

Trist: to go in and just go doop and

Trist: make it a little higher because

Trist: we liked everything else about

Trist: the performance.

Trist: And then on the next line, oh,

Trist: I've kind of got everything

Trist: right, but I'm not quite giving

Trist: the tone that they're looking

Trist: for.

Trist: So I get the tone and the

Trist: excitement and the energy and

Trist: the performance.

Trist: That's harder to fix.

Trist: So any other little things?

Trist: Oh, I sang that one thing just a touch early.

Trist: If it's enough that they can go in and just literally nudge it

Trist: over, then there's no need for me to recreate the entire thing.

Trist: If there's one little thing they wanted to get.

Trist: But if the whole thing just has

Trist: lots of, I imagine it's the

Trist: producer in their mind keeping

Trist: like a point of diminishing

Trist: returns.

Trist: Okay, there's one little thing I heard.

Trist: Oh, there's another one.

Trist: Okay, there's a third one.

Trist: Now you're starting to get into "okay..."

Trist: That's what I would do as a producer.

Trist: It's like, okay, now I've got a list of too many things I would

Trist: have to fix.

Trist: Please just sing it again.

Trist: So if it goes through that and it's like, oh man, even if there

Trist: were two, it's like, boy, I loved the way you sounded.

Trist: You haven't sounded that way yet.

Trist: Just in case you don't do it again, just keep that.

Trist: I'll fix these little things and let's move on.

Trist: Or, oh, I can hear you've got a bit of a cold.

Trist: Who knows how much longer I'm going to have your voice.

Trist: Let me not have you do that one line over and over and over.

Trist: Let's just keep going and get it as good as we can.

Trist: So there's always a variety of ways to do it.

Elaine: Yeah, it sounds like we have a

Elaine: very nuanced answer here to the

Elaine: number of different things and

Elaine: the considerations into when you

Elaine: track and when you choose to do

Elaine: post.

Elaine: So

Trist: Mhm.

Elaine: thanks for bringing all this expertise.

Trist: Mhm.

Elaine: I learned a lot during this section.

Trist: No problem.

Elaine: Well, do you have anything to

Elaine: say about this before we wrap

Elaine: up?

Trist: Oh, no. Other than just sometimes when we get to these

Trist: you read the topic.

Trist: And I just think, well, what else is there to talk about?

Trist: They're right on.

Trist: I agree.

Trist: Done.

Trist: So I still manage to ramble on about it a bit, but yeah.

Trist: I concur with this post.

Elaine: All right.

Elaine: So with that, we will see you next week.

Elaine: But before we do, we want to

Elaine: remind you that we have

Elaine: playlists.

Trist: We have playlists, we have playlists.

Trist: They're even recently updated.

Trist: I updated a few of them and made

Trist: sure that all of the songs from

Trist: the previous season are

Trist: available.

Trist: And you know what?

Trist: There's even a song that was in

Trist: last year's list of songs that

Trist: was not available on most

Trist: streaming platforms when we

Trist: talked about it, and voilà, it

Trist: appeared.

Trist: It's there.

Trist: So even if you've looked at it

Trist: before, check it out again

Trist: because all of the songs are

Trist: there now.

Trist: So please check out on whatever platforms you get our tunes from

Trist: and share them with others.

Trist: Just share the playlist and let them see the variety of music

Trist: that we talk about.

Trist: And who knows, maybe they have a song that they're interested in

Trist: hearing what we have to say.

Elaine: And don't forget, you can always share an episode if what we're

Elaine: saying resonates with you or is something that you want to talk

Elaine: about with a friend.

Elaine: So with that, we will see you next time.

Trist: Thank you.

Elaine: You know, I'm cutting all that out,

Trist: no,

Elaine: right?

Trist: you can't, You can't.

Trist: No. You gotta leave the funny in,

Elaine: Okay.

Trist: we'll get into that.

Trist: Elaine.

Elaine: you

Trist: good.

Elaine: imagine my first time listening to this?

Elaine: I'm like, what am I listening to?

Trist: No. Again.

Trist: That makes it interesting

Elaine: how we should be listening to music on the West?

Elaine: Sorry.

Elaine: On the west side.