Play me1

CD Review - Venue Magazine July 2009

Venue Magazine CD Review July 09

There’s a lot to this album by Dr Sax, aka Paul Raymond – so much, in fact that it takes a few listens to get a sense of it all. In the end though it’s pretty catchy stuff that creeps up on you with some deftly poppy hooks, which is surprising as the general tone of the album is smooth soul-jazz with the occasional outing of funk & swing. The dozen self-penned/arranged/produced tracks cover a wide range, with Raymond’s sax and Gary Alesbrook’s flugel horn superbly matched on the tight funk of the title track, Richie Blake’s bass popping nicely underneath and Sarah Davies’s gospel haunted vocal on ‘Lead Me to the Water’ both highlights. There’s even a touch of Quincy Jones from time to time, notably the lush and slinky soul of ‘Brief Encounter’.

'Why' video

'Why' featuring Kelly G

Another track and video from the new album. The video is in two parts the first is all Kelly the second part sees the band make an appearance.

Great vocal from Kelly and some lovely guitar from Cliff.

Look out for 'the stars falling from the sky'!

Pictures, above & below feature Kelly singing at a festival over the weekend.

"Why'

"Why' featuring Kelly Griggs

Kelly sings all the vocals on this track and what a voice she has. This is Steve's (the keyboard player in the band) favorite album track and Kelly does an outstanding job. And she's only 17!!

The stills above are from the video which is currently being edited for an early June release. The blue screen in some of the shots is a part of a film technique called chroma key, where you shoot against a solid green or blue background and then it is relatively easy to remove and replace with an alternative. The whole of Sin City was shot this way. 

This video was shot all in HD using Sony Z1 cameras.

'Take It to the Bridge' Video

'Take It to the Bridge' video

This is the video of the title track from the new album. A brassy, classy piece of funky jazzy which features Gary on trumpet and Kelly on vocals.

Pictures above are stills from the video

'Tender Touch' official video

'Tender Touch'

This is the 'proper' video for the song 'Tender Touch' which Sarah sings so beautifully! We've carried on the idea of the comic strip with most of the footage being 'de-saturated' and color corrected to exaggerate the black & white tones. Video also features Cliff playing some fantastic guitar 'licks' and Richie & Steve laying down a lovely seductive 'Purdie Shuffle' style rhythm.

The comic book lyrics are still there and they tell the story of a groupie / fan coming on to one of the band. Happens all the time, especially to Steve (the piano player)!! 

Tender Touch Comic Book Pages

'Tender Touch' (with comic book type pages)

This is the album version of the song together with a comic bookpe concept... hope you like it, we're planning to do more along these lines.

'Tender Touch' live recording March 09

'Tender Touch'

Another song from the new album but given the live recording /performance treatment. The feel on this live version is very different from the album version and that was the intention. 

One of the things that I like most about Jazz, in particular is that no tune will ever sounds the same on two separate occasions. Music for me is a living moment in time that should capture the spirit and essence of the now and hopefully with these live recordings we've captured some special moments. 

This song features another great vocal from Sarah and some nice understated muted trumpet from Gary.

'Something's Missing'

'Something's Missing'

Another track from the new CD that we recorded live in March 2009. Despite the picture of Steve above, the regular Dr Sax keyboard player, he doesn't actually play on the recording as he had to leave early for an audition (for a top UK celebrity singer that we're not allowed to talk about!) so Paul played piano on the recording.

As well as Sarah's impeccable vocal there is yet another beautiful solo from Gary, this time on flugelhorn.

Please enjoy!

  

'Lead Me to the Water' live recording March 2009

'Lead Me to the Water'

Another track from our live recording (March 2009). This is also one of the tracks from the new album but played in a very different way. This is much more laid back and without the multiple vocals, flutes and saxophones of the original. 

Steve can be seen and heard playing his 'cajon' in this track, I believe it means box in Spanish and inside can be found guitar strings and sleigh bells(!) makes a great sound though.

Sarah sings beautifully as always and Gary plays a lyrical and ultra smooth flugel solo which probably inspired the laid back feel to the whole track.

Hope you like it!

'Let My People' live recording March 2009

'Let My People'

Above are some stills from our video shoot (March 2009) and below is the first video featuring one of a number of tracks that we recorded and filmed recently, live in Bristol. 

The band was: Richie: bass; Cliff: guitar; Steve Wilson: percussion; Steve Williams: piano; Paul: sax; Gary: trumpet & flugelhorn and Sarah: vocals. The sound engineer was Tony Hobden who recorded the session to Pro Tools. We recorded 5 tracks in total and each one went down in two takes. 

Because we were recording in a really ambient space, Steve our drummer used a percussion based set-up with a 'Cajon' providing the kick drum type sound. He played this with his hand and used brushes on the snare.

This is the first track to be mixed with the edited footage. All the tracks will be featured here over the next few weeks... we hope you will enjoy them!

'Take It to the Bridge' CD design

This is the full 6 page CD Digipack design for the new album.
As well as the hard copy CD, the album will also soon be available from all of the usual online outlets such as iTunes.
The girl who designed this cover and who also took all of the photographs is Nerissa (Barnes) and I do think that she has made a wonderful job of it. My idea was always that the album design should look and feel like a piece of artwork in the same sense that all of the music was conceived as part of a living tradition of music making, rather than as a commercial entity and I hope that we have achieved our objective.
Plans are underway to make a video over the next couple of weeks!
More info soon!

'You Walked By'

'You Walked By' (featuring Sarah Davies)
(from the album 'Take It to the Bridge' 2009)

I wrote this song with my friend & fellow musician Tony Kay. The funny thing about our association with this song is the writing credit... Raymond / Kay... the funny thing being that my father was a musician and also a band leader and the name of his band was: The Raymond Kaye Orchestra! I like that, my Dad's band name lives on!

Sarah delivers another lovely vocal interpretation on this track and there is also some fine acoustic guitar work from Cliff who is rarely heard on acoustic. What a waste! We recorded the guitar in my studio at home... for the technically interested: using my Neve preamp, Neve compressor, a Neumann mic going into an Apogee Rosetta and then into Pro Tools. Really lovely playing from Cliff, complements Sarah beautifully.

The drums and percussion were played by Steve and recorded in Supersonix. He put down the main drum part and then asked if I wanted some percussion as well? I had to leave that afternoon and he and Tony (engineering) recorded multiple tracks of various percussion which sounded awesome. We were going to record a conga part as well but we ran out of time. Steve is a bit of a specialist in latin as you can probably hear.

The bass on the track is Richie who is consistently wonderful, ever inventive and always seeking perfection... you can't really ask for more.

Drums & percussion: Steve Wilson
Bass: Richie Blake
Guitar: Cliff Moore
Rhodes: Paul Raymond
Backing vocals: Sarah Davies
Lead vocal: Sarah Davies
Alto flutes: Paul Raymond
Engineer: Tony Hobden
Production & mix: Paul Raymond

Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/190296026/Dr_Sax..._You_Walk_By.mp3

Talking to You

'Talking to You' (featuring Sarah Davies)
(from the album 'Take It to the Bridge' 2009)

Another song featuring our lovely Welsh songstress Sarah. She recorded this just before her birthday in December 2008 when she was still all of 18. One of the things that I love about Sarah's voice is her distinctiveness; the tone and the phrasing make her easily and instantly identifiable and as well, she has a rare gift for bringing out the feeling in the lyrics, I'm so glad that we found her!

Lexie wrote the first part of the lyrics to this tune and we've been waiting to record it for some time. This was another of the tracks that we recorded in the converted church studio; having abandoned the main live space as a band, Steve put down the drums in the sound proofed drum booth and Richie and I recorded our parts in the control room.

There's a lot of alto flute in this song and there is an all instrumental version of the tune with alto flute lead but I do like the vocal version.

As a sax player, I haven't said very much yet about saxophones, so I'll start now... the sax on this track is a soprano, once described as 'the sax that should never have been invented' probably because they're more difficult to play, tuning and tone are harder to achieve. On the last Dr Sax album I played a Yamaha but since then I've switched to a Yanagisawa. It's a little more mellow and I use a copper neck with a Phil Barone mouthpiece. I play my soprano every day and it's a joy.

The backing vocals as ever feature Abby, Danni & Lexie (pictured with Richie above).

Drums: Steve Wilson
Bass: Richie Blake
Rhodes & Synth: Paul Raymond
Backing vocals: Abby Tweddle, Danni Douel & Lexie Raymond
Lead vocal: Sarah Davies
Soprano sax: Paul Raymond
Engineer: Tony Hobden
Production & mix: Paul Raymond

Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/182227569/Dr_Sax..._Talking_to_You.mp3

Take It to the Bridge Sonix Mix

'Take It to the Bridge' (Sonix mix)
(from the album: 'Take It to the Bridge' 2009)

Drums & percussion: Steve Wilson
Bass: Richie Blake
Guitar: Cliff Moore
Rhodes & Hammond: Paul Raymond
Backing vocals: Abby Tweddle, Danni Douel & Lexie Raymond
Lead vocal: Kelly Griggs
Saxophones: Paul Raymond
Flugel horn: Gary Alesbrook
Spoken: Liam
Engineer & mix: Tony Hobden
Production: Paul Raymond

This is the 'Sonix' / Tony Hobden mix of the title track from the new album: a full ensemble piece featuring the rhythm section, horns and singers. The flugel horn solo is performed by Gary Alesbrook, please check out the video filmed as he was recording his solo, such a cool guy and a truly great player! Backing vocals, as always, by Abby, Danni (pictured above) and Lexie (pictured above with Cliff).

And finally, the lead vocal is by Kelly Griggs (pictured top).

download: http://rapidshare.com/files/182227568/Dr_Sax..._Take_It_to_the_Bridge_Sonix_mix.mp3

What About You

'What About You' (featuring Paul Richards pictured above)
(from the album: 'Take It to the Bridge' 2009)

Probably the most romantic track on the album and we did wonder whether we should include it (!) but hey ho we all need a little romance in our lives and maybe this could be a chart hit for the band!

Lead vocal is by Paul Richards, pictured above when he was recording at St Georges Hall, a beautiful acoustic venue in Bristol (UK). Paul is a great singer and he was first choice to sing this song, only problem was he's moved some miles away but as he has his own studio, the easy solution was to send him a backing track and for him to record the vocal at his place.

He recorded several versions of the vocal at 96Khz, 32bits, for those who might want to know, which did present a bit of a problem as our Pro Tools system would not accept 32bit files(!) but once it was all converted, we had file compatability and the track could be mixed and mastered.

The main female backing vocal is Abby, but Lexie and Danni are also singing the angelic harmonies.

Having mentioned St Georges above, I would add that the acoustic piano was also recorded there. The acoustic piano is a very expensive Steinway concert grand and at the end of a long day recording other people and their songs, I happened to have the backing track on my ipod and with the mics still set up from earlier I quickly recorded to the backing track.

Drums: Steve Wilson
Bass: Richie Blake
Rhodes & Piano: Paul Raymond
Backing vocals: Abby Tweddle, Danni Douel & Lexie Raymond
Lead vocal: Paul Richards
Soprano sax: Paul Raymond
Engineer: Ace Taylor
Production & mix: Paul Raymond

Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/184320621/Dr_Sax..._What_About_You.mp3

Happen Together

'Happen Together' (featuring Steve Williams, top picture)
(from the album: 'Take It to the Bridge' 2009)

A swinging piece of ersatz jazz that I wrote to enable me to incorporate some sax section parts. Rhythm section was recorded in Supersonix with everything else being overdubbed at a later date. Steve Williams (above) one of the two original keyboard players with the band contributed this great vocal. He has been working over the last couple of years with UK R & B star, Jamelia and his vocal stylings and techniques have clearly been influenced and benefited from the experience.

Backing vocals feature, Abby, Danni & Lexie... Abby (pictured below Steve)


The tenor sax solo that features briefly at the end was part of the first recording session,. It was originally put down as a part of the vocal guide and was meant to be replaced but we never got around to it!

Drums & percussion: Steve Wilson
Bass: Richie Blake
Guitar: Cliff Moore
Rhodes & Hammond: Paul Raymond
Backing vocals: Abby Tweddle, Danni Douel & Lexie Raymond
Lead vocal: Steve Williams
Saxophones: Paul Raymond
Trumpet: Gary Alesbrook
Engineer: Tony Hobden
Production & mix: Paul Raymond

http://rapidshare.com/files/178545713/Dr_Sax..._Happen_Together.mp3