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Instrumental Invasion, 7/27/22 July 28, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Boating, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games.
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The July 27 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the fourth show in the last five with the 1-3-2 recording configuration: one segment on May 30, three on May 31, and two on June 1. Pickups were recorded on June 3, 5, and 9.

The playlist was created on May 28 and annotated on the 29th. The talk break script was drafted before recording on the 30th. I made a timing error in the last segment of the show, requiring a condensed script for the last talk break and ten extra seconds, the first time I went over 18 minutes since May 11.

Speaking of that last talk break, a week after referencing John McLaughlin‘s The McLaughlin Group sign-off, my sign-off this week referenced Chet Huntley‘s at the end of The Huntley-Brinkley Report. And speaking of the first, this imperfect Google translation is what led me to assume “Dinorah, Dinorah” by Ivan Lins (covered on the show by George Benson) was about a love affair with a teacher. I listened to the original for reference and to confirm the pronunciation:

And here’s a mellower 2017 duet in a lower key:

Despite obsessive listening, I said “gene-orah” instead of “gin-orah” in the initial first segment recording before going on a boat ride with my family. I redid any references to the song when I got home. I didn’t have a boat ride in mind when I added “Boat Ride” by Jay Rowe to the third segment, but it helped that I did (recap here) because it gave me talk break-padding material. I did away with some of that padding on June 9, shaving off four seconds, to make up for going over in the last segment.

A running gag established while recording – that I missed while drafting the script – was “thing/things” and all the songs written for someone. “Our Thing” by Jazz Funk Soul has made me think of the Mafia ever since More Serious Business arrived at my door 6 1/2 years ago. (Yes, the link goes to the MP3 version.) I sincerely believe the title of Jeff Lorber‘s composition is coincidental, and that’s why I always get a kick out of it.

The June 3 pickups were recorded after learning that my friend Pete Bellotti was named WCWP’s new director of broadcasting. I came out of Earl Klugh‘s cover of “If I Fell” with a liner that Pete recorded in 2020 while only working for CBS Sports Radio. Pete is still with CBS Sports Radio, but it didn’t feel right using a liner where he only identifies from there. I replaced the liner with one Game Dave recorded, giving new significance to my Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection reference. I said the low viewership was a humbling experience, but Game Dave reminded us of the big picture last July:

I clipped the relevant portion.

Playing off what Game Dave said, I performed in front of between 43 and 190 people, depending on the Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection video (as of June 3).

The expanded talk break meant I had to move the Bernie Bernard liner up one segment and put John Commins’s liner in her place.

Just this week, Dave posted a video chronicling his month-long weight loss journey with the help of exercise video games:

The June 5 pickup was recorded after learning new information from this interview Brian Pace conducted with Ivan Lins during his 2016 Blue Note engagement:

Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:

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Instrumental Invasion, 7/20/22 July 21, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Aviation, Internet, Jazz, Media, Military, Music, News, Personal, Politics, Radio, TV, Video.
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The July 20 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP (120 on 7/20) was recorded from May 25 to 27: two segments on the 25th, three on the 26th, and one on the 27th.

The playlist was created on May 23 after completing production of the previous two shows, with annotations on the 24th and 25th, followed by the script draft.

I had to cut portions of the first and last talk breaks of the second hour to keep them from going over 18 minutes.

Incidentally, while recording the third segment of the first hour, which ends with “In the Sky Today” by Ken Navarro, the Navy Blue Angels were rehearsing for the upcoming weekend’s Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach. They were too high up to see from my bedroom window as the skies clouded up, but I saw one plane flying low and slow as I walking back from a supermarket trip:

My friend Karl Schmidt informed this plane was the Blue Angels’ C-130 Hercules, a.k.a. (or hey, hey, hey) Fat Albert.

If I had my DSLR camera, the resolution would be higher, but my phone only has a 2x optical zoom and that’s all I had on me.

I did take DSLR photos during the Sunday air show:

Further incidentally, I played “In the Sky Today” 52 weeks after playing the title track to Ken Navarro’s All the Way album and “The Test of Time” by Shilts three months after playing the title track to his 2012 release, All Grown Up. It didn’t occur to me until annotating the playlist that Shilts and Bill Steinway incorporated Big Ben‘s “Westminster Quarters” into their composition.

My “bye-bye” after repeating the title of Gerald Albright‘s song – “By My Side” – was an homage to political commentator John McLaughlin‘s The McLaughlin Group sign-off. Here is a compilation I found of 18 bye-byes between 2007 and 2015:

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 7/13/22 July 14, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.
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The July 13 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third straight show with the 1-3-2 recording configuration: one segment on May 20, three on the 21st, and two (and a pickup) on the 22nd.

The playlist took three days to create: May 15 (the segments with singles), 17, and 18 followed by annotations. The talk break script was drafted entirely on the 20th before recording the first segment.

The show led off with “Is It James or Charlie?”, a cue from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving found on the second Lost Cues CD. Until reading the linked Wikipedia entry earlier this year, I naively thought most incorrect track listings were correct. This is the page I referenced on the air, cited in the entry.

Five songs made their second appearance, two of them singles on the smooth jazz radio charts at the time of recording, which is why I worked on those segments first. In order of appearance, the songs are:

If that wasn’t enough, I played both of Nelson Rangell‘s studio recordings of “Sonora” by Hampton Hawes in honor of his latest live whistling and piccolo rendition at Smooth Jazz for Scholars in April. Watch the performance here:

Marion Meadows also performed “Marcosinho” that night.

This was the first show with instances where the second song of the set will start, and is faded down for a liner before going back to full volume. I did that at the start of “Fantasy in D” and “Throw Yo’ Hands (In the Air)” by Gerald Albright.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 7/6/22 July 7, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video, Video Games.
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The July 6 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the second consecutive show with the 1-3-2 recording configuration: one segment on May 17, three on the 18th, and two on the 19th.

The playlist was created on May 15 and annotated on the 16th. I drafted the talk break script for the first segment before recording on the morning of the 17th and completed the draft in the afternoon.

For the first time, I recorded segments out of sequence as I was eager to get the last segment out of the way. The talk-up for “Hello Beautiful” by Blair Bryant included this moment from The Simpsons episode “The Principal and the Pauper“:

I initially used the audio from this video, but didn’t like the skip on “we’ll see about that,” so I replaced it with audio recorded from my ninth season DVD set.

My voice was comprised on May 18, though less so on the 19th, after screaming in a moment of frustration about two hours after the one segment on the 17th. I was satisfied with the two segments I recorded on the afternoon of the 18th, but redid two of the last segment’s talk breaks on the morning of the 23rd. (A pickup was required on the 29th.) My pacing was better, which meant I could play the Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster arrangement of “The Red Wings” in its entirety rather than fade down early. All talk breaks in the fourth segment (first of hour 2) had to be speed compressed, 95% of original speed.

I didn’t have time to mention, but GTV Japan has a great video on Final Fantasy IV, posted around the time of its 30th anniversary a year ago next week:

And while working on this show, StrafeFox posted a Splash Wave video on the Wonder Boy and Monster World games:

I’d occasionally thought about playing “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winter Group, and finally committed to it this week.

I eventually learned that Gerald Albright wrote “G-Wiggle” (from G-Stream 2) for his grandson Gavin’s blueberry dance, but adding that fun fact to the talk break would make the segment go over a few seconds.

This year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars once again influenced the playlist as the third segment included two songs from the first night and one from the second. One first night song was “Treasures” by Marion Meadows:

“Amore” by Julian Vaughn was first heard last May 26, replayed as one of four current singles, three that were charting at the time of production. This time, I played up the references to “That’s Amore” and Dean Martin (“pally”). I had two more singles I wanted to include, but couldn’t, so I got a head start on next week’s playlist.

Before then, click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:

A community calendar spot I voiced runs at the 8:14 mark.