Instrumental Invasion, 8/17/22 August 18, 2022
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The August 17 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on June 27, along with the first segment of next week’s show, the most segments I’ve recorded in one day. Coincidentally, this came five days after the previous show recorded in one day aired. June 22’s show was recorded entirely on April 18, but whereas that was the last show produced before the Smooth Jazz for Scholars hiatus, this was the first show after the WCWP Hall of Fame hiatus.
The playlist was created on June 21 while I was in the early stages of what turned out to be an ear infection. COVID-19 was ruled out by two negative home tests (that day and on the 23rd), and a doctor trip on the 24th showed it was an ear infection rather than my fallback assumption of a cold. Since my voice was compromised, albeit slightly, I chose to start working on next week’s show, annotating and talk break script drafting simultaneously with the intent to record them both once I was better. (I still sounded nasal while recording.) This week’s show was annotated on the 23rd with the first two segments of the next show, and the talk break script was drafted on the 25th.
I continued the new habit of recording segments out of sequence to determine which to shorten, accommodating for ones that run long.
It was the second week in a row with only two songs in the middle segments of each hour. The “Shim Wha” gag came to mind while listening to The Dave Brubeck Quartet‘s Time Changes album on the way back from the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Marlins at Citi Field on June 18. I combined all the photos I took at that game in a slideshow that’s part of this blog post. I hope to have the slideshow of photos from last Wednesday’s game finished before October.
The “Cahla” gag for “Carla” by Peter Horvath had been in mind since watching every episode of Cheers on Netflix over a few weeks in March 2017.
Speaking of 2017, with a lack of music to play from new releases, I replaced the first 2017-present segment with another 1984 and earlier segment.
Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:
The aircheck includes a new promo I recorded on Tuesday.
9:10 AM UPDATE: It’s been a while since I made a mistake that went unnoticed until after airing, but I made one here. Jay Beckenstein did play soprano sax on “Captain Karma” by Spyro Gyra, but his solo was on alto.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/10/22 August 11, 2022
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The August 10 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP took a week to record. While the first hour was done entirely on June 10, WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony post-production left me little time to record the second hour: one segment per day on June 13, 15, and 16.
The playlist was created alongside last week’s show on June 5 and 6. I worked on each show’s first hour and middle of their second hour on the 5th, and the 2017-present segments on the 6th. Annotations for this week’s show were written on the 7th, and each show’s talk break script was drafted on the 8th.
Once again, I recorded under 18 minutes in a given segment to allow for more time in any that run long. The first hour was recorded out of sequence, with the third segment done first so I knew how short to make the first and second. That third segment was initially 18:33, so I allowed myself to go 25 seconds under in the first and 8 in the second. When I finally mixed down the third segment, I took off a second, meaning I was still one total second under. The total increased to 13 seconds as hour 2’s middle segment was 12 short. The last talk break only had to be shortened slightly to accommodate the extra 13 for the last segment.
As I said in Sunday’s post about the Mets game I went to on June 18, I was back at Citi Field yesterday with my dad and sister. On our way home after the game, while on the Belt Parkway, I saw an Iberia plane on its final approach to JFK Airport. Then, I remembered I played “Iberia” by the Dave Brubeck Quartet in this week’s second segment. It was the second of only two songs in that segment; the other was “The Epic,” a very long Pat Metheny Group tune.
In hour 2, I played Anders Enger Jensen‘s “Yamaha Reface DX and Roland CR-1000 Song.” This is the 8-Bit Keys video he wrote it for:
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
June 18 Mets-Marlins game photo slideshow August 7, 2022
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Back on June 18, I traveled to Citi Field with my dad, his fellow members of Freeport Fire Department’s Truck 1, and their families. We had Promenade level tickets – left field side – to the New York Mets‘ 4:10 game against the Miami Marlins. The Mets won the game 3-2.
I brought my Nikon D5500 and superzoom lens to take photos from start to finish. I compulsively took over 700 photos, whittled down to 524 after several weeks of stop and go editing. (Having a weekly radio show limits my free time.) On top of that, I took eight photos with my iPhone 13 Pro as I walked along the Promenade to get a ReadyCARD prepaid debit card in the team store and use some of that money on a collectible bowl of Mister Softee. (Dad treated me to chicken fingers and fries before the game.) When I got home around 10PM – everyone else wanted to stop for pizza in Howard Beach – I cleaned the bowl with soap and water, soaking it overnight to get out the ice cream smell. I rinsed in the morning and the smell was gone. The bowl became my new pen and marker holder, as seen the morning of Tuesday, June 21:
I couldn’t possibly post all 532 photos I took at Citi Field, so I painstakingly combined them into a video slideshow on Friday and yesterday, complete with planes on their final approach to LaGuardia Airport. It’s 11 minutes and 11 seconds long.
Dad and I head back to Citi Field on Wednesday with my sister for a 1:10 game against the Cincinnati Reds. This time, we’re at field level on the first base side. I hope to take no more than 150 photos.
Without further ado, the June 18 slideshow, set to the live version of “While the World Slowly Turns” by Brian Hughes:
As a bonus for those who made it to the end, here is the featured image (thumbnail):
Instrumental Invasion, 8/3/22 August 4, 2022
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The August 3 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over two days: four segments on June 8 and two on June 9. Pickups were recorded on June 12 and 15.
The playlist was created alongside next week’s show on June 5 and 6. I worked on each show’s first hour and middle of their second hour on the 5th, and the 2017-present segments on the 6th. Annotations for this week’s show began on the 6th and carried into the 7th. Each show’s talk break script was drafted on the 8th. I hoped to start recording that day, but was preoccupied with setting up my new iPhone 13 Pro.
I tried to get as many segments as possible recorded before the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony on June 11 because I knew I’d be busy with post-production afterward. I was right. While I recorded nine segments combined in two days, it took four days to record next week’s second hour.
Picking up on an idea from last week, I purposely allowed myself to go under 18 minutes in a given segment to allow for more time in one that runs long. I only had three seconds of extra time going into the last segment, but they came in handy.
The “you latched onto Instrumental Invasion with Mike Chimeri” line coming out of the Dan Ingram liner referenced the gasser promo for WABC in 1964. (More WABC promos can be heard here.) Be sure to listen on September 7 as I pay tribute to Big Dan by playing songs that start with letters in his radio station call letters.
The quip coming out of “Take That” by Julian Vaughn – “where do you want me to take it?” – was a nod to Mark Evanier‘s great line for Binky the Clown in the “Binky Goes Bad” episode of Garfield and Friends:
Judge: Take the stand.
(Binky takes a chair and presents it)
Binky: Where do you want me to take it, huh?
Early in the show, I noted that “The Jive Samba” by The Cannonball Adderley Sextet (on Jazz Workshop Revisited) incorporated the Minsky Pickup, one of many things I’ve learned from TV Tropes.
Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:
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.add a comment
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:
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:
Instrumental Invasion, 7/20/22 July 21, 2022
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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:
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
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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:
- “Fantasy in D” by Eastern Rebellion (February 10, 2021, also following a Vince Guaraldi Peanuts cue)
- “Biencavo” by Ahmad Jamal (April 15, 2020)
- “Covent Garden” by Steve Cole (September 15, 2021) (the first single)
- “Shadow Dancer” by Vincent Ingala (December 8, 2021) (the other single)
- “Serenata” by Gregg Karukas (March 24, 2021)
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.add a comment
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“:
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:
Instrumental Invasion, 6/29/22 June 30, 2022
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The June 29 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the first show recorded after three weeks off. One segment was recorded on May 9, three on the 10th, and two (plus a pickup) on the 11th.
The playlist was created on May 5, but wasn’t annotated until the 9th. The talk break scripts for the first two segments were drafted before recording each of them, with the rest of the script drafted before recording the rest of the segments.
I was inspired to play “Estancia” by Chick Corea after watching Timothy Gondola‘s transcription:
Since the word “estancia” refers to a South American ranch, I paired it with Dave Grusin‘s arrangement of “Git Along, Little Dogies” on Discovered Again!. In turn, I contrasted “dogies” (hard g) with Dogi (soft g) from the Ys video game series.
It took until two days before recording to realize that Pat Metheny‘s “River Quay” was a play (that rhymes) on The Bridge on the River Kwai. Quay can be pronounced “kway” or “key,” but as I said in the show, Pat had “kway” in mind to contrast it with “kwy.” Enough linguistics.
This year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars influenced much of the show, with two songs played on the second night and music featuring four of the headliners. (Read about the first night here.) One of the second night songs was “Soul Ties” by Marcus Anderson:
This was the second week in a row with a version of “Veil of Spring” by Anders Enger Jensen, which preceded the second appearance of “Move Ahead” by Richard Elliot. I first played it last March 17, but it was a single at the time of recording, so back in it went.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 6/22/22 June 23, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Religion.add a comment
The June 22 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third of three shows produced in ten days, making for six shows produced in 23 days. I wanted to allow myself a hiatus of at least two weeks to focus on my girlfriend Kelly’s visit from Connecticut, then attending and documenting Smooth Jazz for Scholars in Connecticut (recaps here and here).
This show was recorded entirely on April 18 with pickups on the 19th, the first show recorded principally in one day since recording the December 15 show on November 1, the same day as annotating and talk break script drafting.
The playlist was created on April 16 with annotations and drafting of the talk break script on the 17th.
Once again, I replayed songs to make up for past mistakes: “Ear Candy” by Pieces of a Dream (January 5) and “360” by Chuck Loeb (April 13).
I had fun with “Spinnin'” by Jessy J from her latest album, Blue. It unintentionally sounded like the Hora if it were done by Les McCann. So, I worked many Jewish cultural references (I was raised Reform Jewish) into my talk break coming out of it, led by the exclamation “L’chaim (to life)!”
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
MikeChimeri.com 