Gregory Omar Osborne records in the Mezzanine

Artist, performer, and Progressive Theatre founder Gregory Omar Osborne took to our Mezzanine studio earlier this month to record numbers from The Gospel at Colonus. Osborne brought in a crew of talented musicians for a selection of the musical’s songs, which feature choir, organ, and vocal arrangements. Dubway engineer Zach Grappone tracked the session, making judicious use of the Mezzanine’s bay of outboard gear and SSL 4064 G+ console.

The Gospel At Colonus is an African-American retelling of the Oedipal story. Created by Lee Breuer with music by composer Bob Telson, the show opened nearly forty years ago, just across the East River at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s first ever Next Wave Festival, in 1983.

There’s no release date currently set for Osborne’s rendition of these pieces, but check back here or at his website (linked above) for future release information! Until then watch an unbelievably star-studded 1985 staging of the play below.

By Lee Breuer and Bob Telson 1985 production at the American Musical Theatre Festival, Philadelphia The performers include Morgan Freeman as The Messenger, C...

Roc Nation preserve archival Jay-Z tapes

Dubway engineer Merter Yildirim recently completed a series of transfers for hip-hop giant Roc Nation, taking a large collection of archival tapes and footage reels of concert and studio material (including reels from and including the agency’s owner, Jay-Z) and converting them to digital formats for archival purposes.

While individual collectors may often choose to digitize their physical media, it’s a near-necessity for labels. Recording labels of all sizes need to ensure a stable copy for reference and future license, reproduction, or re-release; otherwise, you run the risk of a catastrophe like the 2008 Universal fire, in which irreplaceable master tapes and records burned without leaving a digital legacy behind.

We’re proud to have contributed to Roc Nation’s effort to preserve their historic catalogue for future listeners. Find everything Roc Nation at the link at the top of the article, and give us a call if you’d like your collection to be digitized next!

Young MA live with Tito's Made To Order series

Dubway was honored to be involved in production for Brooklyn rapper Young MA’s set for the Tito’s Made To Order series of streaming events. Our engineers worked alongside a talented team of creatives from Panopticon NYC, Hook Studio BK, and First Tube Media, plus Young MA’s team and everyone at World Central Kitchen. Tito’s Made To Order shows are benefits for World Central Kitchen and feature sharp lineups with artists like Bun B, A-Trak, Kali Uchis, Portugal. The Man, and Claude VonStroke. Dubway engineer Louis Fisher and assistant engineer Jake Zacharia recorded the set, with Pascal McGilvray-Guard mixing and editing the recordings for post-production documentation.

Catch a recording of the set below on the Tito’s Made To Order YouTube channel, or revisit the record that put Young MA undeniably on the map here.

I'm LIVE right now with @TitosVodka for Tito's Made To Order - tune in and help us raise funds for @WorldCentralKitchen. Tito's is matching donations up to $...

Life In A Blender premiere "Soul Deliverer"

Glide Magazine just premiered a new video from friends-of-the-studio, Life In A Blender, “Soul Deliverer”. You can find the article here, which includes some comments from songwriter Don Rauf, and video co-creator Mark Lerner.

“Soul Deliverer” arrives as Life In A Blender gears up to release a new album, Satsuma, next month on November 20th. The song, and much of the album, was recorded throughout the Dubway facilities, with studio head Al Houghton (who plays guitar in the band) producing. Dubway engineers Russell Castiglione and Zach Grappone engineered tracking of the song.

Check out the video in Glide (above) or at the below link, and look for Satsuma in November!

"Soul Deliverer" by Life in a Blender, from the EP "SATSUMA" (releases November 20, 2020). Preorder from http://lifeinablender.net Directed by The Mark of Na...

The Astor Project: "Dump Trump (Out The House)"

The Astor Project just released a new single from songwriter Astor Forman, Dump Trump (Out The House). The single was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Dubway with studio engineer Keenan DuBois. Astor’s crew of studio musicians brought the track to life over several recording sessions in both our Mezzanine and Main Floor studio spaces, with some funk instrumentation courtesy of the clavinet, secondary percussion, and a tight rhythm and bass section.

You can find The Astor Project in all online stores today (and on Spotify by following the link above). Congratulations to Astor and the band!

John Luther Adams and the JACK Quartet release new music, "Lines Made By Walking"

Composer and friend of the studio John Luther Adams has recently released a brand new collection of new pieces on Cold Blue Music, titled Lines Made By Walking. The album was recorded at Tippet Rise Art Center with the critically acclaimed JACK Quartet, who the New York Times called “the nation’s most important quartet”. Dubway’s lead engineer Nathaniel Reichman produced and mastered the album, alongside a production dream team made up of Dubway personnel and Tippet Rise’s incredible technical staff, including Monte Nickles, Jim Ruberto, Austin Wulliman, Chris Otto, Jay Chop-Cheese Campbell, and John Richards.

The album was released September 18th and is available on the Cold Blue site, as well as from most major retailers and purveyors of contemporary musics. Many thanks to the team at Tippet Rise and in-house photographer Emily Rund for the excellent documentation of the studio session. Check out the photos below, and check your local classical music retailer for the release!

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Astor Forman records protest song in the Mezzanine

The talented vocalists of Astor Forman’s studio wrecking crew, pictured in our Blue Room mixing suite.

NYC songwriter Astor Forman brought a lively crew of musicians to Dubway’s Mezzanine and Main Floor facilities this past month to track, mix, and master an original protest tune. The single is in finishing stages, with plans for a release in the next two weeks.

Studio engineer Keenan DuBois tracked and mixed the ensemble of talented session musicians and longtime collaborators, who put down parts for drums, keys, clavinet, guitar, bass, percussion, vocals, and rapped verses. Sessions began in the upstairs Mezzanine before moving downstairs for dubbing, mixing, and final touches, utilizing the different strengths of our studio’s various rooms.

Cantor Nancy Dubin records performances for Tashlich service

Nancy Dubin and Keenan DuBois in the studio lobby after the session.

Cantor Nancy Dubin found a creative way to address the problems of holding religious holidays while also observing distancing measures, and took to our studios last week to record a series of songs for Rosh Hashannah’s Tashlich service. Dubin (who is also a registered nurse) sang all the parts for the songs she recorded, which were accompanied by piano. Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois tracked and mixed the recordings, and Pascal McGilvray-Guard edited together the final videos.

You can find an example of one of Dubin’s lovely performances here. Shanah Tovah!

Joshua Bell transfers childhood recordings

Last week, we had the honor of digitizing a collection of childhood tapes for world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell. The collection included audio and video of Bell performing at as young as six years old. Dubway engineer Merter Yildrim made sure the transfer and digitizing process completed smoothly.

Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904) - Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 (1879) 1. Allegro ma non troppo (00:34) 2. Adagio ma non troppo (10:48) 3. Allegro giocoso, m...

In case you’d like a refresher on Bell’s playing, here’s an excellent recent performance with the Bamburg Symphony Orchestra of Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A Minor (Op. 53).

Black Circle Symphony streams live from the Mezzanine

Bandleader and percussionist Ras Ujimma (left) of Black Circle Symphony. Picture courtesy the artist’s Instagram (@blackcirclesymphony).

This past week, Dubway’s largest room became an impromptu venue to host reggae group Black Circle Symphony for a livestream concert–the first one we’ve hosted in our Mezzanine studio since the pandemic moved all concerts online. The eight-piece group played an uplifting 30-minute set, tracked live through our SSL 4064 G+ Series console, with the band’s engineer Alex Elsammak mixing and Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois assisting.

In preparing for the livestream, the band set out to sound just like they do on record. With a band of this size and musicianship, it follows that the engineering quickly became quite involved, using absolute heaps of outboard equipment and mixing from the board to both a recording computer and a separate streaming computer with an additional independent gain stage. Take a look at the pictures below to see the outboard rack and several extra sets of preamps set up and ready for the stream (left), and the corresponding patch on the console’s patchbay (right).

You can also check out a live video from the session at Alex Elsammak’s Instagram (behind the image of the Mezzanine’s console), and catch Black Circle Symphony at their Instagram (linked above) where they announce upcoming live shows.

"The Late Late Show With James Corden" hosts Jeremy Zucker pre-production in the Mezzanine

Jeremy Zucker in the Mezzanine’s live room. Courtesy the artist’s Instagram (@jeremyzucker).

We were thrilled to be involved with a recent episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, in collaboration with our sister studio in LA, Dubway West. Our Manhattan facility’s Mezzanine studio served as a pre-production facility for the musical guest of Corden’s show on August 18th, the Spotify-dominating singer and songwriter Jeremy Zucker.

You can see the live performance of Zucker’s “Supercuts” on the show here, and stream the album mix of the song here. And if you want to go deeper, there’s a making-of “Supercuts” available, too.

Mixing in Red with Jack Tracy

Tour de force musician, actor, and producer (and more) Jack Tracy has been dug in in our Red Room this past month, mixing an album in a slightly different way than the average mix session. While most musicians would direct the engineer creatively, Tracy and his production company Necessary Outlet have instead opted to treat the sessions as instructional mixes, in which Dubway engineers help instruct Tracy on the technical aspects as they mix his tracks together. Studio engineers Violette Furton and Russell Castiglione have been pairing with Tracy on this recent collection of songs, many of which have been recorded in-house as well.

To facilitate learning in a practical way, the studios have set up the control room’s computer as an identical mixing environment to the in-the-box setup Tracy has on his laptop. Everything from the DAW to the plugins are the same that he uses at home, except that it runs on the studio machine (and through our studio monitor chain). This means that everything that Tracy’s learning in the studio is directly transferrable to his at-home mixes. For the producer learning to mix with the technical ear of an experienced engineer, you’d be hard pressed to find a better way to quickly improve the quality of your mixes.

Check out more of Jack Tracy’s work at the link above, and stay tuned for new music soon!

Silvana Chu records Schubert in the Mezzanine

Mezzo-soprano Silvana Chu brought the lovely sounds of Schubert’s “Ave Maria” to the Mezzanine. With Dubway engineer Zach Grappone at the boards, Chu breezed through the session, getting smoothly through one of Schubert’s most famous works. Chu recorded both video and music during this session, something we are always happy to offer for artists who need material for future potential reels, applications, or other documentation purposes.

Silvana Chu has performed all over the world and with some of the most prestigious ensembles, in some of the city’s (and world’s) great concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, The Lincoln Center, and more. You can listen to Chu’s voice at the above link, where you can also find press and contact info.

Engineer Zach Grappone and Mezzo-soprano Silvana Chu hard at work at the SSL.

Fort Tryon Park Trust records jazz quartet for 85th anniversary celebration

Fort Tryon Park Trust recently celebrated their 85th anniversary with a filmed recording of a jazz quartet, playing in the namesake park. Longtime Dubway friend Chris Piazza of PanopticonNYC collaborated with us again to capture the performance, with Piazza filming and Dubway engineer Zach Grappone handling the location recording.

It was a beautiful day for the recording, as evidenced by the photos! A great band, great location, and a great day for it–you can’t ask for much better than that. Happy 85th, Fort Tryon Park!

"It's A Tough Time To Be A Street Musician With A 900-Pound Piano"

Photo courtesy September Dawn Bottoms via The New York Times.

Colin Huggins, a Dubway client we love, just got a write up in the Times. Huggins is a street piano performer who plays a heavy Steinway (of the piece’s title) in Washington Square Park, and we’ve been fortunate to work with him on some of his previous albums of original music.

Like almost all musicians and performers, street musicians are acutely suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic, and the article is a moving and sometimes bleak look into the life of a performing musician during COVID.

You can listen to Huggins’ music here, or send a donation here.

John Morton records strings in the Mezzanine

John Morton, courtesy newmusicusa.org.

Composer John Morton, whose manipulation of music boxes, use of natural spaces, and large-scale installation works have earned him press from NPR and The New York Times, returned to our Mezzanine studio last month for a spirited session of strings and real-time electronic processing.

Morton is a lifelong musician with a curious ear for new sounds. His studies began under composer David Sheinfeld, and later continued at the California Institute of the Arts under Morton Subotnick and Lucky Mosko. Morton’s work has been described as being in dialogue with other 20th century instrument manipulators like Conlon Nancarrow and John Cage.

Dubway engineer Russell Castiglione monitored the board as Morton and his players created the sound-world of the piece, routing the string instruments into Morton’s laptop for real-time processing using Max/MSP, a ubiquitous tool for sound artists and composers looking for live electronic manipulation of sounds (and video, and just about every other conceivable form of data).

Check out some photos from the session below, and stay tuned for an upcoming release!

“SongCraft Presents: Dom Flemons” named official selection of 15th Annual Macon Film Festival

Buy "Good Old Days": Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1nT5hOjxcKRIIXdmbgRbXR?si=wXvvIsw3QkC1vroJg-sg7A Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KLY98Q2/re...

EMMY-nominated PBS series SongCraft Presents‘ most recent episode included a significant amount of material produced and recorded at Dubway, and we’re thrilled to announce that Good Old Days has been named an official selection of the 15th Annual Macon Film Festival!

The episode deals with the controversial history of Emmett Miller, a blackface-minstrelsy musician who was extremely influential to the sound of country music–specifically Merle Haggard and outlaw country–in the 20th century. The titular song, “Good Old Days,” was written by the show’s host Ben Arthur and noted songwriter Dom Flemons (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), and recorded in Macon’s Grand Opera House. You can read more about Flemons’ feelings on the legacy of Emmett Miller on The American Songster’s site here.

This episode was produced in collaboration with Dubway Studios, who’ve enjoyed a long relationship with the always-interesting Ben Arthur and his myriad projects. Dubway engineers recorded the music on-location, as well as the production audio used throughout the film.

Congratulations to all involved, and best of luck at the festival!

Rho & The Nomads take over the Mezz for a (masked) recording

Provided to YouTube by CDBaby Flesh & Blood · Rho · The Nomads Flesh & Blood ℗ 2018 Rho & the Nomads Released on: 2018-09-11 Auto-generated by YouTube.

Local reggae and soul outfit Rho & The Nomads recently donned masks and spread out in our Mezzanine studio for an all-day showcase of horns and guitar tracking. Recordings were led by Dubway engineer Russell Castiglione on the boards, and produced by bandleader Rho in the control room.

We’ve loved working with Rho and the band, who are always a joy to have in the studio. You can check out Rho & The Nomads summery cut “Flesh & Blood”, above, and stay tuned for new music!

Richard Kogan finishes new piece with producer Thomas Mowrey

Dr. Richard Kogan with a bracing image of the great Leonard Bernstein.

Acclaimed performer, psychiatrist, and lecturer Richard Kogan returned to Dubway this past month for work on the new video presentation of one of his celebrated lecture-recitals, which is now out and viewable below!

Pianist and psychiatrist Dr. Richard Kogan explores the connection between Leonard Bernstein's mind and his music and performs selections from West Side Stor...

Dr. Kogan and his longtime producer-collaborator Thomas Mowrey–an extraordinary classical producer with a long career at Deutsche Grammaphon and Decca–have created a series of these visual documents with the Dubway team, which transport the viewer into Kogan’s engrossing lecture-recitals on the psychology of famous composers in the Western art-music canon. This edition focused on Leonard Bernstein’s life and works, with a particular interest in West Side Story. Dubway editor and engineer Pascal McGilvray-Guard helmed the video editing; staff engineer Keenan DuBois led the audio post-production and mix.

Dr. Kogan has presented his programs on the psychological origins of musical creativity at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and Rockefeller University, in New York. 

Dr. Kogan presenting to a packed house at Rockefeller University.

Dave Soldier's "Zajal" receives praise

Longtime Dubway-affiliated artist, composer, and all-around excellent musician Dave Soldier recently put out the excellent album Zajal on his Mulatta Records imprint, available here. And here’s an entertaining sample.

Soldier’s album is a massive ensemble affair, recorded with Dubway engineers Sam Palumbo and Diego Demarco and painstakingly overdubbed and assembled with a cast of skilled and adventurous musicians too long to list here.

Reviews for Zajal, which help do it more justice than we can, can be found here, here, and here.

“A fusion listen of the highest degree, Soldier has dabbled in countless genres in lengthy career, including blues, R&B and punk, but here he’s outdone himself on the first truly fascinating record of 2020 where klezmer, flamenco and Greek ideas, to name a few, are part of inimitable formula.“

Congratulations to Dave and the many many players and personnel involved!