An Exclusive From The Eddie Brinkmann Archives…Part 5
Aside from the Duke Ellington autograph, there is plenty more of interest on this show rundown sheet. Notice this is from Monday, February 23, 1970. This would be a day after the live show, and is probably day one of a two day schedule for a prerecorded show. In the 70’s, the show started to travel more and some home base shows had to be done in advance. This looks like camera blocking day and with Edward Villella and Peter Gennaro (both dancer/choreographers) there will more than likely be dance troupes involved. Notice at the bottom of the page the orchestra prerecording sessions at Media Sound Studios. The Muppets would probably go ahead and lay down their vocal parts to be played back, but with Peggy Lee and Dionne Warwick, they would only be recording the music, back up voices and effects but not the lead vocals. Someone mentioned here a few weeks back that they thought Sullivan allowed lip syncing, but I do not think that was ever the case. Bands and singers would at times record their music and backing vocals, but I’m pretty sure Ed demanded that they sing the lead live. Only in rare cases when there was some kind of effect on a well known recording that was difficult to duplicate live were acts allowed to use a recorded lead track. In the ’69, Rolling Stones last appearance, they played and sang “Gimmie Shelter” live, but a click track had Mary Clayton’s backing vocals. Even Bing Crosby with the flu had to sing “White Christmas” live one year late in his career.
That’s awful…about the music. One of the reasons I’m a musician today is because in my day, the music was live (the Petrillo era).
My late father once shipped a Steinway to an island for Duke Ellington to perform on in the `60’s.
It apparently was the only brand he would play at the time.
It was for an IBM or Xerox trade show of which he wrote, produced and directed many.
The piano was then sold to the hotel which hosted the event. As it was cheaper than shipping it back.
They used to send my father and copies of the script on separate planes. As he had entire shows as he’d written them in his head. And if either plane went down, they’d still have a show. The content was always kept secret so as to completely surprise the captive audience.
My mother still cannot watch “Mad Men” to this day because she lived it.
Odd that choreographer Peter Gennaro would be needed at an orchestra pre-record. Note also that the address given is for the stage door of studio 50.
Val, the reason they recorded the music was to provide better quality audio for the TV audience. This wasn’t done to slight the musicians in any way. In fact, it made their performances much better than they would have been otherwise.
In the 1980’s I went to a Christmas party at what once was MediaSound. At the time, it was a club called ‘Le Bar Bat’. The site was originally a Baptist church. It is a spectacular space. http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_mediasound_studios/