In these days of endless plugins and synthetic sounds, sometimes having the real thing can mean all the difference in the world.  If orchestral is the sound you’re going for on your recording it can often seem ridiculously impossible to organize people, record the parts and absorb all the costs.  Christian Howes String Productions attempts to offer remote recording of strings and orchestral arrangements at a very affordable price.

by Todd Thomas, July 28, 2010.

Read full post here.

John Presley recently featured our production efforts in his Music Composer Blog after we recorded strings on a piece composed by his collaborator Tyler Vahldick.

Read his blog and listen to the song, here.

An excerpt:

I highly recommend using Christian on your next string project. This really shows the possibilities for creating music around the world, using technology not just to make music faster and cheaper – but to make music that comes to life with the spirit of collaboration.  Being able to write a piece and put it in the hands of professionals makes the creation process a lot more fun!

Read more…

 

 

 

 

For those of you who don’t know him, Richard Bona is one of the most admired voices on electric bass today, having played with Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Bobby McFerrin, and a wide range of stars in the jazz world. He’s also an amazing singer, originally from Cameroon, and now living in NYC for more than 15 years. I’ve had the pleasure to record with him several years ago on my good friend, D. D. Jackson’s record, “Anthem” for the former major label, RCA Victor (an album which also included James Carter and Jack Dejohnette.)

Besides being an amazing pianist, composer, and producer, D.D. Jackson also maintains an excellent regular column called Living Jazz which has been published for years by Downbeat magazine and can be found at D.D.’s website:
www.ddjackson.com

In the past few years I’ve had the chance to perform with Richard at the Blue Note, Iridium, and on tour with Bill Evans’ Soulgrass band. But this was a real special honor to be invited to play on Richard’s latest album, “Ten Shades of Blue”. On one song I contributed bluegrass-esque colors and textures, and on another song I contributed a 20-piece string section. Check out the recent review of the album on All About Jazz here:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34649