John Philip Shenale

TORI AMOS ON LETTERMAN TONIGHT DEC 10th

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:36:00 +0000

Performing "Pink and Glitter" with Big Band, Jon Evans on upright bass .
Arrangement par moi.

Questions about the Hammond organ.

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:45:00 +0000

From Matt Laz

Why did you use different models of Hammonds in ATTS? whats the difference between them?

JPS

The folks at Hammond Organ Co. were incredibly research oriented:

http://www.nycfarmboy.com/hammonds6/hammonds6.html

http://www.captain-foldback.com/Hammond_sub/a100.htm

http://www.hammond-organ.com/Museum/solovox.htm

they were incredible prolific... See More

http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/HammondPatents

I've used all of these with Tori.

Each has a different basis of sound production and as result different sound , The s6 can produce chords but based on many concepts of the monophonic solovox.

see:

http://www.johnphilipshenale.com/2009/05/tori-amos-under-pink-wrong-band.html

TORI AMOS "Star Of Wonder" notes

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:22:00 +0000

When i first heard Tori's interpretion of a handful of christmas songs and her elaboration's and original comps , i was in tears!!!
Tori had dug into original text and melody, she created her own harmonic structures and she stamped them her own!!!!

Our thoughts when arranging these beauties on MG>

The influence of historical lyrics and melody, coupled with Instruments from the East, Europe and Africa , are all about the origins of the "christ" philosophies ,, be it from
Pagan (mythrisism), Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism (Krishna), Islam (Muhammad),
Buddhism (Bodhisattva) or Animism .

These "Christ's" were humanities first steps in the realization that humans may be individually worth a damn and maybe able to transcend the chaos of a finale demise by wolf, automobile or even natural causes.

Star of Wonder is a great synthesis of these concepts
The intro uses the Turkish cumbus and strings into Matt's and Jon's superb medieval/mideasten groove
The Cumbus is not only a great instrument but so connected with the Turkish freedom movement and modernism of the 20th century . read
http://www.rootsworld.com/turkey/cumbus.html

Tori summons the perfect fusion of her wurly and melody , for a call and answer from the strings in eastern style.
Leading to the West in the symphonic interpretation of the Choruses and the Out Choruses bring both together.

I kept thinking, Sergei Prokofiev's, Alexander Nevsky, with out the conflict,
and the russian orthodox replaced by the middle east.
Ya that might seem a stretch but it made sense to me. LOL
SO THERE U HAVE IT
oh and for further listening
my favs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Nevsky_%28Prokofiev%29
fav examples of call and response in Middle Eastern music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warda_Al-Jazairia

SOME PHOTOS OF WILLY DEVILLE RECORDS PISTOLA

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:50:00 +0000

PISTOLA

MASTERING AT CAPITOL

MY FAV SYNTHS

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:35:00 +0000

Well as far as MY FAV SYNTHS
Analogue - i would say OB SEM 8-voice, pictured to the left,
this is one of the few pics that i have of it assembled LOL,
The OB8, OBSx, Mini Moog picture below , Memory Moog. Yamaha CS80 EML 101 picture above
As far a HYBRIDS -Wave PPG, and OB Xpander OSCAR, and PROPHET VS .
For FM , - SYNCLAV
For Pure Digi , ALL of the Nords.
As far as Samplers In hardware , i must say the first EIII , using analogue filters though limited in memory and architecture , has great mids and is fat, also
the filters will go into feedback and peak in a way only Analogue filts can do.

TORI AMOS Abnormally Attracted To Sin "Fast Horse"

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:34:00 +0000

For me "Fast Horse" is a serious mix
of rock and roots , indigenous folk and prog music.

I think that Tori shows one of her numerous talents in this song
that has rarely been discussed.
I guess I would call it metric elision and expansion.
It is common in folk music, that chord lengths are changed to suit the words,
because we normally have one player and that person is singing .
The performer can easily change the chord lengths or duration
to suit the words , any time they wish .

But Tori will remove beats in the middle of a bar, and in the middle
of the phrase , to suit her lyrics, along with the end of a phrase.
And she makes it flow and we love it.
Its very difficult to make this type of elision sound natural ,
But she does it effortlessly.
The challenge is for the rest of us, playing with her, to be just as effortless. LOL

As mentioned in a previous post
I used these beauties:
Chamberlin Acoustic Piano Bank on the intros
Chamberlin Viola Bank
Optigan Violins Bank
Mellotron Viola and Flute (samples)
plus a few sythn bits.

And finally the Hammond A100 ( in the pix),
in the bridges and in the end.

I just love this song,
Tori's vocal and lyrics
Her piano ,and the way it rises up thru the chorus
with those great chords
And every ones performance,
THE WHOLE TRACK ROCKS!!! ........IMHO

TORI AMOS Under The Pink "The Wrong Band"

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:14:00 +0000

While working on the album , Under the Pink,
Tori came to my studio to work on the "Wrong Band ".
"Whimsical" is how i would describe our approach. And the Hammond S6 Chord Organ
Is what came to mind. Its an organ that your grandmother , no your great grandmother would
love in her living room. All vacuum tube .
Not spinning tone wheels like on a larger Hammond.
Barely polyphonic, I absolutely love this instrument .
It sounds like an instrument that Nino Rota would have designed.
The Solina String Machine, sold by ARP,
is great when you want underachieving string sounds!!!
And the way it plays , its envelope , etc, is superb.

As i am writing this , I am listening to the "Wrong Band " , and have realized that
there is and instrument not credited,
The Yamaha CS 80 synth. One of the first polysynths from the late 70s.

Sorry for the stock pics , my CS 80 is in storage waiting to get revived.
It is a heavy (200+LBS) complex design, but creates a unique variety of sounds.
It provides the bass sound and chordal figure in the B sections.

TORI AMOS Abnormally Attracted To Sin OPTIGAN

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:57:00 +0000

In "Fast Horse"
I use an Optigan violin bank along with the Chamberlin.
The Optigan is an electromechanical device that
uses the modulation of a light beam to create sound.
The light passes through a spinning disk of transparent plastic, that has the waveforms
of both instruments and complete musical segments,
printed on one side. It resembles an optical track from old film technology in concentric rings, and sounds like it .The Optigan, Chamberlin and Mellotron, all have their own characteristic sound that they impart on the original source material. "Band-limited, Lower Fi , with noise" is how I would describe the sound in general.

TORI AMOS Abnormally Attracted To Sin CHAMBERLIN

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:00:00 +0000

This is my ancient Chamberlin c.1960-69
It has some unusual sounds not normally
associated with Chamberlins.
Acoustic Piano, Pizz Strings, and Mandolin.

The Chamberlin is an electromechanical device that
uses the modulation of a magnetic pickup to create sound.
A magnetic tape ( in this case 3/8 " wide) with 3 tracks
passes across a magnetic tape head.
The tape head is moved in order to access
one of the 3 instruments.
There are 7 banks of 3 instruments recorded on 35 tapes
each with its own tape head, actuated by 35 keys.

I used the Chamberlin on:
"Strong Black Vine"
Cello and Violin + Mellotron samples of same.
"That Guy"
Cello and Vibes
"Fast Horse"
Ac. Piano, Viola, Violin, Flute

TORI AMOS Abnormally Attracted To Sin "Strong Black Vine"

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:17:00 +0000

SBV IS all about conflict IMO
Both lyrically and sonically
I arranged the Chamberlin, synths and Hammond
to weave between the rhythm section
with out stomping on their bizness.
And in the chorus to add to the "frenzy".
All with out "stomping on Tori's voice
but still creating xchange and conflict.

There are many inspirations for SBVs orchestration and intro melody:
Warda_Al-Jazairia (algerian singer , born in France)
Umm Kulthum ( egyptian singer) .
The Yard birds - "Heart Full of Soul"and "Over Under Sideways Down".
Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir".
Paul McCartney "Live and Let Die".
The Royal Macadamians , (my band on Island Records)
"Live From the Nasserdome".
And the Egyptian cinema in general.

Concerning the Kashmir Reference
Considering that this LZ opus (with its lifted clones)
is one of the few examples (maybe a handful or so)
of "eastern style" + rock fusions that have "mainstream" visibility ,
I guess it's understandable that some could think "Kashmir".

BTW
These modern Arabic singers are amazing too:

Assala Nasry (Syria)

Katia Farah ( Lebanon)
Mayada Al Hinawi (Syria)

Mac Aladdin - EG
Jon Evans - bass
Matt Chamberlin- Drums

TORI AMOS Abnormally Attracted To Sin "Maybe California"

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:22:00 +0000

MAYBE CALIFORNIA

Instrumentation-
Tori Amos- Bosey

JPS
String octet consisting of
4- Violins, 2- Violas, 2- Cellos

I love how immediate Tori's voice and lyric are.
The strings provide the role of a second voice.
At various moments, echo, support or chorus
Sometimes just an emotion.
Mac's addition of his EG in the chorus is the perfect spice
The whole song is naked and present and plays like
it's happening in real time.

Mac Aladdin - EG
Jon Evans - bass
Matt Chamberlin- Drums

TORI AMOS Abnormally Attracted To Sin "That Guy"

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:38:00 +0000

This is the first installment about AATS.
I'll also post on http://www.myspace.com/johnphilipshenale
with some pics.

THAT GUY
Instrumentation-

Tori Amos- Bosey

JPS
Wurlitzer model 200 electric piano.
( Tori has an older model which i absolutely love).
We believed it once belonged to Country Joe and the Fish.
Chamberlin vibes.
Chamberlin flutes.
French Horns ala sampler.
Sounds that I created thru granular processes
for the ambient string sounds.
Live string octet entering at the modulation and playing to the end.
4- Violins, 2- Violas, 2 Celli

Mac Aladdin - EG - Back beat (60's style)
Jon Evans - Bass
Matt Chamberlin- Drums

I love the dramatic and subversive combination of Tori's voice and lyrics, and progression of the orchestration from the start ,thru the mod, to the fin.
I see it less stage and more film (60's)
But then again the modern musical has been jumping the fence in the last 3 decades.
So i guess maybe its both.
Listen to :
Sunday in the Park with George
and
The Light in the Piazza

Both are good mashups of modern classical, film and stage.

Fans of JPS.........

noreply@blogger.com (John Philip Shenale) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:45:00 +0000

So.......there it is.....blog all ready for posts........

Send Phil some pithy comments.....