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Recording Melodeon at Church of the Epiphany, NYC
Last Friday, I recorded Melodeon, a chamber ensemble that specializes in American music from the 19th century, at The Church of the Epiphany in New York City. I used three Nikon HDSLR cameras and only Earthworks microphones in a stereo pair and as spot microphones, all time aligned. I will be working on it all…
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PhD Student Whitney Slaten Organizes IASPM-US Panel of Columbians
Columbia was well repesented in the panel discussion orgaized by Ethnomusicology PhD Student Whitney Slaten at the 2015 annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US) in Louisville last week. The title of the panel was “Representing Labor in Digital Media: Radio, Records and Live Performance” and it represented an extension…
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Live Recording of John-Carlos Perea’s Creation Story
As a recordist for The Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, I recorded John-Carlos Perea’s performance of “Prayer” and “Don’t Cry” at the Center’s 2012 Native Sounds, North and South Conference and Performance Series. I am honored that John-Carlos chose to include these live recordings in his “Creation Story” album, released this year. The following is…
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Faders, Engineers and Genres
I was invited to present a research paper entitled, “Faders, Engineers and Genres: Mixing Live Music in New York City” at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, in association with the Africana Studies Department of Oberlin College. The following is an excerpt from the paper: “I have chosen to focus on the relatively inconspicuous social encounters between…
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Mix Engineer for This Little Light of Mine
I had the distinct honor of mixing Courtney Bryan’s 2010 self released album entitled, “This Little Light of Mine” at the AM Studios in New York City. ProTools was the primary digital audio station that I used for the mix, as well as the use of strategic automation of parameters such as EQ and pan in conjunction…
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Whitney Slaten Records with Clark Terry and Louis Bellson
I am thankful to have performed on a second album with Clark Terry, and my first with Louie Bellson entitled, “Louie & Clark Expedition 2.” The recording session took place at Clinton Recording Studios in New York City. Hearing all of the stories and being so close to expert musicianship in one room was inspiring. My tenor…
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Whitney Slaten Records with Clark Terry
As a tenor saxophonist in Clark Terry’s Young Titans of Jazz Big Band, I performed during a six night engagement at the International Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland in 2004. With members of the Count Basie Orchestra in the audience, we recorded during two nights of the festival. These performances comprise the 2005 release entitled,…
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Whitney Slaten Remembers Babatunde Olatunji
I performed with Babatunde Olatunji at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California during a week of drum workshops and a performance on the final day during the summer of 2002 before his passing in 2003. I spent a lot of one on one time talking with Baba about his life, West African musical aesthetics,…
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Whitney Slaten Performs with Babatunde Olatunji
I had the great honor of performing with Babatunde Olatunji and his band at Sounds of Brazil (SOBs) in New York City for their annual Kwanzaa celebration. We were also joined by Miriam Makeba.
Got any book recommendations?