Cookie's Corner - #192 - What does Queen, The Cars and Devo have in common? My tribute to a master
From Cookie Marenco - Founder and Producer Blue Coast Records and Music
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Roy Thomas Baker, Rest in Peace
I knew his name. I knew his productions. Not in my wildest dreams did I think I’d meet him, let alone get to know him. Sure, I had heard the stories of his demanding nature in the studio from friends who had worked with him but to me, he was just a nice guy who became a friend 3 days of the year for a few years.
Roy Thomas Baker passed away earlier this month. I was very sad to hear this news. Here’s a link to the LA Times Obituary, if you’re interested. Below is my encounter(s) with him… a lovely man and brilliant producer.
Twenty years ago The Recording Academy held its first meeting with producers and engineers who worked in surround sound. There were about 30 of us (me being the only woman) from all genres of music who had albums in surround. We became the first voting members of the new category now called “Immersive Sound”. The Blue Coast Collection was my claim to the invitation.
Over a 3 day period we all listened and voted on more than 200 albums. The Blue Coast Collection made it into the top 10, I’ve been told, which was quite an honor. You can hear the surround version on the SACD.
Always present at this event were Al Schmitt, Elliot Scheiner, George Massenburg, Ed Cherney and Chuck Ainlay - masters of audio engineers. The Fantastic Five. They were friends and the rest of us like gawking kids around them.
But in year two, a funny thing happened. This man with long white hair came to the event. Nobody talked to him and he ended up sitting near the rear speakers where I liked to sit. We used to joke about what sound ended up in the left rear speaker. No one sat with him during lunch, so I sat and chatted with him.
By day three I figured out he was Roy Thomas Baker. We bonded over a mutual friend, Brain, who at the time was in Guns N Roses and RTB was producing the band. We both loved Brain’s playing (yes, the same Brain that ends up on many of my tenderly recorded Blue Coast Records albums…. and the Qua Continuum ambient music). What a small world!
Year Three of surround meetings brought us all together again. The Fantastic Five, RTB and many others. Once again RTB and I sat in the back making fun of the left rear speaker, had lunch every day together to share stories and once again, no one else seemed to want to talk to him.
RTB was kind of a shy man in this setting. It compelled me to embrace his friendship so he could have a good time like the rest of us. I had the feeling that he had more material wealth than all of us put together and maybe he intimidated his peers. My having worked at Windham Hill with a history of jazz and acoustic music, I didn’t really know all the amazing music he produced until much later.
Now 20 years have passed. Al and Ed are gone. Now RTB is gone. Masters of sound making amazing recordings. I am so lucky to have met, laughed, learned and create memories with them. Sharing these memories with you reminds me how lucky I’ve been. Thank you for reading!
Digging through the archives of live recordings you find amazing music!
As we were looking for new music to give to our Blue Coast Records subscribers, we found some incredible performances. All recorded live at OTR Studios (my studio) to DSD. The album Spirits is a great example of a recording session we had put aside for more than 10 years. Legends of jazz - Art Lande, Paul McCandless and Bruce Williamson create tonal experiences you won’t hear anywhere else.
https://bluecoastmusic.com/art-paul-bruce/spirits
It’s also available on Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, etc.
A few weeks ago we found a recording of John R Burr (piano) and Keith Greeninger (one of our favorite singers) in our DSD vault from 2018. If you’re a paid subscriber to Blue Coast Records’ substack, it’s now available in its full version in a previous newsletter. Or you can join here and have another opportunity in May to download it.
Join for a month and you’ll get access to a lot of previously unreleased tracks as well. Sorry, it’s not a subscription to Cookie’s Corner (this newsletter) it’s a different one.
The song is called These Days by Jackson Browne. We caught a tender moment of reflection that had me burst into tears as I was listening to it. Here’s a tease of the first 45 seconds or so.
Thanks for reading, sharing and caring.
Have a wonderful day!
Cookie Marenco
Founder and Producer Blue Coast Records and Blue Coast Music
From past newsletters…..
Can you hear the difference?
The above photo is Jenna Mammina doing an impression of John R Burr at a recording session. Do we have fun? Oh, yeah!
OTR Studios (my studio) has to compete and blend with what most engineers are using so we maintain several different PCM digital audio workstations along with several DSD workstations, including the Sonoma system and the Pyramix.
For my label, Blue Coast Records, we record live performances to DSD 256 on the Pyramix system. I always choose emotional impact over perfection. The nice thing is you don’t have to give up quality of sound for a great performance.
Do I really own a hip hop label?
No…. no… no…. Google AI got it wrong.
Thank you, Dad! Gone but never forgotten….
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