While we all celebrate the holidays differently, one constant in my household is the arrival of Christmas songs at a constant low murmur, announcing the beginning of December.
A lot of these older songs, from artists like Brenda Lee, Dean Martin, Eartha Kitt and Nat “King” Cole are from a time when a big band (both literally and as a genre) played together, live and in a room. While there’s a few key sonic elements at play here (Neumann U47s being accessible and plentiful, vacuum tubes powering the equipment used to record and world-class rooms like Abbey Road (then EMI), Capitol Studios and RCA), these recordings also have a sense of space, humanity and community to them.
The bleed between microphones helps us discern the distance between players, as well as a lead vocal that was often sung live in the room. Twenty takes into a session and the band would really be finding their groove, settling into their seats with their friends besides them, as well as general Christmas cheer filling the room, and I thin
