Chapter 6: Ravel’s Favorite Chord Was a B-Minor Add 9

When the van carrying the band and their equipment pulled up to Charlie’s, they were met at the door by an older woman.

“Welcome!” she said, “Charlie asked me to meet you and bring you all up to the studio.

“I’m Karen Small, and I teach voice, which is how I know Charlie.”

Sid looked at her curiously, “Are you supposed to teach us how to sing, or something?”

“I guess it is the ‘or something’.” She laughed, “I teach voice to aspiring opera singers. Come in, and let’s go up to the studio. Just leave your equipment here in the great room for now. You can get it later.”

Sid and the members of the band followed Karen up to the third floor.

When they entered the studio area, they saw a wall with Grammy awards, and albums that had hit sales levels, lined up, hanging on a wall. Their collective jaws dropped at the sight.

Linda, the bass player, whispered to Sid, “You didn’t tell us about these!”

“We didn’t come up here the other night, honest. I didn’t know about them.”

They approached the recording room, where they could see a sound engineer operating the equipment. It was a very modern, complete board, entirely digital, instead of the old sliders and knobs to control the recording process.

Further in, beyond the second set of glass windows, they could see Charlie playing a grand piano, along with a cellist, a violin and a viola, and finally a singer. There were mics all over the room recording the musicians.

Karen went up to the window and flipped a switch to allow the women to listen in to the recording taking place.

They listened for a minute, when Heather, the keyboard player, recognized the song.

“Isn’t that music that Julia Roberts was listening to in the movie, ‘Pretty Woman’?”

“Yes, good ear and memory. What do you play?”

Heather lightly blushed, “I’m the keyboard player,” she admitted.

Karen nodded, “Yes. That is ‘Un bel di, vedremo’, an aria from Madama Butterfly by Puccini. Very famous, and I think, when well sung, makes almost everyone cry.

“It is one of a selection of Puccini arias that this group is recording. Charlie brought them together. Do you recognize the soprano, Melissa Bretton? She was one of the finalists on one of the big national talent shows. The string players are a famous string trio out of San Francisco, and of course there is Charlie. This recording will very likely be a wildly popular best-selling album — by classical music standards!”

She laughed, “Of course, it will only sell a small percent of the albums you do with Charlie. But it will probably earn him another Grammy. He does albums like this one to keep his hand in the classical music world.

“I teach Melissa. Obviously, her voice is already outstanding, so I work with her more on the nuances of interpretation and help her learn the standard repertoire.”

After the explanation, everyone went silent, just listening to the beautiful music.

Soon they were finished for the day. The string players were packing away their instruments. Melissa was standing just behind Charlie and they were both looking at a music score on the music stand of the piano. She had her hands on Charlie’s shoulders while she stood there. Then they stopped and Charlie and Melissa walked out of the recording room, she tight against his chest, and he, with his arm around her waist.

When they emerged into the outer room, Melissa gave Charlie a chaste kiss and then bid him goodbye as she left with Karen.

Charlie turned and walked over to Sid and her compatriots to greet them.

Sid had watched his interaction with Melissa and was frankly feeling a bit jealous and hurt.

He shook hands with each of Sid’s band members, calling each by their name, letting them know he remembered each of them. When he came to Sid, he looked at her eyes and how her face had hardened.

He quietly told her, “You and I will talk privately later, Okay? Now, we need to get to work.”

The next couple of hours were spent with the band, getting to know how Charlie’s studio was set up and how to achieve the best sound for their music.

After that, they began to practice “The First Flower...” with the background music that Charlie had composed/arranged. He had made additional progress on the music in the past two days, and the band was impressed with the sound, in the studio, and even more when they heard the playback. The sound engineer, who Charlie used, was a true expert, taking what started as good music and making it even better. The multichannel recordings were also saved, so that any of the parts could be reused, or redone. Charlie’s studio had a very flexible system.

When they were finished, several of the women in the band had questions.

“Charlie? I had some theory in class,” asked Heather, “but how do you come up with some of the chords that you use? And how do you know when to substitute? I’d like to learn more about how you do that.”

“First, I have books as well as a PDF file on my computer, that shows most of the chords associated with any major or minor chord. I also have my own notes on what sounds I like. And if you look online, you’ll find a lot of people who teach about possible substitutions. Some of them even have online classes that you can take.”

“What are all these Grammy’s? I mean, who ever heard of a Grammy for ‘Best instrumental Arrangement for a Vocalist?” Linda, the bassist asked. She had been playing professionally for the shortest time.

Charlie laughed.

“There are about 100 different categories for just about everything, and that is after they’ve gotten rid of about 100 more categories! But mine are for composing, arranging, and for songs and albums that I either arranged, or arranged and produced. And I’ve gotten them for classical albums, pop songs — a bunch of things. But don’t get overwhelmed by them. Your band will probably get a couple for this album, like best new Country or Pop album, maybe a best song. Then you’ll have your own vanity wall!”

When it was time for the band to leave and go back to their rental house, Charlie asked Sid to stay a while, and told them that he would bring her back.

Sid was clearly still a little miffed at him. They went down to the first floor and sat down in two overstuffed chairs looking at each other.

“Sid, why are you unhappy? Not because of Melissa, is it?”

“Yes, it is. Two nights ago, I was naked in your spa, sleeping down the hall just waiting for you to knock in the door, and today, you are hugging and kissing some other woman RIGHT IN FRONT of me!”