WARM sessions: February 11, 1969*

It's "Sa Marina", the Brazilian title to the song we know as "Pretty World".
 
This should confirm once and for all the Warm sessions had a mix of musicians Some of the TJB touring members and some session men based on past threads and discussions concerning the different style and sound of the album for example I see Russell bridges name in there( aka Leon Russell) and Trumpeter Ollie Mitchell listed I think he might have played on Zazueira. In the backing horn section ( just a guess on my part) at least this should give us a partial idea of who played on the sessions
 
It doesn't make any sense for "Close to You" to be recorded during these sessions, unless there was a tracking session for horns on that track that was lost somewhere in all the tapes Herb got from A&M after the buyout. Nobody is going to pay a large group of musicians to sit around and twiddle thumbs while only a couple of attendees record a small combo piece. This could be a version that never saw light of day; the track on Lost Treasures could be a demo. One could argue that it was recorded before/after the horn players arrived but again, all musicians listed on the contract are credited to all three tracks; a separate contract would likely have been used for a subset of musicians for any tracking earlier/later than this horn session. This isn't anything strange--it's standard operating procedure in recording studios.
 
I think there were probably all kinds of layers of horns and instruments that were not used on the LOST TREASURES version. That is, they may habe been recorded, but stripped from that final version.
 
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It's possible, but the LT version always sounded like a demo to me. Too rough and choppy. Removing other parts from the recording would presume they still had access to the multitracks--I would think they still had them, but given there are dozens if not hundreds of tapes, it would take a lot of digging to find them. Since this was recorded at A&M and not Gold Star, I believe they were up to 8 tracks at A&M's studio vs. the 3-track configuration all the earlier TJB albums were recorded on.

So there could be a lot more "lost treasures" we haven't heard yet... 😁
 
Great to see a recording contract. As we know, a myriad number of different musicians were used for TJB studio recordings. I had assumed Herb played trumpet on every single recording tract. I guessed wrong per the contract showing only Chaikin and Mitchell on trumpet for these songs.
 
@lj This was just a tracking session. Given this was a multitrack production, parts can be added or re-recorded at any time. It's not uncommon for a band to lay down basic tracks (like a demo), then record new parts to replace them. Then at a later time, horns, strings, etc. may be added. Herb may not have recorded his parts until the rest of the recording was finished. Earlier in the 60s, the studio captured more or less a live performance, as they had only two or three tracks to work with. There were still instances of parts added at later times in those days (like Chris Montez's vocals on "Call Me", or even Herb's "A Taste of Honey," where they bounced the existing three-track recording down to a single track on another three-track machine so they could add more parts), but multitrack changed it to where the production could be built a piece at a time, easily, without bouncing and without worrying about replacing an entire rhythm section on one track vs. having each player assigned to their own track.

I also don't know how the union contract works. Herb did play on recordings, and no doubt had a union connection himself. Yet since he was the one who hired the musicians for each project, being on the union contract for a session might have been akin to him paying himself for his own work. Having not seen other contracts of this sort, I don't know if he would be listed or not. But logic kind of tells me that since Herb hired them, he is the entity that pays the musicians on the contract for their time.
 
I would be interested to see the recording contract and the names of the backup singers for "Zazueira". They were terrific and added an extra dimension to the song.
 
Me too.... at one time Steve S. posted a lot of listings of the participating musicians on the various TJB albums. I can't remember if he ever posted Warm session info or not. I always thought we should collect all of that info into one thread.
 
I always wondered if the vocalese on Flyin' High was the members of the BMB or someone else. It sounds to me like it might be the Tamba Four.
 
This doesn't sound like Tamba Trio to me. The Tamba 4 albums aren't their prime work either (aside from the anomaly of We and the Sea)--there were at least four prior albums where they did a lot more vocal work, which was one of their identifying characteristics. That and I've never seen them do backing vocals on anyone else's recordings, unless they were co-billed on the jacket. They also didn't operate in the same sphere as the L.A. studio musicians. (I don't even know if they were all living in the US or stayed in Brazil during that era, although Luiz Eça may have been up here since he was a sideman as a pianist on a few Brazilian recordings through the 60s.

My money is on this being the Baja members (use the in-house talent--it's cheaper) or less likely, hired studio singers.
 
Me too.... at one time Steve S. posted a lot of listings of the participating musicians on the various TJB albums. I can't remember if he ever posted Warm session info or not. I always thought we should collect all of that info into one thread.
Yes, he did post Warm session personnel listings. So, it's in the archives somewhere.
 
@lj This was just a tracking session. Given this was a multitrack production, parts can be added or re-recorded at any time. It's not uncommon for a band to lay down basic tracks (like a demo), then record new parts to replace them. Then at a later time, horns, strings, etc. may be added. Herb may not have recorded his parts until the rest of the recording was finished. Earlier in the 60s, the studio captured more or less a live performance, as they had only two or three tracks to work with. There were still instances of parts added at later times in those days (like Chris Montez's vocals on "Call Me", or even Herb's "A Taste of Honey," where they bounced the existing three-track recording down to a single track on another three-track machine so they could add more parts), but multitrack changed it to where the production could be built a piece at a time, easily, without bouncing and without worrying about replacing an entire rhythm section on one track vs. having each player assigned to their own track.

I also don't know how the union contract works. Herb did play on recordings, and no doubt had a union connection himself. Yet since he was the one who hired the musicians for each project, being on the union contract for a session might have been akin to him paying himself for his own work. Having not seen other contracts of this sort, I don't know if he would be listed or not. But logic kind of tells me that since Herb hired them, he is the entity that pays the musicians on the contract for their time.

Thanks, Rudy -- What you wrote is my understanding as well.

Years ago I had an opportunity to review copies of numerous vintage AFM contracts and Capitol Session Worksheets from the ill-fated Beach Boys' SMiLE project (MAY66--MAY67). The period is recognized as the most disjointed, unorganized, and fascinatingly creative time of Brian Wilson's musical career. There are obvious examples of discrepancies between the listed artists, their actual roles, and what was captured on the ensuing session tapes. The principal reason lay with the simple fact that once someone is called into a session the are obligated to get paid -- it's THE UNION after all -- whether they actually contribute or not; so, they're logged as a participant. To that point there was an example of a date where the beach boys were logged as tracking vocals; yet, no session tape was discovered. Another date was an orchestral session -- logged as an additional movement to a larger more detailed composition -- again no tapes could be found and no one could confirm that any such recording all the more took place. The Session Worksheets were even more troublesome: these were hand-written logs with content detail that was not consistent from log-to-log. At its best it mirrors and AFM (albeit with more musical information), at its worst it was simply a blank page with a song title and other boilerplate session ID info, yet devoid of any musicians' names. Specific to tracking sessions and reduction ("mix down") sessions, a decision can be made to simply not use previously "bought and paid for" musical contributions. Brian, who was the producer, had his own name frequently listed as a musician on the AFM contracts.

In the days of 2-, and 3-track recordings (up to about 1962) most recordings were more-or-less cut live -- or all the instruments together and then all the vocal tracked together (how the early R&R groups were typically recorded). By '63 the studios started using 4-tracks and by '66 it was increasingly common to link up two 4-tracks units or use the early 8-tracks.

One thing for sure, the combination of AFM contracts, session logs and actual session tapes should provide definitive aural confirmation regarding the who-what-where-when-and-how of it all. When most of the '60s TjB recordings were prepared for Shout! Factory CD release back in '05 many of us hoped that the content from the AFM contracts and session tape logs would have been mined for us "musical archivists"...but, alas, no soap. That Warm tracking session AFM contract is the only such TjB item I've seen. Of course there are AMFs and session logs for all the TjB dates, it remains unknown, however, as to why this information remains locked away from any of the reissues.
 
..... it remains unknown, however, as to why this information remains locked away from any of the reissues.
It could be the bean counters.

If I were writing liner notes, doing a bio on an artist is one thing. But to dig for information like that, I'd probably charge 3x-4x as much, just given how time consuming it is. That's where a record label might say, "Eh, only a few people care about that stuff."

And even then, as you say, their listing on a contract isn't a guarantee they performed on a piece of music. It's just a record of their appearing at the studio to work, and most likely getting paid even if they don't participate. After all, two hours sitting and playing music vs. two hours doing nothing is still consuming two hours of their time. Otherwise, they'd have taken another two hour gig to make money.
 
I always wondered if the vocalese on Flyin' High was the members of the BMB or someone else. It sounds to me like it might be the Tamba Four.

I'll bet it's the Baja guys. If you listen to the vocals on "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" it sounds like it could be the same voice, double-tracked. Although it could be the Sandpipers, too.... vocalizing like that is more about range than about the sound of the voice, I suppose.
 
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