Singer Susana Baca first came into listeners' consciousness in 1995, when she appeared on the album The Sound of Black Peru. This Afro-Peruvian anthology had come about after Luaka Bop Records head, David Byrne, saw a video of this remarkable singer in his Spanish class. After her first full length release, Susana Baca, Craig Street was brought in to produce the next record. Street had come into prominence for his productions of Cassandra Wilson, k.d.lang, Joe Henry, Meshell Ndegéocello and Holly Cole, and was a notable choice. The result, Eco de Sombras (Echo of Shadows), is a beautiful record where Ms. Baca's voice shines with the exceptional set of musicians cast to accompany her on traditional Afro-Peruvian songs and a few new ones. New York downtown musicians Marc Ribot, John Medeski and Greg Cohen with Ms. Baca's band, and even guest guitarist David Byrne, contribute to the rich, sultry atmosphere. Street, though, was probably more prepared than most for this kind of album project, which was scheduled to begin recording in Peru. Besides working with virtuoso vocalists, he's known for his handling of live remote recording. Chris Whitley's Dirt Floor comes to mind, recorded in one day at a house in Vermont.
Last Fall he was in New York, finishing his second album with Ms Baca, Espíritu Vivo. Those sessions, all live performances in a studio in front of an audience, were to be open to journalists and occur at Globe Studios. Unforeseen, the great tragedy and destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, changed those plans. I was to attend and had definitely thought they were cancelled and phoned the label to see when they would be rescheduled. I was told they had already happened. According to Jeff Kaye at Luaka Bop, "They did them. Susana Baca said that having lived in a Civil War for ten years in her homeland, and having lived with the effects of terrorism, she deeply felt that life needed to continue, and requested for the concerts and recording to continue. We didn't invite anybody but the closest friends of the participants, and they were done in darkness and absolute quiet."
How did you meet Susana Baca?
Craig Street: It actually came through the label. Through Yale Hablev, who runs Luaka Bop and does A&R. We had been talking for years about doing a project together and he would constantly call me up and say, "How about this artist, that artist," and we'd go through things. One day he called up, probably six to eight months before Eco De Sombras went into production, and asked if I was interested in working with Susana Baca. I had heard what she had done before and just adored her voice. I didn't really know anything about that style of music, but I liked what I heard. We kept trying to hook up, but that year was a particularly busy year for me. They finally said they'd fly me down to Lima for a couple of days to meet with her. I couldn't refuse that, and went down. We just hit it off instantly. I went to her house — they put me up. We hung out. We talked about music, listened to their demos with her and her band. I liked the songs. That was what attracted me to it. I learned a lot about the history of the particular type of music that she was working on as we went along. We talked about possibilities. She wanted to work with some North American musicians. We talked about instruments that we might use, textures, and we did that in a way that I would do with any artist. Essentially it turned into a little three- or four-day period of pre-production. We decided that the simplest way, and what we felt would probably be the most economical way to record it, was to actually go to Lima and do it. The problem being that we really couldn't bring the North American musicians down there. We really couldn't bring her and her musicians up. There wasn't a tour associated with it, so there wasn't a way to balance the costs out. So while I was there I looked at a couple of studios, but studios in Lima are not exactly someplace where I would prefer to work in. Every time I would look at a studio, I'd come back to the house. Like Susana, this house is, like, incredible, you know. And I knew that she was uncomfortable in studios. I think you can record anywhere. I think we make music everywhere. Most of my favorite recordings over time have probably not been made in studios. Whether it's Robert Johnson in a hotel room, or the Rolling Stones in the countryside in France, Zeppelin in a house, Radiohead in their rehearsal space, or any number of people that are sitting in their bedrooms dropping stuff into computers. I don't think you need a studio to make a recording. Studios can certainly be helpful for a mix process, but for recording, I think I can record anywhere. I talked with Susana and asked if we could record in her house, and would she mind. She said if you could record in my house that would be fantastic, she would love it. So we set up to do that. It was kind of a funny thing because I came back and I told the engineer, Danny Kopelson (who recorded and mixed that particular record), that we were going to do it in the house. So we set up for the gear that we were going to need down there and all that. And when he arrived in Lima and looked at the house, he said, "You're crazy man. This is at a really busy intersection," there's all this stuff going on and we could never do it. And I said, "No, we can do it." Eventually, it turned into a fantastic place to record. An old plaster walled house, really high ceilings and quirky rooms, strange sounds. We used the sounds of that. So, for example, what sounds like reverb on the congas on that is actually a really large tall plaster foyer that we put the percussionist in. We just mic'ed the room and let that be the reverb and printed it to tape. We had people scattered in bedrooms. Susana was in the hall — had her little space there to sing. That's how we did it. We just took a basic bit of gear down with us to do it.
What gear would survive a trip to Lima?
Almost anything will survive a trip to Lima if you've got good road cases. [laughs] I travel with a fair amount of gear so that I can work anywhere. It doesn't matter what sort of gear a studio has. I look for a room and a feeling. Does the studio feel good and comfortable? If I need extra stuff I just bring it. So, what we took down were a bunch of outboard pres. We didn't need a lot because we only had four musicians and Susana. There was a pair of prototype mic pres, that Tim diParovacini designed, that are mono blocks from his company EAR that I bought on auction. Nobody knew what they were and when I talked to Tim it turned out he had designed them for an Irish classical label. They're very utilitarian, just these slabs of brushed aluminum with one knob and an on and off button. He designed them for ribbon mics, which I use a lot of. They're really great tube Class A — real wonderful warmth. The harmonic structure that they are able to pull out of the air is just fantastic. I use those almost exclusively on voice. I took those, a pair of Mastering Lab mic pres, probably took some A- ranges down, some V-78s, an old Pultec, some Neve 1272s that had been racked. Danny had a pair of Urei mic pres. We borrowed a desk from a friend of mine, Randy Ezratty, who runs Effanell Music, which is a remote recording company. They had an extra couple of Massenburg line mixers lying around that they don't really use anymore. I can't really say I'm the biggest Massenburg fan in the world, but his line mixer that he used to make is unbelievable. It's absolutely clear, absolutely pure. So whatever microphone, whatever mic pre, it's a way of routing it. Originally we were told that there was a 16-track Studer there so we brought 2" tape to record to, but it turned out that the machine was really basically dead. We wound up using a pair of DA-88s which just happened to be down there. For monitoring, I brought the monitoring system I use all the time, which is an Audio Research power amp, and cables, and a pair of ProAc monitors. Then the usual sort of rack of gear that I might travel with. In this case more, because we weren't in a studio. Compression — there was a Fairchild, a couple of old Valley [People] 440s, an Avalon stereo compressor, Avalon Stereo EQ, a few other things in there. Danny brought down one of those Avalon 737s, the all-in- one thing that they make. He's got some Massenburg stuff that he travels with, an EQ and a compressor. I have an extra Audio Research amp that we brought and I ran headphone feeds off of that. Basically, what we did when we were recording, because we really didn't go to more than eight tracks, we used one of the Massenburgs to monitor off of. Then when we got to the point of doing overdubs, we ganged the two together and worked in that set-up in the various rooms. We were in a living room that was our control room and everything set up in a circle. Covered the windows with blankets so we could get rid of traffic noise. Rugs and stuff were all over the place. Basically it was a house. Put room mics up all over the place. Danny brought down a couple of KM 64s, a couple of Coles. I brought down probably four Coles, and an STC, Spieden stereo ribbon, a Beyer 160. We did the vocals with a [Neumann] U67 that I have. A Sony C37 that we used on the acoustic guitar. I have some Avalon DIs and a Retrospect DI that we used for the bass. There were some SM57s that we had. We mic'ed everything with whatever we had and went from there, and went straight to DA-88s. We weren't expecting to use them, so we didn't bring converters. We just went straight to them. We'd start work in the afternoon, take a break. Susana would make dinner for everybody. We'd go back to work and typically work till 1, 2 in the morning, something like that. Sometimes go out.
How long did all those sessions take there?
We were down there about seven weeks, but probably did most of the recording in 12 to 15 days, something like that. Susana had to do a little brief tour — they went to Cuba, and so we took a week off and went up to the mountains. Went to see Machu Pichu, Cuzco, stuff like that. Came back down and did some vocals with Susana, then came back to the States, and then we did all the overdubs here. There were days when there were power outages. Days when the gear would get odd from the humidity. Some of the traffic noise I just thought was fantastic. I love ambiance, that feeling of life. I'm not really interested in really sterile music, or sterile environments.
You returned to New York and finished some more recording. Did you find the Peruvian sessions sitting well and holding up to a more refined studio setting?
Well, I don't know how refined it was. We did the overdubs where Randy Ezratty stores his trucks, in a warehouse on 25th street. He has a small room. Basically it was like a living room, no control room, carpets on the wall, some gear in the middle of it, the little Massenburg line mixers, a couple other odds and ends, and that was it, a big playroom. That's where we did the overdubs, so everyone was in the room together. In general, I don't really like control rooms for recording, so I'm always happy when there's a room without a control room. The guys that came in from here to do overdubs, Medeski, Ribot, Greg Cohen, Rob Burger — all those guys, they basically just came in and we would work through stuff in there. I think we did the Greg Leisz stuff at Sear [Sound]. I thinkhewasintownforadayandhecameby,sowe went there. Then we mixed it up at Big House. You want things to sound cohesive. I'm happy when something is not about the process. Maybe it is when you sit down and analyze it, but I think when the average person sits down and listens to something they should just hear music.
The rhythm section, percussion and bass, sound very detailed. How did you approach those instruments?
Brilliant engineers, that's how I approach it. [laughing] Making recordings is a very collaborative process. Everybody is important in it in a certain way. In the end, the artist, the song, is the most important part. It needs everything. It needs the artists. It needs the room. It needs the environment. It needs the feeling. All that is necessary. Part of that sound you're talking about is great musicians. You have these two percussionists who are just phenomenal. One of them plays cajon, which is literally a wooden box. He's getting more detail out of that box, with the use of his hands, and it sounds like the most perfect kick drum sound in the world, with a whole bunch of other things. It's like a drum kit, but it's just a box. The other guy sometimes plays cajon, other times he plays congas or bongos, something like that. Again, really amazing, awesome, skilled musicians. Also, Danny is one of the best recording engineers I know for getting the actual sound that's in the room recorded, regardless of the format that you're going to. And he understands that I really like bottom end on recordings. I'm really happy when the detail that exists there, even if it's complex, is able to be heard. That there's differentiation between the bass, the cajon, anything else that's going on. In the case of the bass, that bass player plays one of those old Ampeg upright fretless basses. A lot of Latin bands use them. It's from the sixties. It looks like a little flat solid body upright bass, but there's no body to it. It's just electric. We took that direct into the Retrospect. Then that would go into Danny's 737 where he probably did a little compression or some EQ. It would run through that before it would run into the DA-88. [On] the cajon was a Beyer 160 and the other side a 57. Again, cajon is kind of a quirky instrument. You have two sounds that you need to get the total sound of it. One is the slap in the front of it, which is flat. The other is the sound coming out of the hole, out of the port. There are two different sounds and you need to get the both of them. So it's just a matter of moving the mics around, positioning the instrument so that happens.
How did you record Susana's performance?
On that record, Eco de Sombras, most of the vocals were cut live in Lima, they were the tracking vocals for the most part. We did some overdubs and some fixes here in New York, but not many. She's a great singer, a really fantastic performer. So we just set her up in a hallway. She sang into the 67, which happens to be just an unbelievable 67. I actually got it from Walter Sear [of Sear Sound]. That went into one of the deParavacini pres, and then probably into the Avalon stuff, EQ and compressor, or sometimes it goes into the Massenburg stuff.
How did you wish to proceed with the new record?
The label wanted to originally do an album in front of an audience, because they felt that Susana's response was different in front of an audience. Susana also basically felt if there are people in the room then she'd feel different. And the idea of having any kind of control, if we needed to work on vocals, controls over certain aspects of the sound, doing that in a club is next to impossible. It's also real expensive. We would have had to rent a mobile truck. It would have been prohibitive to the budget to this particular record. So we decided to try doing it in a recording studio and allowing people to come in. We weren't quite sure how we were going to do that at first. We thought maybe we'd let people listen to headphones. On the first couple of days that we had people in the room, we actually set some huge monitors up in the room on two different sides, and just pumped a little bit of sound back into the room through the monitors so that the people could hear. They could listen to what was going down in the room, or hear stuff from the monitors. Eventually we went back to the headphones, but for three of the nights we had people in the room with us. We also recorded during the day, and pretty much recorded from the day we began setting up. Beyond that it was simply to capture this new set of songs that Susana had come forth with.
So the audience and the musicians were wearing headphones?
Yeah.
How many people where there, in terms of the audience?
It depended on the night. The biggest night, there were probably 20 people in the room.
Susana wished to continue with the concerts after the devastation of the World Trade Center occurring the same week. Saying, after living with terrorism in a civil war, life needs to continue.
That was a real open issue. We set up the Monday before that, and we were slated to start on that Tuesday. The label said you can do whatever you want, whatever people feel like. It was a really rough day for a lot of people, especially for those of us who lived downtown. I couldn't get above 14th street without ID. It was an amazing situation. Obviously, unlike anything that anybody here has probably ever experienced in their lifetime. And I think Susana's comments were really helpful to those of us who had any questions. I was pretty much in agreement with her, in the sense that I think it's important, especially in times of hardship and devastation, that somehow beauty finds its way into the world. That beauty isn't obliterated by things like that. To me, that's what I think Susana was trying to say. It seems to me that if we're in a world that's gone wrong, we have to do everything that we can as individuals to help set it right. And sometimes that starts in the smallest possible way. I don't think there is a choice. When Susana and Ricardo [Pereira, her husband] talked about living in the midst of that in Peru, they really said that at a certain point you have a choice. You either go on with your life, and you continue trying to do whatever it is that you do, or you give up. I don't think anybody in that room really preferred to give up, or was thinking of giving up.
Who performed along with Susana?
The percussionists were the same. Same bass player. Susana brought in a new guitarist. For North American guys, we only used John [Medeski] and Marc [Ribot].
What were the emotions like for those performances?
I think we got some fantastic performances. I don't know if that's because everybody felt like playing. There are so many variables in there it would be a difficult thing to say. I don't know if I could really tell you.
Did you bring any of your own equipment?
It was a combination of stuff. We used what was there. I brought most of my mics. We didn't use a lot of outboard pres, but we used some. So for example, we used the EAR pres, again a 67, and this time into Massenburg EQ and compressor for Susana's voice. The guitars were a little bit different. Ribot played both acoustic and electric guitars. So on his electric guitars, we had a [RCA] 44. His amp was off in a little corner, like an alcove/entry to the studio. We used a 44 in the corner for that as a room mic, a Beyer 160, something like that, right up close on the amp. And he had a series of loops that he would use sometimes, that he would create, so we had a DI for that which would go straight into the API. On his acoustic we had one of my mics, an old STC, the original Coles. That was for his classical guitar and also the song you heard where he's playing 12 string. That 12 string was plugged in and there's electronics that probably weren't in that rough mix, but will be there in the final mix. But also we were blending in a little bit of the mic sound because it was in front of him. There's a little bit of attack that we can dial in from just having that room mic up in front of him. The other guitar player, Sergio, when he played I think it was probably one of Danny's KM 64s on him, and that was going straight into the desk. Mark's Coles was going into an Avalon M4 mic pre. It's one that I carry around sometimes that works really nice with the Coles. It's got a lot of gain, it's really clean. David [Pinto], the bass player, same thing as pretty much as the last time. He had a different bass. He had a 5 string Ampeg this time that had a little more bottom end. John, it depended on what he was playing. We had a DI for him for some of the keyboards. Some of his keyboards went into a little guitar amp which we had a 57 on that was in a closet. And the stuff that went through the Leslie, again a pair of mics that I carry around, a pair of old Altec omni lipsticks — I don't know what their numbers are. These weird little green tiny little things that sound great for room mics. They're great on Leslies, stuff like that. Piano, the upright, on a couple of tunes I think it was just the 44. On some of them, I think it was one of the KM 64s that was laying around. The percussionist had a whack of stuff on him, [laughing] I have no idea what was on him! A combination of stuff. I think there were some Sennheisers. On the cajon, there was my Sony 37 on one side. I'm not sure what was on the other side, but fairly basic mic'ing of it. That was pretty much it. The only outboard pres that we used were just the EARs. I think Sergio's other KM 64 went in through that. Other stuff just went straight into the desk. We used my monitoring system, again the ProAc monitors, Studio 100s, which I've used for years. I got those when I did the second Cassandra Wilson record. Then we used some of the outboard gear. Globe has an Otari over there. So we did 24- track Dolby SR at 15 ips. We used BASF 900.
Sounds great.
Good songs. [laughs]
Definitely. Was the band facing each other or the audience?
We didn't necessarily set up for the audience. In Globe's room over there, they've got a medium-sized iso booth and then the main room. So what we did is put the two percussionists in the iso booth together. Hugo [Bravo] was behind in the back part of it with the congas because he was up higher, a little bit of a gobo in front of him, and [Juan Medrano] Cotito, since he sits on top of the cajon, is in front of that. That way we could close the doors. They're really loud so we needed to keep them in there to keep that from bleeding in on everything. Then Bob's got a Whisper Room in there, and that's where we put the Leslie and the amp for the keyboards. John was just in one corner of the room with all his keyboards, and the upright piano, sitting off to one side. No gobos around John. Then we sort of just went into a big circle — Susana standing in a place where she could face everybody. She could see everyone from where she was. There were short gobos in front of the guitar players, just to keep them off of Susana a little bit. There was a wedge, larger gobo behind Susana, which mostly we were using because she wanted these little orange lights hanging behind her. No gobos other than that. We had a couple of Coles set up as room mics. There would be room tracks on pretty much everything. It's really great when you can get folks into a circle looking at each other. They have an easier time reacting.
After the last session, that Saturday when it was all done, how did you feel?
Well, we weren't actually done. I mean at that point we did keyboard overdubs with John, and started assembling master reels. Came back in and did a half day of work with Marc coming in and doing some overdubs he wanted to try out. We did some vocal fixes with Susana. It always feels good when you're recording. When you get something that feels good, musically it feels good, it feels great. If the environment is one that the artist is happy with, then I'm happy. My primary concern is that the artist is comfortable and the artist is happy. So, that they can do what they do. That they can create. That what ever it is that they're trying to get out, can come out and get captured. It's always a pleasure working with Susana. She's always very open and a wonderful human being. It's a beautiful voice. It's a joy.
