the recording on this one is exceptionally good. I think you may have perfected the perc mic up over this last year. is there a hint of reverb? Nice one, really warm malaria-like sound

@ Kirk& Kamachi: excellent observation, and you are correct. As most of my patterns are built around clave, and as clave is structured upon so many off-beats, to get my metronome to "click" on some key clave beats, I set my metronome at double time- so my bpm notation reflects what my metronome setting was dialed to. Here is a clave link that graphically shows how many times clave percussion scores are transcribed in 2/2 (cut time) to make it easier to read... but if one is counting 8th notes instead of quarter notes, the bpm will be doubled. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_(rhythm)?wasRedirected=true

Excellent playing. But +1 here for the 110 BPM perception :-)

Excellent! I find it interesting that in almost every one of these that you list the BPM I feel them in half time, so I would think of this as 110 BPM

glad to be back. good stuff here.

@ Richard: many thanks- recording accoustical percussion is sometimes tricky and I'm still learning the skill sets required for that. I mount my own skins from bulk rawhide (so not actually tanned) but I don't actually make the rawhide from animal skins... that's a lot of work on a non-industrial level and there are some health concerns when it comes to working with (especially imported) fresh animal skins. Many of the (nonterrorist) cases of anthrax reported involve folks making their own drum heads, so I just use commercially cured cow skin from the USA for the latin drums and buy pre-made drum heads for the African drums, which are usually water buffalo, goat or some sort of deer.

the sound quality is great,,, i can almost see/feel the bending/vibrating of the skin,, do you make,, tan etc your own skins?,,, this has a wonderful warm quality,, great piece

I heard the style somewhere but you perfected it. Thanks for uploading.

Phenomenal - almost, pheromonal!!

i played this in college. fun.

@ Dave: thanks for listening! This recording is 8 tracks, consisting of 2 (stereo) bass drum, cowbell, clave, chinese blocks, and 3 tracks of various sized conga drums playing their parts. Traditionally it is performed by a group of percussionists, which I would *love* to assemble- but that rarely is possible for me to do where I live. Perhaps I should move to Africa.

Thanks Norm, I posted the lyrics. Now then on to this great groove, Yeah baby thats really moving isn't it. Is this one track or a few tracks overdubbed together? I am moving every part of my body to this groove.

Absolutely brilliant.

Great brilliant top job mate.

@ Jarvis: Ha! I'm vocally challenged, but to hear the lyrics, go here: http://alonetone.com/vaisvil/tracks/walk-with-sorrow-norm-rick-chris-emily

Cool job ...but hey lyrics and no vox ?

Yet another good one. I love how you always post the style and a bit of history with each track. It always helps me understand the song better.

excellent! I like the way the congas answer each other.

Great stuff Norm! I must make some time to jam with some of your tracks

Beatiful!

One of my all time favorite songs. Great job!

Awesome, sax man!

Beautiful, once again!

Menacing!

Great set. I really enjoyed it.

So when you are playing this song on the Fender Mustang, you are hearing it in Sorog tuning, right? But the note that you are playing on the guitar is changed to another pitch by the Roland, so you must have the headset plugged into the Roland output, right?

Vaisvil's response to my question was enlightening: wild stuff! "well, no actually, it is the Roland GR-20 that gets re-tuned. Performing in many tunings with acoustic instruments is problematic and while I've seen a few attempts none of them I could afford. One could de-fret and re-fret a guitar but not only is it time consuming you then have either many guitars or a commitment to one tuning for a good space of time. So.. long story short - musical electronics are making microtonal music practical. Of course this is purely from a western perspective - other cultures have been performing microtonal music for millennial. Or, as a Turkish composer told me - the west is the real microtonal music because its the compromise compared to other cultures."

This is brilliant. Perhaps my favorite of your work so far.

Way to collaborate, guys! Bravo!

Great tune/voice. It is interesting how a particular smell or sound can instantly summon the gift of recall.

You actually tune the Fender Mustang to the Sorog tuning, right?

You've done a great job of really listening to the conga pattern - you picked up the "melody" the drums are playing and duplicated it nicely with your guitars. Man, when I hear it together, it becomes very clear how off key my drum tuning is, and how a membranophone, by its very multi-tonal nature, is really tough to accompany when it is played in a melodic fashion. It is very brave of you Brian to even attempt to collaborate with such unconventional drumming – if I expect others to collaborate with my percussion tracks, I would probably be wise to produce patterns that are less melodic… and leave the melody up to my fellow collaborators on the chordophones, aerophones and electrophones. Well done!

The vocal harmony work on this one is right-on!

I still love it.

I've seen that video before, and always cherish it when I can have dreams like this at night. One of my favs! And listening to this song while watching it adds another dimension! Great voice, mix, orchestral support and over-all production. Well done!

Very nice!

Great voice work!

All of your stuff sounds so pro. Well done!

@Sha-Pink: Thanks! I have a wide variety of different drums - you can get one view of my studio from the cover of my "collaborations" playlist. Various congas, bongos, djembes, bass drums, bells and effects instruments... but no trap-set.

Yes! In the groove. I love it when that happens... it remains a mystery to me how that works, but I think part of it is really listening to each other.