The Lebanon Valley College Valley Jazz Orchestra performing in the WITF studio.
WITF Music: LVC’s Valley Jazz Orchestra
LVC’s Valley Jazz Orchestra Release Debut Album, Vicious Fishes
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Joe Ulrich
The Lebanon Valley College Valley Jazz Orchestra performing in the WITF studio.
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For students of jazz music, it doesn’t get more real world than late night recording sessions, putting out an album and playing gigs.
That’s what students in Lebanon Valley College’s Valley Jazz Orchestra got to do. They recently released an album titled Vicious Fishes performed and produced by students in the school’s recording studios.
“It started with the idea that we wanted to get the band in the studio,” said Justin Morell, Professor of Composition and Jazz at LVC.
“Partly just for the experience of being in the studio and being able to play and then hear it back and hear what you sound like. Which is an important part of developing as a musician. And then we said why don’t we make a record out of it? And then it was a question of what do we record?”
“And so I have a small catalog of things written for big band, and it just seemed like it was an easy thing to do. Because you don’t have to deal with royalties and publishers or anything. I was just like, let’s just do my stuff and it took off from there.”
While in our studio, the Valley Jazz Ensemble performed another work from Morell titled “Jungle Book” which will be part of an upcoming release from the students.
The recording sessions required a lot of time outside of classroom hours with the students pulling some late nights in the studio. Lead trumpeter Logan Polak and saxophonist Taiylor Adams remember how a lot of other things were happening at that time.
“It was right before finals week,” said Polak. “And at that same time, music juries were going on, so students were doing our juries and also at the same time afterwards, immediately going up to the studio.”
“It was a lot,” Adams added. “We were all kind of sleep deprived. We were making jokes. It was a great time. I would never have thought that I would come to college and then be on an album.”
Recording about 20 musicians was a challenge, and thanks to a former audio production student, they had a technical plan for how to spread all the musicians out across multiple studios for isolation. Morell described the situation.
“It was actually pretty insane. We have three recording studios and we had the drums in one room, we had the saxes in another room, we had the brass in another room, the piano in a different room, the bass in a different room, the guitar in a different room.”
“It’s not an ideal setup though,” added Jeff Lovell, Associate Professor of Music Theory and Jazz at LVC. “Because communication, the visibility, just the spatial changes. And so trying to align everything musically was quite difficult.”
When the project was over and the students could hold a finished product in their hand, it was a gratifying experience.
“It was very fulfilling,” said Polak. “Knowing that at a certain point, you can look back and be like, Hey, I was a part of this. Now I have a physical copy, a physical vinyl.”
“Has anybody played the vinyl?” I asked.
Adams: “I have kept it in the case.”
Polak: “I have played it.”
Adams: “It’s nice knowing that something that I’ve done has made an impact.”
“It’s an artifact and a testament to the work that the students have put into achieving some level of musical excellence and to bring visibility to the program,” said Lovell. “So that other students or prospective students out there that are trying to figure out where to land can see, hey there’s things going on here.”
Vicious Fishes is available on streaming services and on Band Camp:
See more from our interview:
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
