Criteria For a Successful Studio Musician – Carol Kaye

In 1967, I was signed to London/Parrot Records. Producer Martin Cooper booked Gold Star Studio, wrote some songs and hired the musicians. I remember nervously standing around huge Altec speakers with some of the best session musicians in Los Angeles.: Larry Knechtel, Jim Horn, Wilton Felder, Joe Osborn, Richard Bennett, Al Casey, James Burton, Steve Cropper, Jim Gordon, Mike Deasy, Al Capps, Rick Cunha, Milt Holland, Spooner Oldham and Carol Kaye.
I had heard that there was something special about Carol Kaye, but didn’t understand until she walked in. Carol was friendly, good-natured, comfortably dressed with a laid-back confidence. She shared a few hellos as she set up, listening to a demo of the new track, and then, without the slightest reticence, In one or two effortless takes, nailed the groove and gave our track a radio-worthy definition. Carol anchored the feel and lifted our song to a stronger place. Carol and the boys turned a nice idea into a solid track. Seeing a woman with this kind of skill made me so happy. Carol’s ego didn’t need to be fluffed. She knew her value . I was so fortunate to have been there, at that time. To watch those players was an unforgettable experience.
Jennifer

(A portion of Carol Kaye’s Facebook post)
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CRITERIA FOR A SUCCESSFUL STUDIO MUSICIAN – Carol Kaye – this is speaking of the world of Hollywood decades ago during the most-creative phase of recording, creating entertaining movies, TV shows with real music. Musicians all had a great sense of humor, needed in the world of the psychiatrist-driven movie world….which became a very un-trustworthy world, you paid your shrink to be your friend even back then, but musicians always kept the record dates, movie and TV-film calls “light” with 1-liners to laugh at, and kept a sense of reality even amongst the world of creativity of Fantasy.

I can only speak for the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. It’s a little different since the advent of the digital gear, the synthesizers etal. being used from the 80s on – today you have people calling themselves “studio musicians” if they play just a few notes on 1-2 tracks one person at a time, very different from our time of creativity which is what this post is about. It’s up to the audiences who they think were more creative…….this is the way it was back when:
You had to have a reputation as being a fine musician, one of the finest players live, preferably from the big-band and/or jazz arenas where creating your part was/is valuable and playing ensemble was necessary. Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, no-one knew how much on how to “arrange the new music of rock and roll” and so producers scoured the popular jazz clubs to recruit the non-druggie fine jazz musicians who could instantly make up their parts on any style of music and this provided them skilled musicians, with fine (clean) technique who could not only be trusted to play great (performance values) but also make up their own parts to rock and roll…

Usually the jazz musicians were family people too, and most-reliable along with the big-band experienced power-player horn-men most-hired on the rock-pop-soul dates. With the rock and roll quickly taking over all of the former jazz clubs, jazz musicians responded and went into studio work to make the living for their families. Ditto for big-band musicians – there were very very few real rock musicians who recorded those famous rock-pop-soul recordings of the 1960s in Hollywood.
You had to be a creative and/or a great lead player on your instrument and have all the necessary skills to be versatile also. And if a horn or string player, you had to have that ensemble sense together well, have a ton of experience at that playing live first.
As a guitar player, you had to have the right gear (recording gear is different from live gear), the right efficient technique, nothing sloppy there, as well as many styles of music experience, again preferably jazz…..

For pianists, it was skill skill skill and probably also innovative techniques. You had to be great also to play on tack piano, harpsichord, organ too. You had to sightread a storm (especially on the movie scores – the great stuff Artie Kane, Ralph Grierson, Mike Lang, Pearl Kauffman, Roger Kellaway, Clare Fischer, etal. sightread on pictures like the Planet of Apes pictures comes to mind) but you also had to be able to play very boring slow triplets all day long when called to do so too ‘mit feeling’!….I couldn’t believe the patience Mike Melvoin, himself a great jazz pianist, had at doing this mundane kind of playing, yet he was cheerful, did the job at hand and did a fine job always etc. And who could be better than Larry Knechtel on innovation – “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” etc., or Leon Russell on his fine funky gospel-type playing piano, or Mac Rabbenec on creative organ on Phil Spector’s dates, or jazz masters Pete Jolly, Mike Melvoin, or Don Randi on the rock dates like Beach Boys stuff etc. They were excellent, with patience you wouldn’t believe.

And speak of guitarists, Glen Campbell on his great rock guitar solos and also Billy Strange on his rock guitar solos too…Howard Roberts with his rock solos, other jazz greats like Barney Kessel and of course other jazz guitarists like Bob Bain, Al Hendrikson, Bobby Gibbons, Bill Pitman, Lou Morrell, Rene Hall, Arthur Wright, and other guitarists such as Bud Coleman, Don Peake, Al Casey, Ray Pohlman, Tommy Tedesco, James Burton, the list goes on.
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