Hi-Fi Rendezvous releases first CD
Hi-Fi Rendezvous released its first CD “Fever” and it can be downloaded on iTunes.
COSHOCTON – Local jazz band Hi-Fi Rendezvous is excited to announce the release of its first CD titled “Fever.”
The six songs on the CD were picked in the same way a famous jazz label called the Blue Note used to select songs to be recorded.
“They would find out who was playing in cities like Chicago and New York, hire a studio and get the guys to come in when they were done with a gig,” said Nick Schmitt, who performs guitar and vocals on the CD. “They’d give them coffee, turn the tape on, let them play for an hour and then give them a couple of dollars. They’d then listen to the tape and pick the best songs and we did it pretty much the same way.”
The band set up in the conference room in Schmitt’s office space and played for two and a half hours.
“The six songs on the CD where the best cuts,” he said. “There was no going back and correcting anything.”
In the end, “Almost Like Being in Love,” “On Green Dolphin Street,” “Fever,” “Fly me to the Moon,” “Blue Bossa,” and “Round Midnight” were selected for the CD, which was engineered by Ryan McVay and Ray Valintin.
“We are in our eighth year as a group and when you get to a certain point you have to do something to move you on and the CD does that for us,” Schmitt said. “Our goal is to represent jazz music in Coshocton County.”
He noted that in the 30s and 40s jazz was king and Hi-Fi Rendezvous plays music exactly the same way it was presented then.
The group actually started when Schmitt’s son Sam was a junior in high school. Sam plays the saxophone and wanted to audition to go to music school for jazz and his dad picked up his guitar to help him prepare. Ken Brode, Sam’s German teacher at the time, offered to play drums with them and before they knew it a band was formed.
“We played our first gig in March or April of 2008 at Uncorked for nothing,” Nick said. “They passed the hat for us and we gave it all to Sam since it was his first gig ever. Since then we’ve always tried to have a high school student or someone just out of high school play with us.”
“Fever” can be downloaded for a small fee from iTunes or Nick sells them for $6 at Hi-Fi Rendezvous gigs.
In addition to Nick and Brode, the group includes John Lindig – bass, Haley Evans – trumpet and vocals, and Steven Johnson, sax.
“It feels good to see our CD out,” Nick said. “As a young man I made several albums and wrote a lot of songs, but I really wanted this for the guys. I’m proud of it and it represents what we do.”
Hi-Fi Rendezvous is hoping to put out another CD next year, but until then you can follow the band on Facebook to keep track of where they are playing.
Category: Arts & Entertainment
