This is in tribute to Dave Greenfield, keyboardist of the original Stranglers.
I recently paid tribute to original stranglers drummer Jet Black in episode 6 of the Groove Guru Podcast, where current Stranglers drummer Jim Macaulay and I shared our top 5 Jet black musical moments out of respect for Jet. I also wanted to pay tribute to Dave, hence this video.
In addition to my admiration for Jet, I have great respect and admiration for Dave Greenfield, truly a phenomenal keyboard player - one of the greatest ever in rock music as I see it - who greatly helped distinguish the Stranglers from other bands emerging in the punk era and contributed to some amazing records.
In this live version of the iconic Stranglers track “Waltzinblack” - recorded live in Glasgow at the Garage, and thanks to Dror Nahum for sharing this video 🙏 - I cover 3 of Dave’s keyboard parts live with the Hugh Cornwell band.
Below is a breakdown of how I did so from a recent post I made, and here’s to your enjoyment of this video!
“One of the most interesting musical elements of the current Hugh Cornwell band tour is the use of keyboards, used to play the classic Stranglers instrumental Waltzinblack, which before this tour has never been performed live, by the Stranglers or Hugh.
Some people are assuming that we’re using a backing track to do this but we are not. It is being performed completely live with the use of - in addition to the bass line played by Pat and the guitar parts played by Hugh - some newly created keyboard samples.
For this, I’m covering three keyboard parts, sounds I developed to match the original recording as follows:
My Roland SPD-SX sampler triggers the offbeat organ part via some Hammond samples I made and adapted with a Leslie effect.
I’m also triggering the other two keys parts from Mainstage on my Mac via a MIDI controller keyboard: 1. The toy-piano-esque arpeggios that feature in the piece, and 2. The synth/vocoder part that enters during the final repetitions of both sections and continues to the climax of the piece.
Doing this requires every key of my 24-key MIDI keyboard and almost almost all of my sampler pads.
But wait, there’s more…
The track wouldn’t be complete without the hysterical and menacing laughter of the original and we’re incorporating that too and then some!
For the laughs, I recorded 5 tracks of vocals to match the original sequence and, to make it different, additional new laughter by Hugh, Pat and I, and used a classic harmoniser to re-create that magical sound. All in that took about 25 hours of creation time.
Since my hands are full with the keyboard parts, the laughs are triggered by a foot controller I have to my left.
The end result is something that’s never been done before live and something we’re having a blast playing each night!
Here’s to your enjoyment of this classic Stranglers piece, and thanks to Dave Greenfield for his musical contributions.
Fly straight Dave. 🙏
🥁 www.windsordrums.com 🥁
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3 янв 2023
