Thanks to everyone for listening and for your feedback.

Okay, In response to the pms, I'm putting the song link back up for those who missed it.

WALK ON BY

Enjoy.

Josie

I love this song and this is a wonderful cover, enjoyed.

Kenny

This is a really good collaboration and a wonderful arrangement that superbly fits Josie's voice.

Great job. Enjoyed my listen.

Charlie

Josie,

What a fantastic vocal against that very cool arrangement. Excellent!

Bob

Thank you Kenny. I love almost every song by Burt. I don't know if it's because they're great or I grew up hearing them as a soundtrack to my life - maybe both. So happy you enjoyed it. Dean is such a great arranger and player.

Josie

Great Job!

Arrangement and Vocals. At least to my ears this not an easy melody to sing and you found the pocket for sure!

much enjoyed!

Josie,

your voice is perfect for this song and this song is perfect for your voice.

great arrangement from Dean

Spectacular, well done both, but your voice Josie... wow!

Alyn

Great vocals Josie and a superb arrangement of this old song. Cheers.

A pleasant surprise.

Well done. Sounds pretty good.

I'm on some cheap speakers so I'm not going to comment on the mix.

This is very well sung Josie, yes, you definitely have the voice for these kind of songs.
I also like the arrangement: the sound of the electric piano, the backing vocals on the chorus etc.

very good work!

Rob

Hi Josie,

awesome collaboration! Great voice on top
of a great arrangement.
I enjoyed several listens.

Guenter

Thank you Charlie. Dean and I appreciate that very much.

Thank you Bob!

Beautifully done!! THis rivals Burt and Dionne. I am a huge Bacharach fan. If you have not heard his CD with Elvis Costello, you should check it out. You guys did a wonderful job with this. Some interesting minor deviations from the original chords. Simply loved it!!! Take care. Greg

A nice version of the song. The arrangement and vocal were pleasant and worked together well - a nice fit. Pleasantly subtle.

I thought the background vocals did not fit with the lead vocal - or the rest of the instrumentation/production... they seemed like they came from a whole different production.

floyd

Major edit--- removed a bunch of stuff about the BGV that shouldn't have been the whole review.

I'm really not qualified to offer my opinion on this song, as I can't even imagine the knowledge and musical sensibilities it would take to create a track like this. All I can say is, Dean.. you are one smart and talented man.

And Josie, I'm glad you volunteered for this project because your voice is a good fit. Frankly, I'd like to see you focus on jazz.

Gruve, Your singing ears are right on. Thank you!




Alyn,

Dean and I appreciate that very much.

I fell in love with Dean's arrangement the first time I heard it. He brought it down a half step for me which was all he could lower it without having to redo the whole thing. It's been a while since I gave my high register a real work out and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you!

Thank you Sonny!

I'm glad that made you smile because I love those big husky background vocals of Deans too. Distinctive, different and added a little extra unexpected zing. I loved singing with them. Adding the harmony on the end was Dean's idea too.



Cheers to you Rich and thank you from both of us!

Josie and Dean, Great collab! When I first listened to the track that Dean posted looking for a singer, I immediately thought of Josie. Boy was I ever right. I agree with Lawrence that this is a tough melody. Man Josie this is just a standout vocal, great phrasing and some nice little "work around the note and let it settle in" type riffs. Just a super job. Dean, you are the master jazz arranger on this site and a monster player. I am going against the grain here and will say I actually liked the bg vocals. i thought they created a nice change from what might have been expected. Loved it! Tom

Hello

this is a great song and your voice fits perfectely
in tune.

From the part when you sing "Walk on by", I remember some
Diana Ross song's.

Very nice.

Sergio.

sez but, on second thought !!

Josie and Dean,

O my goodness....

My first thought was .... "What a great arrangement!". Then Josie started singing and my next thought was "Wow, Josie, you sound outstanding! Really, really nice!". As the song progressed, those thoughts never once left my mind. This is one of the most skilled arrangements and performances that I've heard on this site. Seriously. My only constructive comment relates to the background vocals and this is entirely a personal preference thing; my feeling is that the BGVs didn't enhance what is a first-class, top-notch presentation. The tessitura of the BGVs seemed to create that conflict with other instruments that notes at the lower end of the sound spectrum are renowned for causing. I pass the opinion on for what it's worth. I have no doubt that it's due to the way my ears work.... as I said, a personal preference thing.

Taken as a whole, this is magnificent music, arranged and performed superbly and mixed with creative flair! I've been a Burt Bacarach and Hal David fan for as long as I can remember and your cover of "Walk On By" stands proudly beside all other versions I've heard over the years. You have both excelled in creating this track.

All the best,
Noel

Dean and I appreciate the listen. Thanks Herb!




Thanks Rob! That's a great compliment to us and we appreciate it.

Thank you Guenter! That made me smile. And to listen several times - what more could we hope for - much appreciated.



Wow, what a compliment. Thank you Greg! I loved those subtle changes too. Thanks for the EC tip - listened and love it. And I found out Burt's autobiography that came out a few years ago is at my local library so can't wait to read that too. So happy you loved our track.

Alright, Pat Marr is a special case requiring the special ministrations that only I can provide. This also addresses the point made by Floyd - impressive, the ears on you two.

Pat, Josie made a slight error when she said I had to down-pitch the entire arrangement by a half step. It was by a whole step, from the original key Dionne sang it in (F) to Eb. I originally had a RealTracks trumpet solo laboriously cut and pasted together. There's a very strange feeling I get doing this. I know I'm working with Ron King's ideas, but I'm re-configuring them as though I were playing the horn, picking the melodic lines I like, altering others, etc. In other words, the final output comes from - what should I call it? - a hybrid brain. That's pretty weird all by itself, no?

Down-pitching ruined the trumpet solo, but luckily I know a few horn players and got one to play the solo, note for note in Eb, but on flugel.

More importantly, the backing vocals were also down-pitched a whole step. Singing voices can't tolerate that and the BGVs barely held up. You, Floyd and others could sense something wrong but possibly not be able to finger it exactly. Moreover, I did them using a TC Helicon stomp box which I only learned how to use correctly today. It's a nice toy that works in tandem with your guitar, but it has a devilish little design flaw, easily corrected as it turns out. Without the correction, the guitar gets processed as well as the voice. A distorted, "harmonized" guitar sound gurgles loudly into the vocals. Before I learned the simple fix (from Sweetwater Tech Support) I used a bad workaround to piece the BGVs together.

Like any human production it has its flaws. If I had an ounce of juice left in me, I would have re-done the BGVs in the new key, but, man, this arrangement got so big, as long as Josie liked it the juice just wern't worth the squeeze . I'm just the dumb arranger. Josie gives the orders and I keep my mouth shut. That's my philosophy of being a sideman and arranger.

But to you, Floyd and all the Forum members who have responded so generously, the dumb arranger gives you his deepest bow. Thank you.

Dean Clark (aka Aleck Rand)

Dean, there are a LOT of phrases one might use to accurately describe you, but "dumb arranger" shouldn't be on the list.

I appreciate the modesty, but it has the same effect as hearing a giant describe himself as being too short.

In a forum where most others rely on software intelligence to accomplish what you can do with human intelligence, you are in a class by yourself.

And the fact that you not only compose and play all of the instrumental tracks, but you also arrange the parts into one cohesive whole widens the gap between you and most others on the forum.

The whole thing about the BGV, in light of your explanation, is kind of amusing... because it took a software/gear anomaly (the combination of the vocal pedal glitch + the artifacts that go with lowering BGV) to introduce anything at all that could be even remotely described as a nit.

It makes you more human and levels the playing field in a sense, because the people whose expertise is more software related would have fixed that.

You, on the other hand, are all about a good performance, so it must have seemed insignificant to bother with since the BGV was an accessory and not the actual performance.

Bottom line, you have no explanations to make! Your talent and musical knowledge are so firmly established here... if you were a product, you wouldn't even need to advertise.

Dean, glad you chimed in. Working with you is always fun, interesting and a learning experience. Not often do I get to just sing on such a pretty arrangement that I didn't have to put together and mix myself. Good one on the "dumb arranger". LOL! Looking forward to next time. This was a nice diversion to get my mind off real life for awhile. Kudos on all your hard work and time you invested in this beautiful arrangement. Thank you!

FJ and Pat, I thought it was pretty anyway. I didn't realize the swirl effect in background vocals back in the mix would become the focal point of the song. Thank you guys for teaching me a valuable lesson! Don't sing if everything wasn't recorded in my key. Got it.

And Noel, thank you for making me smile with such high praise for the vocal and the rest of the arrangement while still getting across that the bgv bothered you too. You are such a sweet and uplifting spirit. Thank you!

Tommy, we appreciate your comments very very much. Thank you!

If I've missed anyone, please accept my apologies and consider yourself appreciated for being unqiuely you and for sharing your time listening and your thoughts with me and Dean.

Thanks Pat, I'm sure Dean appreciates that - he is certainly not a "dumb" arranger. I've worked with an arranger before and Dean is an excellent one at bringing out the best for the song and for the singer by making vocal interpretation suggestions that are spot on.
He also has a very good ear for mixing as you heard on this song.

And thanks for the pms. Hope you all enjoy it.

Of course it was pretty!!

One of the challenges in a forum like this is to say something constructive without saying what everybody else has already said. The message has been repeated loud and clear that your vocals are just LOVELY and that Deans craftsmanship with a wide variety of instruments is nothing short of phenomenal! So, what's left to say?

Is it bad form to point out something that strikes us as being different than we expect? For newbies, I'd say yes. For pros like you and Dean, I'd tend to err on the side of analytical evaluation.

This is a little bit like looking at Cindy Crawford and saying "she has a mole". It may be a true statement, but Cindy Crawford remains beautiful nonetheless... maybe even a bit more attractive for its presence. And that's one of the points I tried to make (not very well)

My main regret is ending that dang review before I got to the good stuff.. I was cooking dinner and it started boiling over so I had to save and close without much thought... and being old, I got distracted and didn't come back until the next day.

Oh well. In summary, I hope you both know by now how highly I regard you. You both consistently set a very high bar and hit it, and this song is no exception!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Josie, you are really good at these jazz projects, and I would really like to see more such music in your repertoire!

Josie, Dean, et. al.

It goes without saying that this is absolutely one of the best arrangements I have personally ever listened to on this forum. Sweet, perfect, harmonious, meticulous, I could go on.

This is just sensational.

What a fabulous effort, and congratulations to everyone involved. You all just took creativeness and capability to a higher level.

As a Bacharach and David fan forever, many thanks to you all. Way up there.

Trevor

continuing with the Cindy Crawford metaphor...

The more I look at her, the more I like the mole.
And the more I listen to this arrangement, the more I LIKE the BGV that struck me as different initially.

I think it is the nature of creativity that we have to warm up to new ideas...

From the moment I heard this arrangement, I thought the BGV's were intentional by Dean as part of him making such a well known piece distinctly his own. Like a chef who is cooking a common dish will add some unique ingredient that transforms the expected and common taste to something altogether new and original. Every note from the start gave us the instantly recognizable song "Walk on By" even though there are variations from the original. I thought the BGV's were Dean's secret sauce.

Josie's performance here shows she has the chops to take her vocals up to the next level when she pushes herself or is challenged facing a superior arrangement. She can be an artist words can't describe, rather, her singing must be experienced.

The height her vocals achieved on this song may be a secret ingredient that even Dean did not anticipate.

A great rendition of one of my favorite songs. Well done.


Regards,

Bob

I've gone from rockabilly as a kid to folk to rock to country to bluegrass to early jazz to swing and to blues and through those years pop music was kind of an overlay but certainly nothing I ever played. But Dione Warwick played a show at my college and she brought the house down with this song -- I think it was literally 50 years ago - and I don't remember a lot from then but this song stuck with me over the decades.

There's a certain sophistication to arrangements like this that go waaaaay beyond my ears and abilities but it doesn't keep me from appreciating both the effort and talent that it takes to tackle a production like this. And I think that all of the above comments certainly speak to the success of this collaboration.

So let us just jump on the band wagon and say congrats to the two of you!! And thanks for a ton of memories...50 years??

J&B

Pat,

The following sequence of events shows how much more valuable is constructive criticism than just blowing sunshine:

(1) You and Floyd pick up something strange about the BGVs. But it's vague and I'm probably the only one who knows precisely what it is.

(2) I begin rethinking the entire method of how I created those harmonies, based as it was on a flawed understanding of how to operate a certain stomp box.

(3) I contact Sweetwater tech support and explain that the guitar is getting processed along with the voices. My only workaround was to take advantage of the memory of the chip in the stomp box. I strum a chord and immediately muffle it. But the box now has it in memory and I can sing "Walk, walk ... ": but then the chord changes and I have to stop recording, strum the next chord, muffle then sing as many words as the next chord allows, and so on. Then the pieces have to be pasted together to get one complete phrase.

In other words, my workaround is complete lunacy.

(4) The tech says he really doesn't know what to tell me, but try the following: Put a cable into the box's (previously empty and unnoticed) instrument thru jack and run that cable to anything, say, a turned-off guitar amp.

(5) It all works and I can now layer big, fat harmonies in real time with no bleed-through of guitar sounds. The new harmonies are in the upgraded version.

From here on, the steps become speculative. These haven't happened yet.

(6) Josie posts the new mix, and finally,

(7) Listeners who heard the original version notice a big improvement.

I think it's now clear why your critical insights have the value they do. Thank you. And thanks to Floyd as well.

Dean

Hi Janice and Bud,

Thank you so much. Sparing you the details, I can say that it was a monumental effort on both our parts. The song is deceptively difficult to sing because the original version, in F, exploited the extraordinary top end that Dionne has. I didn't realize it until it was too late.

But, transposed to Eb, Josie carried the day, nailing the pitches, getting all the long tones and ornamentation right. I'll state flatly that in my (not so humble) opinion, Josie Beck is the only singer in the Forum who could bang this tune across with the kind of steady authority and self-assurance that you hear in her performance. She carries a superior vocal instrument, and equally impressive is her versatility. This is not her genre of choice. It's less familiar territory, made even more so by my relentless harmonic substitutions and rhythmic change-ups. This arrangement could easily intimidate a lesser talent. You're right when you say that it has a certain sophistication. Oh, and did I forget to say that she is just the greatest collaborator?

Thank you for such a generous compliment.

Dean

Charlie,

Man, your review shows that I came close to hitting nearly all my marks. You seem to have detected what these were without my having to say anything. The background vocals have received mixed reviews and have been vastly improved in a new mix. I hope we all get to hear it, but that's up to Josie, the real star of the show.

And you're right, brother, she does have the chops to handle a big construction like this. No one cared to step up when I first floated the idea of collaborating on Walk on By and I understand why. This is no criticism of Forum members, only acknowledgment that this song is a tough cookie. You need chops plus a big swig of bravery.

My hat's off to Josie, one versatile - and conquering - performer.

Dean

Thank you guys! I appreciate all the kind words and encouragement from each of you. Dean you are the best in getting me to stretch out of my comfort zone. Great job on the new BGV.

The new version with the new BGVs are on my SC page same link as in the original post, the link in my sig below or you can hear by clicking
New version Walk On By

I've left the original one up too just for fun for those who enjoy A/B comparing.

Josie

Thank you kindly 90dB. We appreciate it.

Aleck Rand

Trevor,

If a compliment can knock a man down, you just did it mate. Now ... I'll ... get up and give you my deepest bow.

Thank you

Dean

Dean,

A very impressive arrangement of a great song. The old stuff is hard to beat, and is a pleasure to listen to.

Josie,

I have missed your music lately - it is REALLY good to hear your wonderful voice again. You definitely have a great vocal addition to Dean's musical production.

Curt,

I'm glad you liked it. Josie and I appreciate your favorable review. Thank you.

Dean

Hi Greg,

You are the only one to comment on the deviations from the original chords. Good ears, man. Sometimes what seems like a deviation could be a voicing that's common in jazz but rare in pop - like replacing mi with mi 11. You can see in the attachment how a minor chord changes color as it goes through the transition from mi to mi 7 to mi 11. At other places, there are in fact some sub-progressions that any arranger would hear begging to be thrown in. But the play-it-safe approach in pop music doesn't allow it. Diminished chords were commonplace in old time pop music, but have now virtually disappeared from use. I use them to replace or re-color dom 7 or dom 7b9.

There's a lot more I could say. Let's leave it at, "There's more going on than meets the ear." Thanks for the perceptive comment.

Dean

It's all been said so all that I'll add is this is better than any version that I have heard!

Great job on this one!

Mario, my man

This is the ultimate compliment from someone who knows. I hope you heard the version with the improved background vocals. If not, and you want to make a comparison test, here it is: https://soundcloud.com/aleckrand/walk-on-by

Josie and I thank you Mario.

Dean

No I didn't hear this version. This is even better than both your first version and the original.

Don't you just love slightly changing the chords of a pop song? Adding a touch of jazz can make a large difference.

You two make a very dynamic duo!

Mario,

You and I and a some others know what a kick it is to bring out new colors, shapes and surprises by re-harmonizing. Since you were late in listening, let me mention that I had to pitch-down the entire arrangement by a whole step when it became apparent that Dionne (with her supernatural top end) singing in F was just - barely - out of Josie's range. Most of it survived but the background vocals, well, let's say that they attracted some attention. So I redid them, but until today, the link to the updated version has been far down in one of Josie's replies. Today, I posted the upgraded version on my own SC site. And, anyone who happens to be reading this and wants to hear the comparison, the new link is https://soundcloud.com/aleckrand/walk-on-by

Dean

Ain't it the truth Alyn?

Dean