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DPA Microphones Capture Legendary Copenhagen Jazz Nights
World-renowned pianist Niels Lan Doky, a long-time user of DPA microphones, has just employed an armoury of trusted models to record a jazz band for his new film, Between a Smile and a Tear: A Night at the Montmartre Club in Copenhagen, which premieres this summer. Part Vietnamese, part Danish, educated in America, and living in France, Doky conceived, wrote, co-directed and stars in the documentary film which explores the concept of jazz as a universal language, inspired by Wim Wenders's Buena Vista Social Club.
From 1959 to 1974, the Montmartre in Copenhagen was one of the world’s leading jazz clubs. Doky was astounded to discover that the hairdressing school that occupied the premises of the original club would be closed during July 2004. He rented it for a month and a team of art directors, set designers and carpenters turned the place into a replica of the club for the movie set.
A core cast of Montmartre veterans from across the globe was assembled to form the band harmonica player Toots Thielemans, tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, jazz drummer Albert (Tootie) Heath, bassist Mads Vinding, violinist Didier Lockwood and singer Lisa Nilsson plus Doky himself on piano. He interviewed them about their lives as musicians, and filmed two concerts with live audiences as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, which also invested in the project. DPA 4011 cardioid and 4006s omnidirectional mics were used for acoustic bass, with 4011s as drum overheads, on the violin amps and as speech mics for the interviews.
"In Between a Smile and a Tear all of the music was recorded live, and the set up on stage was extremely tight, with massive amounts of leakage between the singer and the six musicians," explains Doky. "In that respect, the presence of the DPAs was crucial because one of the exceptional qualities of DPA mics is that - unlike with other mics, the leakage always sounds good."
Doky has been a convert to the Danish-manufactured range since 1993 and never works on any recording sessions or live concert performances without using DPA mics. "In general I always use the DPA 4011 cardioid or 4021 compact cardioid, plus the 4006 omni and 4040 special edition gold omni on recording projects, with the 4040s generally used on the piano," he says. "They are extremely precise and detailed over a very wide frequency range, and that is what I specifically like about these products. I personally don't know any other mics that I fully trust to deliver the same transparency in the sound reproduction."
11th July 2005
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