3- TESTS, ARRANGEMENTS AND RECORDINGS

Does Nana call you on to rehearse or simply to try new songs?

In Paris, she often asks me to train her voice and to learn new melodies. When we are on the road it’s rarer because she’s always very busy giving interviews. She often wants to learn a typical song in the language of the country where we are and of course we rehearse it.

You took part in the recording of many albums. What are the main steps of their realization?

There are four stages: the title selection, the selection of arrangements and musicians, the recordings and the mixing.

1/ How the song selection is done? What is your contribution in this first stage?

Nana and André decide for sure about the titles and the album-orientation. She appeals to her friends-composers and lyric writers. Sometimes, she composes a melody that André likes. She also listens to a lot of records and she can decide to cover a song. There are no rules. According to the songs, I search different arrangements to know towards what style to direct to, and of course to make a choice with them. Then, we make demos; these are recordings quickly made to give us an idea of the melody and often it’s without lyrics. Sometimes, we can begin with the text and then we compose a melody. After that, we see whether the song passes muster or not!

2/ In what consists the arrangement? What does it include exactly?

The arrangement is the style of music that we want to give to the title, the selection of instruments, finally everything that gives the musical color to a song. In fact, you have a melody and you create all the rest; the harmony between all the selected instruments, the counterpoints, the choruses etc... All that is exciting and of course creative! So we set ideas and I prepare it according the way it was decided. I admit that this stage is the most difficult because sometimes we make ten different versions of the same song.

3/ Can you explain to us the recording course? When the arrangements are ready, we go in a professional studio (most of the time in Paris at "Guillaume Tell"). With André I attend to select the musicians and to set the order in which that will be recorded. It’s a big planning. Of course Nana and André are there when we record. Do you initially record the music or everything is done at the same time? We record as a rule the rhythm (piano, guitar, bass, percussion, drums…) and a vocal demonstration to give us an idea. Then, it’s the string and the brass instruments and the choruses. That depends on the title. When all the playbacks are ready, Nana adds her final voice. 4/ In what consists the mixing? What is your role in this stage? When everything is recorded, it’s the mixing. That means the harmonizing of all the instruments used so that we distinguish all of them and hear a little more for example a particular instrument in a given fragment. Of course I take part in the mixing and it takes much time. We never can foresee exactly how long that will last. It’s like the recordings. After that, it’s the marketing and it’s out of my field. The recording companies are the ones who take in charge the promotion of the album with the TV, the Radio and the Press.

Thank you for your collaboration, Luciano. All these answers make us understand your daily work and more appreciate the beauty of your musical arrangements.

Comments gathered on September 16, November 7, December 7, 2010, February 10 and April 4, 2011.