Kings of Leon Record at Avatar

June 7th, 2010 by Janice Brown

This Spring, Kings of Leon recorded in Avatar Studio A, working with producers Jacquire King and Angelo Petraglia on tracks for their upcoming album. King engineered the sessions, with assistance from Bob Mallory.

Kings of Leon and crew in Avatar's Studio A

Avatar also recently hosted a Film Scoring Workshop, a joint program presented by Columbia University Film School and ASCAP. Four composers from the workshop recorded and mixed their scores to short films in Studio C with instructor/producer Alex Steyermark and engineer Jason Stasium. The shorts were submitted to the annual Columbia University Film School Film Festival, for screenings in NYC and LA.

And the music to a long-lost Broadway musical revue, Life Begins at 8:40, by Harold Arlen, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg, was recorded in Avatar’s Studio A with producer Tommy Krasker and engineer Bart Migal, assisted by Rick Kwan and Fernando Lodeiro.

Life Begins At 8:40 originally opened on August 27, 1934, at NYC’s Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 237 performances. The original performance materials from the show were scattered and lost after the Broadway run, until pieces of the work were rediscovered at the Music Division of the Library of Congress and the Shubert Theater Archives in New York City. From these pieces, the original piano-vocal score and orchestra parts were reconstructed.

Avatar also hosted JazzReach’s Metta Quintet who recorded a few tracks from their project, “Big Drums, Small World,” in Studio B with producer (and JazzReach founder) Hans Schuman, engineer Jim Anderson assisted by Lodeiro. “Big Drum/Small World” features new commissions by prominent internationally recognized jazz composers from countries as diverse as West Africa, Israel, Cuba, Iraq, Puerto Rico, India, Spain, Brazil, China and the United States. JazzReach is a nationally recognized New York City-based non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, performance, creation and teaching of jazz music.

Other notable sessions recently at Avatar include: Corinne Callen, indie artist and winner of Avatar’s 2010 Pre-CMJ drawing for a free day of recording, recorded in Studio B with engineer Justin Gerrish; Teddy Thompson recorded in Studio C with producer David Kahne and engineer Roy Hendrickson; The Juilliard Jazz Ensemble recorded in Studio B with musical director and producer Carl Allen, engineer Katsu Naito assisted by Aki Nishimura.

For more on Avatar Studios, visit the website at http://www.avatarstudios.net.

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