Woodwind
and EWI Player Steve Tavaglione Steve
Tavaglione was only fifteen years old when he resolved to become
a professional musician. But over the course of a fruitful and
varied career spanning three decades, Tavaglione’s flexibility has
proven to be as valuable as his steadfastness. The masterful woodwind
player, Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) player, and sound designer
seems to effortlessly transverse genres, flow from recording sessions
into live performances, and integrate new sources of creative input
into his own artistic voice. From work on films like “Road
to Perdition,” “American Beauty,” “Ocean’s
Eleven,” and the upcoming “Finding Nemo,” to television
shows such as “CSI,” “Hack,” and “Charmed,”
to live performances with Scott Kinsey, Sergio Mendez, and many
more, flexibility and versatility have characterized Tavaglione’s
career. After falling in love with the saxophone during his high school years, Tavaglione started playing jazz gigs at 18, frequently sitting in with a jazz trio that was a nightly fixture at his uncle’s bowling alley. In 1974, he joined Sly and the Family Stone for a year, before co-forming the Latin jazz group Caldera and signing with Capitol for four albums. Tavaglione subsequently toured with George Benson for eight years, after which he became a regular in the studio scene. He eventually met up with television composer Jay Gruska (“Lois and Clark,” “Beverly Hills 90210”) and film composer Thomas Newman (“White Oleander,” “Erin Brockovich”), and has worked steadily with both for many years. The flexibility and power of Live To complement his fast-paced, creative lifestyle, Tavaglione chooses tools that are as flexible as he is. Introduced to M-Audio by M-Powered composer/arranger/multi-keyboardist Rique Pantoja, Tavaglione has become a big fan of M-Audio’s Oxygen8 and Ableton’s Live sequencing software. In addition to recording his horns into Live, Tavaglione has discovered a variety of innovative ways to use the software. “I use Live and it’s changed my whole way of dealing with things,” he says. “Since a lot of what I do is ambient loops, I basically create sound design AIFFs and import them into Live to create new ambiences right on the spot. I can mix these in any other fashion using the 120 gigabytes of AIFFs that I make myself. Live gives me the ability to mix and match, like a gourmet cook. And to supplement that, I use Reason and the Oxygen8 or Radium keyboard. The size and flexibility of the Oxy allows me to keep all my gear on one table, and have great real-time controller abilities with the sounds that I create.” Live has completely revolutionized the way Tavaglione uses AIFF files, allowing him to veer away from linear and solo types of instruments and move into the innovative world of soundscapes and abstract aural environments. This comes in particularly handy on the set of “CSI,” where composer John Kene asks for original material that doesn’t sound like it was produced by linear instruments. In these circumstances, Tavaglione uses Live to morph sounds into completely new creations. “I create soundscapes for composers either beforehand, so they have a bed they can compose for symphony orchestra on top of, or as connective tissue to what’s already happened,” Tavaglione says. “Memory is not an issue. Live allows me to work with extremely long AIFFs (e.g., 7 minutes). I can retune them, compress them, put effects on them, record them and save them as AIFFs, and then put them back into Live and start the technique over again. My whole design is to have fluid living sound patches that are not frozen from the data recorder but are actually living in time, which I can move in time. The liquidity of the program enables me to constantly produce new things.” An EWI player’s hardware As one of the foremost EWI players in the world, Tavaglione uses a variety of hardware products to sample flutes, wooden flutes, clarinets, string drums, bells, and any other sound he might want to play through the EWI. He frequently uses M-Audio’s Tampa and Groove Tubes GT67 microphone during sampling, and recently used the pair while recording his parts for the new Cavemen CD featuring Vinnie Colaiuta. “The Tampa’s compression really helps. I played pretty hard and the saxophone has quite a lot of explosions, but nobody had to apply any EQ to the sound. It was very clear, and the compression is soft and very transparent. And the GT67 mic works with everything.” Tavaglione also makes M-Audio’s BX5s an integral part of his work experience. “I bring the BX5s to all my sessions. The reason for that is we’re kind of a team. When the composer comes by and wants to hear my work in progress, the speakers must convey my intent at first listen. These speakers sound incredible. And they’re not too intrusive at the same time. You get full frequency even at the lowest levels.” Playing live with Live Despite his busy schedule as an in-demand session artist, Tavaglione still makes the time to perform live in a variety of different bands. In preparation for playing with Scott Kinsey, the M-Powered keyboardist of jazz fusion band Tribal Tech, Tavaglione contributes to programming Live, Reason, and the Oxygen8. “The keyboard player brings things in real time from the compositions we created in Live and Reason,” he says. “But when we play, as in the true soul of a jazz band, it’ll never sound the same twice because the sequences aren’t hardened. Scott can dial things in real time from the Oxygen8, making the effects we create flexible, rather than hardened. So when we do play, it always feels new and is going to be different.” Tavaglione can also be found gigging with Steve Cardenas, Sergio Mendez, and Greg Bissonette in the upcoming months. Looking forward When asked about where he is headed in the future, Tavaglione maintains his characteristically flexible and open-minded attitude, and offers advice gleaned from years of work in the field. “I’m forever the student,” Tavaglione states. “The future can be a humbling series of events that—depending on one’s ability to flow with them—can give one a sense of rebirth and death. If I start hardening my views and start getting bitter about the scene, I’m done for. You just need to have a good foundation for your playing, and respect everyone. Be a listener, not just a player. And don’t be scared to find your own voice, because that’s what you were looking for in the first place, and ultimately that’s what will bring you success.”
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