CLEVELAND, Ohio - Dominick Farinacci and Tommy LiPuma are pretty unassuming characters.
Farinacci, tall and thin, has a sleepy shyness that only seems to go away when he puts a trumpet to his lips. LiPuma, the five-time Grammy-winning producer whose name is on Cuyahoga Community College's Center for the Creative Arts, is a grandfatherly type who sports black-framed round glasses and walks with a cane. He kind of reminds me of Ed Wynn.
Just looking at them, the two Cleveland natives - technically, Farinacci is from Solon - on the surface seem an unlikely pair. You know what they say about icebergs, though.
The reality is that they share a passion for music matched only by their talent and an insistence on "getting it right.'' It is that passion that brought them together on a frigid week in February in the state-of-the-art recording studio at Tri-C.
The two also have a shared love of their hometown that Farinacci discussed in an earlier story about the project:
"I like to bring everything I do around the world back to my hometown of Cleveland, as I'm quite grateful for everything I learned there, and for all the great support I began to receive from a young age,'' said Farinacci, who was enrolled in a Tri-C program for musicians even while attending Solon High. He graduated with a simultaneous high school diploma and an associate's degree before heading off to Juilliard.
"It's important to do it at Tri-C, where I first met Tommy, and where I really learned to play jazz alongside some wonderful lifelong mentors,'' said Farinacci, a Juilliard grad who reached out to LiPuma to record his latest album. "It was the first place I went where I was surrounded by artists better than me, and is where I really grew as an artist and a professional.
"I always try to bring everything in my career back to Cleveland because I love where I come from, and know how important it is to always remember and celebrate your roots,'' he said. "And to share with my hometown community such a monumental event for me . . . there's nothing better.''
That's true: Farinacci is bringing his Dominick Farinacci Quintet to Playhouse Square's Palace Theatre Thursday night to kick off the 36th annual Tri-C JazzFest. It's a bill that will also boast music from the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, with special guests Take 6. Tickets, $40 to $65, are available at the box office, online at playhousesquare.org and by phone at 216-241-6000.
It is one thing to pay lip service to such sentiments, and quite another to do it. And, for a fortunate few, yet another to witness it, which is what a group of Tri-C students and select observers got to do in February.
As students of the school's Recording Arts and Technology program scurried through the studio, setting up Go-Pro cameras, microphones and headsets, a small crew of observers - journalists, teachers and administrators -- patrolled the area in a state not too far removed from awe.
Drummers among us had to go see the set-up for Steve Gadd, one of the best studio musicians in the business. He may be best known among the masses, though, as the man who created that signature drum beat for Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.'' We challenged each other to sit behind Gadd's kit, just once, but none of us had the courage to do it. What if Steve saw us? Or worse, what if we broke something?
Pianist and arranger Larry Goldings, who has played with everyone from James Taylor to John Mayer and Bette Midler, tinkled with the keys while guitarist Dean Parks, whose diverse resume include credits on music from Paul Simon, Andrea Bocelli, Dwight Yoakam, Barbra Streisand and Simon, ran his fingers up and down the neck of his Paul Reed Smith guitar.
Meanwhile, bassist Christian McBride, the artist-in-residence for the 2014 Tri-C JazzFest, fiddled with his instrument and kept everyone loose with a running collection of jokes.
The album they were cutting will be Farinacci's ninth and is a mix of new arrangements for jazz standards, like "Black Coffee,'' recorded by Sarah Vaughan in 1949, Peggy Lee in 1953 and Ella Fitzgerald in 1960; contemporary songs such as "Sunshine of Your Love'' by Cream and "Crazy'' by Gnarls Barkley; plus original music from Farinacci.
The record doesn't have a title yet, and probably won't be out till early 2016, Farinacci said in a later interview in April, when he and LiPuma returned to Tri-C to do some reworking and overdubs.
But this day, this historic day, is all about putting down the first lines of music. Farinacci, who is the "Global Ambassador to JALC" (Jazz At Lincoln Center) and lives Doha, Qatar, at the St Regis Hotel, spreading the word of jazz, is a study in paradoxes. On the one hand, his laid-back countenance seems to indicate a man totally at ease and sure of himself. But on the other, there is a driven musician who knows exactly what he wants.
LiPuma, who turns 79 on July 5, with his five Grammy Awards, and engineer Al Schmitt with his 21, are the ones with the hardware, but there is no doubt this is Farinacci's record.
On a scale of 1 to 10, this collection of "studio musicians'' and the team on the board was a 15.
LiPuma doesn't work the way most producers do. He's not in the control room, fiddling with the knobs. That's Schmitt's job, and they've worked so well for so long together that they have developed a sort of symbiosis. Fortunately, associate engineer Brian Montgomery speaks the same language, since Schmitt ended up having to leave this particular session in the throes of a stomach issue. Not to put too fine a point on it, but everyone made sure to ensure that the plastic-lined trash can was never out of reach and no one was in his way.
LiPuma sits in the middle of the studio, with Parks, Goldings and McBride nearby and Gadd and Farinacci sequestered in separate soundproof rooms to avoid sound bleed.
He's perched on his chair, following the sheet music as the players launch into a Farinacci-penned track called "Doha Blues.''
Nothing escapes LiPuma's ear. But he's not alone. Farinacci hears all, as well, and so does the young trumpeter's manager, Brian McKenna, who sits in the control room alternately working on his MacBook Pro and taking notes as he listens to the mix on his own set of headphones.
As the notes of "Doha Blues'' die away, the discussion that really is the key to producing an album begins.
"Nothing beats the first take,'' LiPuma said.
"It just felt so cool what happened,'' chimed in Parks.
"Whatever that was, it felt right to me,'' agreed Farinacci.
So naturally, they did it again.
This time, Farinacci stood and moved closer to the microphone, choosing to let the control room adjust the volume. The shift made a huge difference in the upper registers.
And yet.
"I like the first one better,'' said LiPuma.
"First take was the best, man,'' said McKenna. "That's what it is.''
McKenna, an intense one-time drummer (it's likely he still plays, as his fingers are almost always tapping out a rhythm, either on a keyboard or his cellphone), is the president of the McKenna Group, Farinacci's management and booking team. If the other clients on the roster - and there are several - get the same treatment, they're in good hands.
Watching McKenna deal with Farinacci, it's striking how he seems to be able to strike a balance between cheerleader and bodyguard. He's honest with his criticism, or at least seems to be, but he's more of an affirmation coach, especially when his clients are doubting their abilities.
Just before the second take of a cut of "Detrese,'' a tune written by Argentine tango composer Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla and Charles DesBois in 1957, McKenna told Farinacci, "You can make me cry.'' To some, it may have sounded cliche, or even huckster. But the reality is that after that short conversation, Farinacci returned to his soundproof room and did just that . . . and McKenna's weren't the only soggy eyeballs in the room.
His father, Mike Farinacci, wasn't boo-hooing, but as he listened - eyes closed - a smile spread across his face and didn't go away for the rest of the day.
And yet, the artist in Dominick Farinacci - the part of him that saw him practicing 10 hours a day even as he was going to Solon High and Tri-C before heading off to New York and Juilliard -- refuses to give in, perhaps fearing complacency, but always believing it could be just a little better.
There is a beauty in the tone of his trumpet, a purity that seems to emanate from some otherworldly place. Artistry of this magnitude doesn't just happen, and you don't get there being satisfied with "good enough.''
"You got to like it,'' McKenna told him during Round 2 of their recordings, when it was just LiPuma, Farinacci and associate engineer Montgomery on the board.
"I don't like anything,'' Farinacci said.
That may be true. He kept doing and redoing tracks, adjusting tempos, solos and even whole endings. I don't know if it's possible for a brass player to get a blister or callus from playing, but it sure seemed Farinacci was angling for one. But the bigger strain is the one you probably wouldn't expect from a musician of this caliber.
"I am worn out from playing this song mentally,'' was a phrase that came out from time to time . . . and just as quickly was put back in the case as he went after one more take of one of the 13 songs that will be on the album.
Leave it to the jocular LiPuma to break the tension. As they worked and reworked sometimes mere bars of the songs, adding and subtracting guitar and drum parts, he chose to look at his young trumpeter:
"This song always reminded me of 'Saved By the Bell.' ''
You go, Screech.
The album still isn't finished. Vocal tracks have to be added, sweetened and adjusted. Then there's the final engineering and mixing, which likely will be done in California. As of April, when this second session took place, Farinacci and his team hadn't even gotten to the logistics of producing the album itself, with decisions on photos, fonts, distribution and such still to come. That's still true today, but there's one more task ahead:
Making travel arrangements for the 2017 Grammys.