Minnie Ripperton, and misc

[klatta@merit.edu]

Minnie Ripperson began in the highly innovative band
Rotary Connection; if you can find either of the LPs from
RC grab them. She and Sidney Barnes had some wonderful solos
showing off both their voices. I also got to hear RC at
several Chicago concerts (back in the days when a concert
would include say the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead,
Janis Joplin, Rotary Connection and a few other bands!!!,
and we complained about tickets over $5.....)
Minnie Ripperton's career was cut off prematurely. I hope
her solo albumn (s?) will be reissued in cd since every
lp I've ever played goes nuts trying to handle her top notes.
 
Re: both Kath and Tori in live performance; tend to be hard
to understand because of microphone limitations. Most mikes
can't handle really loud sounds and begin to clip. Ideally the
mike placement is far enough away that the loudest sounds aren't
above the clipping level. Then you have the problems with the
recording systems, etc. It's particularly difficult to handle
choral music in general because the dynamic range between singing
at a whisper and 12 voices going full out is a bit much.
 
Saw Tori on Dennis Miller; what is she doing to that piano bench?
 
Ken Latta, University of Michgan.