Hi

We're 94% funded now - so hopefully we'll be able to go into production very soon.

One of the chapters in the book is an overview of Jaki's highly specialised collection of drums and other equipment - and an important piece was his cassette machine. Here's an extract from the text:

"The essential Jaki studio. Real low tech. A mono cassette recorder connected to a speaker Jaki had made himself at some point back in the 60s or even earlier.

Jaki used cassettes as a notepad – a rehearsal tool, recording not just himself for reference but also the groups who would play together in his room.

He enjoyed the simplicity of one button each for record and playback and that there was no complex set up with microphones.

He also experimented with the auto record levelling system of cheap recorders. Maf recalls one night Jaki playing gongs miked up through the cassette player and played back through the speaker. As the sound naturally diminished after a gong was struck the cassette player would build up the gain and then when the gongs were struck again it would duck, producing a “pumping” effect, emphasising the sustain of the instruments."

Consequently there are many cassettes waiting to be explored. I've uploaded 2 extracts here on soundcloud.

https://soundcloud.com/kumo/sets/jaki-cassette-excerpts

You can hear Jaki exploring 2 rhythms: one in 7, another in 4 - shifting the emphasis and changing the sound pallette as he goes along, whilst all the time maintaining his characteristic consitency of tempo and intensity, supported gently by the noise of his old mono cassette recorder.

Enjoy!