Ricky Zapata has a special day in his memory.. 11-11-11.  This was the day he headlined a special hip-hop/rap concert at the Guaca Maya Mexican Restuarant in Omaha.  Several individual artists and combos performed an evening which was a blend of Spanish and English lyrics.  Ricky and his collaborator, Kyle were the last to perform.  Tesco Productions had compiled a special presentation opening for his portion of the evening and the songs performed were from his 4-song demo released this summer and included the introduction of a couple of new ones as well.

Ricky was on stage most of the evening supporting the other artists.  This was all done against quite a backdrop personally.  The apartment building he lived in at the time had caught on fire that day leaving his life greatly altered very suddenly.  He performed very well and was able to remain focused on the evening for everyone involved.

The preceding day the El Perico featured Ricky Zapata showcasing the upcoming party and giving details of his life and music – all skillfully presented by author Marina Rosado.

Joe Laughlin, local musician and pastor is nearing completion of his fairly extensive CD.  The song recordings and overdubs have all been completed and the the mixdown is about 2/3rds done.  The 14-song release is entirely originals except for one which Joe also added to.  Various musicians have been invited to participate, laying down a variety of additional flavors and parts.  You can visit Joe’s photo gallery and see most of the people who worked to make this happen.  It’s coming together nicely and Joe is pretty excited to get it out there.  Tesco Productions is planning to add another tool to our mastering process and get the final disc ready to go soon.

Ever wonder how music groups get all their parts to cut off so evenly?  Well in an ever on-going effort to answer these types of questions and acquire the necessary tools to accomplish such things, Tesco Productions owner recently tested a somewhat unorthodox method aimed at total alignment.  As you can see one has to prepare properly for such a task as this, and avail yourself of the necessary equipment.

With the alignment tool from my friend Allyn firmly in my hands and having laid out the objects of unevenness, it’s time to start in.  Smoke rolls and a (generally) straight line is executed across the targeted items. Upon completion the alignment tool is raised with the victor’s smile.  The result – yes, total and permanent alignment in no time at all – wait, “I thought we could always undo?!”. Well, there you have it.  The secret is out (but please don’t try this at home).  Say, what ever happened to those old steps?