Holiday Magic and the Music of Donny Hathaway

Published November 14, 2025

Holiday Magic and the Music of Donny Hathaway

by Chuck Reider

The Reno Jazz Orchestra (RJO) performed one-of-a-kind concerts with the orchestra, a string section, featuring vocalist Cliff Porter… but first:

The RJO’s annual holiday concert is 12/7 2pm at UNR’s Nightingale Hall.  This year’s program is titled Home for the Holidays featuring the RJO and the Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra’s first performance of the season. Adding to the festivities are three of the region's distinguished vocalists— Cami Thompson, Whitney Myer, and Kyle Rea. 

Cami Thompson is a singer, actor, band leader, music director, arranger, songwriter and teacher who has gained a worldwide reputation for wowing audiences around the world with her 4-octave voice of great beauty, control, and passion, as well as her zany wit. I have had the pleasure of working with her for twenty years and she is Reno’s musical treasure.

Whitney Myer is a singer and songwriter from Reno, known for her strong vocal abilities and engaging live performances. She has performed on national platforms such as The Voice and throughout Reno, consistently earning recognition for her musical talent and presence. 

Kyle Rea is a local vocalist who seamlessly bridges classic and contemporary pieces with his exceptional talent. Whether he’s performing solo or with an orchestra, he’s a vocal powerhouse who promises a truly special evening, joining the Orchestra to add to the holiday magic. 

Join us for this festive performance from classic favorites to reimagined holiday harmonies.

Get your tickets here: https://renojazzorchestra.org/gigs.cfm

September 27^th and 28^th were special days for me. The Reno Jazz Orchestra performed “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, The Genius of Donny Hathaway celebrating what would have been his 80^th birthday October 1.  It was memorable for several reasons.  His music, the addition of a string section (a first for us), the performance of the RJO musicians, featured vocalist Cliff Porter, four background vocalists, and Donnita Hathaway joining us on stage to honor her father all combined for a one-of-kind event.

Way back in the day the sound engineer’s primary task for live concert recordings was to find the optimum place in the auditorium to place the microphone(s).  That was not a simple task, but once that was done they just hit record.  Today’s live recording is much more complex and knowing this would be two very special performances I recruited four of Reno’s best sound engineers to record them.  Todd Rold and Greg Phillips handled the live sound and recording computers. Tom Gordon was our recording engineer at the two dates and Michael Eardley is handling the mixing and editing to produce a finished product. 

I thought it would be interesting to all of you to hear and learn how a live recording turns into an album so let’s start with some basics. There were thirty-five artists on stage. Singers, Conductor, horn section, rhythm section, and string section and each on stage required at least one microphone! Oh and don’t forget the audience.. two more mics for a total of 59 microphones!!  Why so many mics?  Well for example the drum set required 8 mics to capture all the different drums. Let’s not forget the RJO performed 13 songs each concert.  Tom delivered to Michael 26 takes that involved 59 individual tracks that took 300 gigs of memory!

Choosing and placing the mics are an art and science. Todd and Tom spent several hours and sessions choosing the right mics for each instrument.  Some mics are better for studio recording and others for concerts so a compromise was necessary.  The two rehearsals were the testing grounds where Tom would review that evening’s recording to assess if mics should be moved or replaced with a different one.  With adjustments made Todd was ready to prepare the live mix for the audience.  The technical part is only the beginning. The art of mixing is an art that comes with experience.  During rehearsals Todd would go on stage to hear the sound and try to reproduce that for the audience.  Mixing is not a set and forget effort.  Each song and moments in a song are dynamic everchanging set of circumstances.  You have to “ride the mix” by adjusting levels for the singers, catch soloists, and featured sections of perhaps the strings. Todd’s 11-year experience with Jelly Bread made him well informed on Cliff Porter’s singing along with his love for big band jazz made his ears well suited for such a special project.

For those who were not at the concerts, here is a bit of recording magic (can you keep a secret?).  Tom Gordon is a master sound engineer who has worked on all our albums, not to mention so many artists from Whitesnake to Dr. Dre to Willie Nelson. The man has ears, but he also has a secret power.  Working with the audience prior to the concert to record several different levels of applause, from golf clap to wild thunderous applause.  Instead of a Ted Talk, I like to call this a Tom Talk.

Take a listen:

Think of all those 26 takes as diamonds in the rough. They need to be cut and polished to exhibit their beauty.  Mixing and editing is much like that process so just to give you a taste of how the mixing/editing proceeds here is one short excerpt.  The “raw track” are the tracks as they came to Mike. 

Stay tuned for more!

Chuck Reider is the the President of the Reno Jazz Orchestra.

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