Overdub: A Story About Session Musicians

Session musicians don’t get enough credit for the work they do, and the fact of the matter is that many great sessions players don’t work as much as they used to these days thanks to technology. That said, sometimes a real session player’s overdub can really make a song groove in a way that a loop can’t.

Here’s a great short film about sessions musicians called Overdub: A Story About Session Musicians from the University of Indiana Communications Department (great music school, by the way) that looks at some of the best session musicians in the business – percussionist Lenny Castro, drummer Kenny Aronoff, keyboardist Mark T. Jordan, and producer/engineer Bill Schnee.

As you would expect, there are some pretty great stories told along the way.

By the way, if you want to know more about the inner workings of session musicians, check out my Studio Musician’s Handbook (written with studio bassist Paul ILL).