An Interview with Seattle's Brian Lee - Scientist and Artist

An Interview with Seattle's Brian Lee –Scientist & Artist Dr. Tim Maher

© 2010 by Timothy F. Maher

In a restaurant a tall, slim man with a mischievous smile is pushing a hastily assembled phalanx of condiment dispensers across the table toward his companion. Why? To demonstrate how the “phased array” technique for ultrasound imaging can be adapted to make better drum recordings.

This is Brian Lee, Scientist and Artist !

My first contact with the Seattle blues scene occurred while I was sauntering past the Salmon Bay Eagles club in Ballard on a "Free Blues" summer evening. The searing Blues sounds seeping through the cedar siding seemed to be shaking the stately saloon straight to its soul, stimulating my search for their source.1 Inside I found the Blues Orbiters in full flight, headed by Brian Lee, whom I found to be an accomplished vocalist, guitarist, and harpist. I noticed that he took great care in voicing every note properly and in investing each with an abundance of feeling. When he played slide, I found him to be superior to other club players, showing a mastery of styles ranging from Elmore James to Ry Cooder and the ability to execute complex, powerful passages with precision. He obviously cared a lot about getting just the right tone too, as indicated by his use of vintage microphones and amplifiers and different guitars for different songs. I was equally impressed with Brian as a Blues harp player. What's more, when I later saw him jam with several other highly respected harp players from the Seattle area, I found that his classic tone, creativity, and ability to play just the right lick at the right time really made him stand out from the pack. Any description of Brian Lee would be inadequate if it neglected to mention the first thing an audience member would likely notice—which is, he smiles a lot! This is why some people call him—you guessed it—"Smiley". He explained to me that he can't help but smile when he's performing, because he has so much fun doing it—and that shows! For several years, Brian Lee has led the popular Northwest bands known as the Brian Lee Trio, Streamliner, and the Blues Orbiters (now called Brian Lee & the Orbiters). These groups share most of the same personnel, but they cover blues classics by different artists and they play varying proportions of Brian’s original songs versus cover songs. The band members are widely respected as "musician's musicians", which is not surprising because each is an accomplished artist with numerous distinctions. For example, every member of the Blues Orbiters has been nominated for one or more awards from the Washington Blues Society, Tim Sherman has won Best Blues Guitarist three times, and bassist Hank Yanda has competed in the International Blues Challenge (held in Memphis each year). With talent like this, it's no wonder Conrad Ormsby (drums) and Tim Sherman (guitar) can enjoy day jobs teaching other musicians how to improve their playing, rather than toiling in other fields to pay their bills.

1 Don’t worry, that’s all the strained alliteration you’ll get in this article. ☺

Brian Lee churning out classic Blues licks at Seattle’s Highway 99 Blues Club

(caught at a rare moment when he wasn’t smiling)

Brian Lee: Scientist & Artist Washington Blues Blog, 12/19/2010

http://wabluessociety.blogspot.com 2/6

During that serendipitous session at the Eagles, I was so impressed with the band that I ended up talking to the players about their instruments, backgrounds, and favorite artists for quite some time. When I learned that Brian Lee (BL) lived near me, I invited him to a series of "lunch meetings" to learn more about him and his music. This interview grew out of those conversations and things I (TM) learned by attending additional performances by his bands. TM> Where did you grow up and what brought you to Seattle? BL> I was born in San Francisco in ‘55. My wife Suzanne and I met in high school and after graduating we moved north to study at the University of Oregon (U of O) in Eugene, where my Dad had relatives. We have been married now for 35 years. We have two lovely daughters who are now 27 and 23 years old. From Eugene, we moved to Portland and then we came to Seattle in 1988, where I've lived ever since. TM> What credentials did you earn at the U of O and in what field have you been working? BL> I got a B.A. and M.A. in Physics, with a specialization in the field of low temperature Quantum Fluid Dynamics. Following school, I worked for several well known international companies in the Medical Electronics industry, mostly in the ultrasound field. TM> What kinds of work did you do there and what is your current "day job"? BL> From 1995 to 2008, I was the Vice President of Engineering and/or Manufacturing for various companies that make ultrasound and defibrillator devices for clinics and hospitals (such as Phillips and Siemens). Since then, my "day job" has been to work full time as a professional musician!

TM> Would the ultrasound imaging procedure used on a pregnant woman's abdomen be performed using the kinds of instruments that your former companies manufactured? BL> It would indeed!

Brian Lee enjoying another scintillating solo by ace guitarist Tim Sherman



TM> How did you prepare for your new career as a full time musician and bandleader? BL> I studied Music Technology at Shoreline Community College (near Seattle), which included working on several software/hardware platforms for digital recording as well as learning about copyright law, the music business, and related issues. This knowledge helped me choose appropriate software and hardware for my recording studio. In addition, it encouraged me to create the BMI account for my own songwriting and to honor the works of others by paying royalties for any non-original songs we include on our CDs. TM> What were your early musical influences? BL> We had a piano around the house that was my Grandmother’s and I took some lessons from a neighbor when I was little. Then I had a brief and unsuccessful grade school fling with the trumpet. My Dad was into HiFi stuff and listened to a lot of jazz and my Grandpa liked early jazz and folk, so there was a variety of music around while I was growing up. When I started getting interested in blues as a kid, in part because of the British blues movement, my dad pulled out a bunch of boogie woogie piano records and folksy blues like Jesse Fuller that moved me a little further down the path. TM> What was the first musical experience that had a profound impact on you? BL> When I was about 12 I used to listen to radio broadcasts from San Francisco's KSAN (an independent station) and a station from Los Gatos (near San Jose, CA). On one occasion, I heard a Little Walter song followed immediately by an Elmore James tune and I was instantly hooked! It was a classic “hair on the back of your neck standing up” moment. I loved the sounds of the blues harp and the slide guitar. Another landmark event for me was a big “Folk Rock” concert in San Jose, with an outstanding performance by Canned Heat. Hearing Alan Wilson (harp) and Larry Taylor (bass) playing a slow blues together was very moving. Much later on, when I was living in Portland, one really memorable and influential show I saw featured Albert King and [slide master] Ry Cooder in a small club setting. I really admire both of them, so it was a real treat. TM> What was the first instrument you learned to play, and how did you learn? BL> I started pestering my folks about getting me a guitar so when I was about 13 my Dad pulled my Grandfather's dusty old 1957 Martin D21 [acoustic] guitar from a closet. I didn’t even know we had it. It’s a great guitar, so I got off to a great start! I learned slide first, using open tunings I picked up from friends who played folk music. Then I learned regular chords, with the help of some schoolmates who were also learning guitar. During this period, I was also teaching myself harp. TM> When did you join your first band? BL> I jammed with friends starting in my teens but I didn't play in a real band until my university days. At that time, I was in a duo called "Bottleneck Slim & Deaf Peter Rolnick" (I was the non-"deaf" one!). When my kids got a little older, I started doing some band-oriented playing that led to the formation of the Blues Orbiters in 1999.

“I heard a Little Walter song followed immediately by an Elmore James tune and I was instantly hooked! It was a classic ‘hair on the back of your neck standing up’

moment. I loved the sounds of the blues harp and the slide guitar.”

TM> Interesting background, Brian! Shifting to the present, what’s the latest news on Brian Lee and the Orbiters? BL> We just added three new original tunes as MP3 singles on our web-site:

1. "On the Ropes", which is a new song I wrote in the style of Guitar Slim, 2. “Fine Line”, which is a hard driving Chicago style harp tune, and 3. “What Hit Me”, which is a slide tune.

By the way, all the songs on our next 'Orbiters CD will be originals.



TM> When will that next CD become available?

BL> We’re taking a new approach by releasing MP3 singles as we go, then following these with the release of the CD album. I like to think this brings us back to the early days of 78 and 45 rpm vinyl singles followed by albums. We've been working on the new recordings for some time and it's taking a bit longer than I’d originally hoped, in part because along the way I moved and then designed and built a new recording studio!

TM> Wow! That sounds like a very ambitious undertaking! How did that go?

In summary, Brian said he had spent the last several years designing and building—and then redesigning and rebuilding—his studio, until it recently reached a stable configuration that satisfies him.

Unlike many scientists, Brian Lee has the ability to switch off the logical side of his brain and plunge head first into the feeling of a song.

I was curious to learn what a recording studio built by an Ultrasound Engineer would be like, so I jumped at the chance when Brian offered to take me on a tour. What I found was a quiet, roomy, and orderly space which was well planned and equipped with impressively high-end components.2 He explained what was special about each of them, but surprisingly, his delivery lacked the usual zeal—sometimes bordering on fanaticism—that I have come to expect from audiophiles describing their own systems.

Next, he played me the band’s recent recordings. The songs were fresh and topical, yet clearly grounded in classic Blues roots—which is Brian’s songwriting specialty. Even better, the recordings exhibited the essential properties of being crisp and clear, without being sterile. Brian then demonstrated a sophisticated approach to drum recording he was experimenting with, which is based on the “phased array” technique used in Ultrasound Imaging.

Finally, Brian asked me if I had any questions. As someone who’s always had at least a rudimentary home studio since he was 12, who has current friends with elaborate studios, and who had witnessed the development of digital audio recording firsthand,3 I would of course be expected to have lots of insightful questions in such a situation! But I had an uneasy feeling that I was missing something important about this man, his studio, and his musical journey, which caused me to take a moment for reflection.

Glancing around the control room, I pondered the sophisticated preamps, equalizers, screen displays, and other gadgets and gizmos when suddenly, something odd near the mixing board caught my eye. It was an unusually massive over-the-finger guitar slide, the likes of which I'd never seen before! So I asked Brian to tell me about it.

BL> You can't buy ready-made guitar slides like this one anywhere, so I make my own! I buy galvanized plumbing pipe and remove the rough finish by polishing it with a file and emery paper. Then I polish it with Simichrome metal polish—designed for use on car parts—leaving a smooth bare steel surface with low drag. This may sound straightforward enough, but in fact it takes several hours to complete this procedure for just one slide.

TM> What's so special about your custom slides, which makes them worth all this trouble?

2 Perhaps most impressively, it was conspicuously lacking any wires running across the floor or dangling from the ceiling! These wires may signify a “band aid” (pun intended) approach to addressing oversights from the design stage, and they can be seen in many homemade recording studios—including mine! 3 Specifically, in the early '80s I was a guest researcher in the laboratory where digital audio recording was invented (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stockham). My role was to show them Experimental Psychology’s techniques for measuring the quality of the listener's experience. I provided a similar perspective for the team in the same laboratory that invented the first prosthetic sensory device for humans, the Artificial Ear (also known as the "Cochlear Implant”).

Brian Lee demonstrating his unique homemade guitar slide



BL> The extra mass you get from using the heavier pipe makes it harder for the vibrating strings to transfer their energy to the slide; that keeps the strings vibrating longer, which in turn causes the notes to be sustained longer.4

Thus, Brian is following in the footsteps of previous slide guitar greats by experimenting with household materials—such as glass bottles, lipstick cases, ratchet wrench sockets, and yes, even galvanized pipe—to get the best sound he can from his guitar slide.

At this point, I felt that I had reached a significant insight into the kind of Scientist/Artist Brian Lee is.

He's certainly comfortable with high (and low) tech devices and he knows how to make the most of them in pursuit of his musical goals. But he's not overly dependent on technology, as shown by his ability to whip out a harmonica and play a single note that sends shivers down your spine. Nor is Brian obsessed with high technology, as demonstrated by his willingness to leave his splendid studio to buy a hunk of ugly metal that he’ll transform—laboriously, by hand—into a shiny musical wand to enhance his sound.

The critical characteristic that separates Brian Lee from the fanatical audiophiles I’ve known is that with Brian, the technology is always employed in the service of the music—not the reverse.

Brian Lee has a deeper understanding than most of the scientific principles that make musical instruments work.

You can see a close-up of Brian using his custom slide in the photo on the previous page, which he supplied for this article. When I asked him what kind of guitar he was playing in that photo, I learned something even more impressive about Brian’s ability to apply his engineering skills to his musical

pursuits. He designed and built that guitar himself (see adjacent photo), to combine the best features of the [popular and prized] Gibson 335 and Gibson Les Paul models in one instrument! This revelation led to some further discussion.

TM> How would you describe the relationship between your scientific and artistic selves and how they affect your music?

BL> I view the recording aspect of my musical endeavors as bridging my ultrasound engineering experiences with my musical pursuits; it’s all connected in a nice way. I'm engaged by both the musical and technical aspects of the recording process, which is why the personal studio route was a good fit for me.

TM> I wonder if that old adage about boat ownership might also apply to those thinking about building their own recording studios. Specifically, in the same way that most boaters would be wiser just to give a boat-owning acquaintance $100 every time she takes him boating—rather than buying, insuring, maintaining, fueling, etc., his own boat—would most musicians be wiser to pay to use somebody else’s studio rather than to build their own studios?

BL> Generally so, but in my case I designed and built my own custom studio, which has characteristics I value that I couldn't find in a rental studio!

This response didn’t surprise me, or probably you either, because we already knew that Brian Lee wasn’t the kind of guy to be satisfied with off-the-shelf music technology—not when he could be engineering his own musical gear instead!

4 The same general principle explains why a (heavy) Gibson Les Paul guitar sustains notes longer than a (lighter) Fender Telecaster guitar does, although it is the mass of each guitar's bridge/body system that governs the sustain in this case.

Brian Lee playing his homemade "Lee Paul" semi-hollow body guitar with his homemade slide



Luckily for the rest of us, boats, guitars, guitar slides, and home recording studios continue to be available for purchase (or rental) by those who’d rather not roll their own!

In the yellow box below, Brian Lee lists his top-10 most favorite albums for you. To learn more about Brian Lee and his bands, visit http://www.brianleeorbiters.com.

Brian Lee selects his

D e s e r t I s l a n d A l b u m s

Brian was asked to name 10 albums he'd want to bring along if he knew he'd be stranded somewhere on his own for a very long time! Here are his picks:

1. "T-Bone Blues" by T-Bone Walker 2. Any one of the several Elmore James compilations 3. The Little Walter compilation called “His Best” 4. "Kiko" by Los Lobos 5. From Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue" 6. "Midnight Blue" by Kenny Burrell 7. Any good Johnny "Guitar" Watson compilation 8. “Together Again/Tiger by the Tail” by Buck Owens 9. Something from Hank Williams

10. Anything by Ry Cooder

Dr. Tim Maher is a Seattle based computer scientist and psychologist who sings, plays guitar, bass, and Indian sitar, and has published original

research on the Psychology of Music. Most of Tim's writings on Blues topics have appeared in the Seattle Bluesletter, published by the

Washington Blues Society.

Contact info: [email protected] http://YouTube.com/timji42 http://facebook.com/people/Tim-Maher/1250070585

An Interview with Seattle's Brian Lee - Scientist and Artist

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