美国国家公共电台 NPR Backing Musicians Do The Heavy Lifting On NBC's 'The Voice'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

NBC's hit show "The Voice" pairs famous recording¹ artists with aspiring² singers competing for a chance at a recording contract. The stars sit in big red chairs as the competitors give it their all on stage. Also giving it their all - the backup musicians, the house band. NPR's Elizabeth Blair went behind the scenes to learn more about "The Voice" house band for the first in our summer series Backstage Pass.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Six, five - big applause, big applause. And we're happy, yay.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE³: "The Voice" is a pretty massive operation.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE VOICE THEME")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) This is "The Voice."

BLAIR: On live show days, rehearsals⁵ begin at 3 in the afternoon in a studio theater on the Universal lot in Los Angeles. The contestants⁶, the crew and the band do a run through of what they'll perform that night.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) And it's too late, baby. Now it's too late. Oh...

BLAIR: The musicians and the house band need to be versatile⁷ because on any given night, the contestants perform a range of different styles from country...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE VOICE")

LAUREN DUSKI: (Singing) I'm just a ghost in this house.

BLAIR: To Broadway show tunes⁸...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE VOICE")

WE MCDONALD: (Singing) Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade.

BLAIR: To R&B...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE VOICE")

CHRIS BLUE: (Singing) It must be love on the brain that's got me feeling this way.

BLAIR: When you watch the voice on TV, you don't always see the musicians. But they're there on stage behind the singer, sometimes playing in the dark. They're veterans who've backed some very big names - Cher, Pink, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan. During rehearsal⁴, even though they're on stage together, they talk to each other through headsets so they don't have to shout. Between songs, they make adjustments.

BLUE: I think I'm going let the cymbals⁹ ring because it sounds weird¹⁰ that I stop and Dave and Justin like...

SASHA KRIVTSOV: We don't play - it's - yeah, it builds and then we - we don't play the down beat at all.

BLAIR: That's bass¹¹ player Sasha Krivtsov and drummer Nate Morton with guitarist Justin Derrico.

NATE MORTON: I just want to...

KRIVTSOV: B flat to C and we get off before the downbeat and adjust.

JUSTIN DERRICO: I thought we were plowing¹² through it.

BLAIR: "The Voice" house band has plowed¹³ through an extraordinary number of songs since the show began six years ago.

PAUL MIRKOVICH: We've learned over 6,000 songs for the show.

BLAIR: Six thousand songs. Paul Mirkovich is "The Voice" music director and main keyboard player.

MIRKOVICH: It definitely gets your chops together to be able to play just about anything. And you have to play each song like this is the greatest song in the world. We're playing this song exactly like it's supposed to be played.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE VOICE")

LILLI PASSERO: (Singing) Ours is not an easy age. We're like tigers in a cage. What a town without pity can do.

BLAIR: Learn. Rehearse. Record. Perform. Learn. Rehearse. Record. Perform. The house band on "The Voice" is expected to keep up and keep the show moving.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Three, four.

MICHEAL BERNARD: So you hear that click track? That's what the band follows along.

BLAIR: "The Voice's" music editor Michael Bernard says the click track plays in the band musician's ears. That way they keep the singers from stretching out notes too long or singing too fast - important in a live TV show that needs to end on time.

BERNARD: If not, someone could go way too slow or way too fast. And next thing you know, we - were ending up 10 minutes short or 10 minutes too long in a show.

BLAIR: Bernard says that rarely happens because these musicians are a tight unit. They've worked together for years. "The Voice's" music director Paul Mirkovich.

MIRKOVICH: You're unlike any other discipline of the show - the producers or the editors or anybody else. We have to be perfect, you know, because nobody remembers the 6,000 songs that we play if we make a mistake on one of them.

BLAIR: After all, it's the band's job not to be noticed but to make the singers competing on "The Voice" sound as good as they can. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF GENE PITNEY SONG, "TOWN WITHOUT PITY")

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

5 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 versatile   

adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的

参考例句：

• A versatile person is often good at a number of different things.多才多艺的人通常擅长许多种不同的事情。
• He had been one of the game's most versatile athletes.他是这项运动中技术最全面的运动员之一。

8 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 cymbals   

pl.铙钹

参考例句：

• People shouted, while the drums and .cymbals crashed incessantly. 人声嘈杂，锣鼓不停地大响特响。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• The dragon dance troupe, beating drums and cymbals, entered the outer compound. 龙灯随着锣鼓声进来，停在二门外的大天井里。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

10 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

11 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

12 plowing   

v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• "There are things more important now than plowing, Sugar. "如今有比耕种更重要的事情要做呀，宝贝儿。 来自飘（部分）
• Since his wife's death, he has been plowing a lonely furrow. 从他妻子死后，他一直过着孤独的生活。 来自辞典例句

13 plowed   

v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
• He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土，然后播种。 来自辞典例句