Here is, for those who would like to read it again or for the first time, my complete email correspondence with Angelo Montrone, of Majestic Music Factory, in Brooklyn, who is the sound engineer to whom Eddie Cascio and James Porte sent several of the "Cascio tracks" in the early summer of 2009 -- before MJ's death. Enjoy!
Hello,
Surfing the Web, some Michael Jackson fans have noticed that you worked on some of the tracks that were eventually released on the “Michael” album from Sony back in 2010.
As you might remember, those tracks created controversy, and while this controversy has died down in the mainstream media, it is still going strong on Michael Jackson Internet forums, where every effort is still being made to determine how much input MJ had into those songs, and indeed whether he ever even recorded them.
Considering your early involvement in this project, would you mind telling us a bit about your impression of the authenticity of the vocals?
Mainly, did you get the impression working on the tracks that no MJ vocals for those songs existed as of yet, and that they were to come later, or do you agree that there may have been early MJ guide or demo vocals existing before you were handed the tracks?
Thank you very much for your time.
***
Hi,
I assume you are the person who contacted me on Gearslutz. Unfortunately, I never got a straight story as to where they were with MJ in the process. Porte had written on quite a few songs with him and supposedly MJ had laid down some roughs, other things were going to be done later etc. Most of my conversation with Porte centered around the mixes as opposed to the logistics of when they were going to track vocals. We tracked some background vocals for Keep Your Head Up with Katia Cadet in late May and then I was mixing. I sent them my mixes in early June and MJ passed away a few weeks later so there certainly was time for MJ to have recorded his tracks.
On the other hand, I remember hearing the MJ track with headphones after it was released and thinking, "This could be MJ, but it's not MJ doing a great vocal." Maybe that was a rough, maybe it was because of his physical condition and the fact that he had grown older. The only raw MJ tracks I have ever heard were when they did the transfers of Thriller for the 25th anniversary (for Kanye to remix). Because I was an producer/A&R consultant for Sony at the time, I was in the studio and able to listen to all the tracks individually. Listening to MJ's vocal on it's own demonstrated what a great singer he was. Absolutely killer. However, that was 25 years earlier when MJ was young and healthy.
If you want an answer you have to figure out what MJ did between June 3 when I sent the final mix and June 25 when he passed away (and account for the fact that there may have been a guide that MJ had sung during the songwritng that could have been used after the fact).
Regards,
Angelo
***
Hello,
Thank you very much for your answer. I'm not the person who contacted you on Gearslutz, but that must have been somebody else from the same MJ forums I belong to; sorry if too many of us are bothering you at the same time.
It is 100% certain that the vocals that were eventually released on the "Michael" album were NOT recorded between June 3 and June 25; the producers/writers themselves have always claimed that the vocals, such as they are, were recorded in 2007, in Eddie Cascio (Porte's songwriting partner)'s family home, where he has a home studio.
In your email, you mention the following : "Porte had written on quite a few songs with him and supposedly MJ had laid down some roughs, other things were going to be done later etc." This is a HUGELY important point. Did Porte, in his conversations with you, before MJ's death, mention that he had some rough vocals from MJ? If he did mention or imply that he already had some rough vocals from MJ, that would support the official story, which is that all of those vocals that ended up on the album were rough/guide vocals from MJ, recorded in Cascio's home studio, as they were collaborating on the songs.
I thank you again for this information, which is immensely fascinating.
***
Hi,
I can't say with any certainty about what Porte and Cascio (Angel as we called him) had done vocally with MJ on any of the songs that I worked on. I worked on 3 or 4 songs for which they sent me audio and Porte's guide vocals only. Porte does sound a lot like MJ himself.
From what your telling me that Porte and Angelo claimed, it would make sense to me. I know that they had worked on tracks for MJ at Angel's NJ studio (I think they did one of the bonus tracks on the Thriller 25th there), and I was under the impression that they had done guides with MJ on the songs we were working on. Again, I never sat there and drilled them on exactly what they had or hadn't done, because it wasn't relevant to what I was doing. Usually if you're writing with an artist the artist will sing the track to make sure the key is good, the song sounds good with their voice etc, so I would assume that there were some guides done by MJ based on the normal way things are done.
I'm sure this is a tough nut to crack. If you know for sure MJ didn't record after I sent the mixes, well, it's very likely that there were existing guide vox the producer had at their disposal. Beyond that it becomes very murky. There are so many studio tricks that are used on singers to enhance their voices which are just part of modern pop music (pitch correction, copying words from other parts of the song, comping between takes, sliding things around, having another singer's voice blended in subtly to enhance the sound of the lead vocalist) and no doubt that if the producer were working with MJ's rough vocals they were using some of those tricks, which I'm sure MJ himself had used on previous albums (as everyone does to some degree).
You can quote me on the discussion forums but please send me a link to anything you post so I can verity that I'm being quoted correctly.
Hope this helps,
Angelo
***
Hello again,
This is fascinating; thank you so much.
With your permission, I will copy our complete correspondence on the MJ Forum I am a member of; I will also send you the link.
As you might be aware, the controversy regarding those songs is that many people claim that James Porte and Eddie Cascio never had any MJ vocals; not even guide vocals. When MJ died, they simply hired an impersonator to record their tracks, and it is those fake vocals -- according to many -- that are now on the official "Michael" album. That is why I insisted on the very precise point of whether they had told you anything -- before MJ's death -- that implied either that they had MJ's rough vocals in the can, or on the contrary that they didn't have any MJ vocals yet.
If you should remember any additional detail regarding this issue -- or if you ever obtain more information from Eddie Cascio and James Porte, who have both been mostly silent on the controversy -- please do not hesitate to share with me, as this is a maddeningly frustrating situation for MJ fans and music lovers in general.
Thank you again for your time.
***
Hi,
Yes, you can reprint my letter on your forum.
My impression is that there were MJ vocals in existence and that probably those are what was used with various enhancements. I understand why people question it. The vocals on that album are not what people are used to hearing. Some of his vibratos sound off etc, but again if they were doing digital enhancements to make the best of rough vocals that could have been it, maybe MJ just wasn't singing his best because he was just learning the song etc.
What I find amusing about these arguments is that no one ever mentions the fact that Porte himself is a great MJ impersonator. If they were going to fake the tracks, which I don't think they did, Porte would have done it himself.
That's why I take a 95% stance that they are probably real and reserve that last 5% for the slim possibility that some of it could have been faked. When I was working on the roughs, it was almost eery that the vocals already sounded a lot like MJ but were sung by Porte to sound like MJ (they definitely were not MJ, ultimately I could hear that). So first I have these tracks that are eerily sounding like MJ but aren't, then 2 weeks after I submit them MJ passes away, and then there is the whole controversy around the potentially fake vocals, and all along we had joked that Porte could make a living as an MJ impersonator!
I think it's cool that you guys are searching for some truth in all this which is why I'm happy to share some information. Most people who worked on that album are probably more concerned with covering their own asses than revealing what they know.
Regards,
Angelo
***
Hello,
As you can imagine, my posting of our correspondence on the MJ Forum ignited quite a response. Among all of the questions raised, two strike me as particularly pertinent. Since you seem enthusiastic about helping us with this issue, I take the liberty of asking you both questions here:
1- If James Porte already had real MJ guide vocals from 2007 when he handed you the tracks in 2009, why didn’t he put those MJ vocals on the tracks, instead of using his own vocals, especially if he was going to try to sing like MJ anyway?
2- As you know, the vibrato on the Cascio tracks is pretty “shaky”. Those who believe a fraud took place hold that no post-production technique – no music software, no studio trickery – could explain MJ’s natural voice changing into such a weak, shaky vibrato : it has to be an impersonator. Do you agree that the vibrato, as heard on songs like “Breaking News” or “Keep your Head Up”, is a giveaway that it is not MJ singing, or are you aware, as a sound engineer, of other ways in which such an odd-sounding vibrato could have been achieved, voluntarily or not?
I hope that I’m not asking too much of your patience by pestering you with even more questions now. If you choose to no longer answer any more questions, I understand and thank you for your cooperation so far.
***
Hi,
I've been traveling and haven't had a chance to respond to you.
You're answers:
1. It made sense to me on a high profile project like this that they wouldn't send a track of MJ doing a rough because they'd be concerned about his vocal being leaked.
2. The shakey vibrato could be an artifact from pitch correction if the original pitch was sharp (dropping the pitch can make things sound deeper and slower). Also, Autotune has a parameter for adding vibrato -in other words it can track the pitch so tightly that it takes away a singer's natural vibrato and it can recreate it by introducing it's own warble (which the user can set speed and variation). You can download an online instruction manual from Anteres to read more about this. In fact, you could download a free trial and try this yourself and experiment to get an idea of how it effects the voice.
Hope this helps,
Angelo
