Hello all. This is a blog about my experiences with Cirque Du Soleil. In November 2005-after jazz bassoon masterclasses in
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Memphis-I set out to Montreal to become the saxophonist/bassoonist/keyboardist/percussionist
with Cirque Du Soleil's SALTIMBANCO. After a week in Montreal at their headquarters being blown away by the size of this
creative giant corporation I was sent to Guadalajara, Mexico. It was there that I spent 2 weeks being incorporated into the position I was hired for. I had previous bassoon engagements back in California that I went back for mid-December 2005. Then I came back and I was in Mexico from December 16th, 2005 to February 6th, 2006. My stint in Guadalajara (which included
my premiere with the show on Christmas Day) lasted till January 3th-then my family was flown out for a short vacation in Puerto Vallarta. There are pictures in this blog from that trip. Then I went on (as my family went back home) to Mexico City for about a month. After a 6-week break in February and early March-my entire family came on the road with me as the show moved on to
Santiago, Chile. This production is the first Cirque Du Soleil production ever to hit South America-so we were huge hits and basically treated incredibly well. Cirque is a first-class organization. My family and I stay in incredible accomodations, there are shuttles every half-hour to the show site-once onsite there is an incredible gourmet cafeteria with a French chef and staff. And there are incredible acrobats, incredibly talented clowns and dancers and musicians all working together on a fantastic show that 133,000 people saw in Santiago alone over 6 weeks. In late April the show left Santiago and arrived at the heart of the tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What a fantastic town! We were welcomed at the airport by a press corps and tango dancers who put on a show for us in a conference room. Ever since then we have come to find out just how passionate Buenos Aires and their populace are. We are here till almost mid-June. Then in late July we go to Brazil.
If you have come to this blog thru my jazzbassoon.com site-you may be wondering what this site has to do with jazz bassoon playing. My answer is: this is part of my music world, my career as a unique artist to end up with such an interesting and fantastic organization. I auditioned as a jazz bassoonist: I performed over loops (patterns) of bassoon bass lines I set up by myself with my effects. They were incredibly impressed-but snce they have never had a bassoon player in any Cirque production they didn't know what to do with me. I did also audition on saxophone as most of you know I also play that traditionally non-classical instrument. When a position came along that was close enough to the ballpark of what I can do on my instruments-they came calling and I ended up with this gig. As it turns out-there was a part on the show in a very beautiful part of the program that called for bassoon; since none of their other sax players played bassoon it was played on Electric Wind Instrument (it's called EWI-I call it WIWI since I really don't like the thing). It's one of the highlights of the show.
There are some things coming up on tour that will feature my bassoon playing and writing. On June 5th-there will be a special cabaret involving Cirque Du Soleil performers and some of the top performing artists in Buenos Aires. My composition
MEDIUMS from THE LAST ROMANTICS will be used in a dance piece-it's being choreographed by a leading choreographer here. (I'll get the name later!) Also-I will be doing a solo bassoon piece involving my electronics as well.
As a musician-the hardest part about this job in the beginning is logistics and keeping your head in the game.
I play soprano, alto, tenor saxophones, bassoon, EWI, keyboards and percussion. None of the music is technically really difficult for me-what's difficult is watching the action on stage and keeping in synch with the performers. All the bandmembers have a lot of sound effects to play: I play the sounds of a lady screaming, a toilet overflowing, a closet opening its contents on a clown's head. You have to watch and keep track of all the movements to get the timing just right-and you have to change depending on how the act is going that particular performance. Instrumentally-I have improvised solos that have to build to a climax and end right on cue with a juggler's final juggle. The mental part of the show is much harder than
any of the passages. Since we are on stage-we also are in makeup and costume-I had to learn how to do my makeup fast.
We are also in the interesting position of being very vital to the timing of the acrobats. We are accompanying them-they really only notice us when we make a mistake. Not that they don't appreciate what we do-but we are really mainly in the service of what they are doing. There are improvised solos and I do get noticed from time to time-that always makes one feel good. The challenge is to do a clean show 10 times a week and stay inspired to give all your energy to hit those cues, to play a really exciting solo, to match your phrasing with the other musicians when we play phrases together, to make your instrument switches cleanly, to always set your equipment such as patch assignments ahead of time so you don't find yourself playing the wrong sound, to make sure you have the right volume pedal depressed. All those mundane things must be delivered each and every time or else you will hear about it. It's so different than anything I've ever done before.
The future? Stay tuned. There are all sorts of show possibilities that I am considering for next year as well as Cirque is considering me for. I will keep you informed as I can. Thanks for your time! Look forward to hear from you-Paul
