Paul on tour

And So It Ends

2006-12-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

And so it is over-this marvelous, year-long adventure. Now we are back in good ol' North America recovering from Christmas.
We had some of the best experiences we've ever had on the trip-now it's back to this version of normal life. Thanks to all
of you out there for following us! Best wishes for 2007 to all!

Zach plays the pandeiro with our hotel's great samba band

2006-11-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

This was when we arrived a month ago-Zach now runs to wherever they are playing around the pool and dances and
bangs the pandeiro when offered. The 3-piece band is smoking hot-I should know their names and I promise I will soon.

Bella's Halloween Pumpkins

2006-11-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

Bella did these mainly herself on the computer from a program emailed us by Karen Ewart.
Arty pumpkins...

Rio Fun

2006-11-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

Here's some pool shots. The mountain in the back is to the west of us-the ocean is south of us.

More Rio pix

2006-11-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, Cynthia and I recommend Rio. Definitely come here and miss Sao Paulo.
Picture 1: Cynthia and the kids in the Botanical Gardens. There are trees there dating back to the 18th century.
Picture 2: Samba dancers at the Premiere party.
Picture 3: Dad (me, Paul Hanson, SALTIMBANCO saxophonist) with Zach, Bella. Geremie (son of Marc Sohier, bassist and
bandleader of SALTIMBANCO band) is next to me in the pool.
Picture 4: Samba band at the Premiere party. It was a very loud and very funky samba band. The roots of Brazilian samba
are from Angola in Africa where I heard it was called Simba (?) I saw this on a BBC program about Brazilian-African connections.
Unlike in North America-African slaves were allowed to keep a lot of their religious and cultural heritage when they were brought over.
I hope someone who was at the SALTIMBANCO Halloween party has some pix of Cynthia and I and the kids..send them my way. It was great to go to a party for Cynthia as she really wanted to go to the Premiere party.

Concert Shots

2006-10-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Brad Fernihough is our head physiologist on SALTIMBANCO. He is
also a budding professional photographer-and he was nice enough to let me use
some of his shots of my duo concert with Caito back in Sao Paulo. Here is a sampling of his work. That concert was a lot of fun and it's great to see it reflected here-although we look serious we're having serious fun! His site will be www.bradfernihoughphotography.com and I think it will be operational soon.

Bella and Zach at the welcome party in RIO

2006-10-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

I'm adding these pix after a great day of swimming pools, playground next to the swimming pool, drinks, food, walking around,
and enjoying the sun and sea.

RIO: WOW! NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!!

2006-10-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Nothing will ever prepare you for the experience of seeing the natural beauty of this place. You don't see it driving thru
the suburbs up thru the huge favelas and poverty as you come in from the west. You won't see it as you are driving in bumper
to bumper traffic underneath a freeway at rush hour next to properties where they have barbed wire and broken glass embedded in the fences for protection. You won't see it in a traffic jam stuck inside 4 tunnels on the way to your hotel.
But-when you finally, finally arrive at one of the famous beaches here-you will see it for sure, no doubt. The light, the sea
breeze air, the carioca lifestyles that you see out your window, the water, the sand, the mountains right next to the water, the jungle, the clouds-it's all there. THIS is why Brazil is famous. Not only that-our hotel is off the hook, incredibly comfortable,
great for the kids, familiar but not home at all-although I could make myself at home here quite easily, THIS is our reward
for SURVIVING SAO PAULO for 3 months. 3 swimming pools (one for the kids), an actual PLAYGROUND 20 feet from the pool,
a bar IN THE POOL, room service, 5 restaurants, a mall downstairs, and shuttle service between the hotel and beaches and
shopping malls. And they welcomed us with music and capirinhas (somewhat like a Margarita but better and stronger-capirinhas are I think the national drink). I can't think of a more opposite feeling than being in Sao Paulo. I must say
that all the people I met in Sao Paulo are really nice and fun to be around. The arts, business-it's all there. But living there
sucks in terms of getting around and breathing.
A comparison chart:

SAO PAULO:
Choking and coughing due to constant traffic smog, rivers that are open sewers.
RIO:
Air is sea air straight off the Atlantic-also plenty of Atlantic coast rain forest around. Air is wonderful.
SAO PAULO:
Hotel is a business hotel and very stiff. They take your plate away before you are finished because of their
ultra-strict training. Nothing to do for kids-except a ball pit on Saturdays next to the freeway next to the sewer river.
High-speed internet is not high-speed; still costs $15 a day.
RIO:
Hotel is the bomb. Next to the beach, 3 swimming pools, relaxed efficient staff, mall downstairs, A PLAYGROUND (first one
I've seen in Brazil that I can recognize as a playground), 40% on room service and all food. They have expensive high-speed
but you can also choose dial-up for free and it works just as good as the high-speed in Sao Paulo!
SAO PAULO:
Traffic, traffic, rain, rain, traffic, gunshots, the smell of shit. Kid parks are all hyped-up crazy places with 10,000 kids in them.
RIO:
I'm sure there's going to be traffic and gunshots in some parts of this town. No doubt it's very dangerous. We
saw a lot of severe poverty on the way in. It's just that the geography prevents us from having to live in sections
where we should hear gunshots and have to deal with traffic literally all the time. I'm sure some of the time it will be bad.
But the air and the scenery is just so much better than having to stare out your window at a vacant lot next to a freeway next to a sewer river while your kids can't go anywhere because there's no place to go. Kids will have plenty to do without having to go to a kiddie funny farm of an amusement park.
I'll let you all know how things progress-so far so very good to be here. The pictures were taken right out on our
patio outside our rooms at the Rio Intercontinental.

Road to Rio

2006-10-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

Finally we're leaving Sao Paulo and taking what will turn out to be a 7-hour bus ride with Cirque members to Rio.
Here's a few pix from the trip. The scenery was very green and I would say subtropical with a hint of California as we dropped in elevation from about 1000 meters to sea level. At one point about an hour out we started a series of switchbacks-this is where I snapped this shot.

At the mall amusement park

2006-10-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

Here's Zach, Cynthia and Bella riding the merry-go-round.

Great Concert with Caito Marcondes

2006-10-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

It was so, so very nice to get back to my 'bassoon roots' on this tour. As this blog is linked somewhat to my www.jazzbassoon.com site there hasn't been much discussion of that instrument here. In 1998-a really long time
ago it seems-I was working on a new age bassoon album with violinist Tracy Silverman of Turtle Island and Jim Brickman fame.
At Tracy's house I met Caito. He was there playing with Tracy on something and there was a jam one night at the house. Cynthia came along and somewhere we have a photo of me playing a drum and Cynthia playing a shaker or something. I had a mustache and goatee-it was THAT long ago back in the 90's. Caito and I really wanted to get another chance to play-in 2000 I almost went down to Brazil to do just that but I got called to tour with Bela Fleck. So-we finally got the chance to do a set
of mainly original music that Caito wrote-but we also improvised some tunes as well. It was a great evening that really meant something to me and Caito-that we could get together because of my gig with Cirque and share some special sounds. Some
Cirque people came down and really made it even more special. We did this on my off day Monday Oct 2nd. I wish we could play some more-we're talking about Rio this fall and then the US this year. Caito sings, plays drums and xylophone all at the same time. And he's got a great sense of humor too. Our Cirque physiologist Brad Ferinhough took some really awesome pictures that may end up here soon. He's really an incredible photographer and I'm looking forward to seeing a sample here.

Clubland for the band

2006-10-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

The SALTIMBANCO band played another club gig Oct 1st after an entire week of the show. Our guitarist Benoit
got everything together (including chord charts!) and me, Armen, Serge and Marc all had a fun time. I couldn't last
the whole night because I was to play a special duo concert with Brazilian percussionist Caito Marcondes the next night.
But when I was there I crammed the horn on the mic and just let loose with appropriately loud horn funk/blues sounds.

2006-10-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hi there! There's not too much to do for the kids-as you might remember from the last blog update.
One of the only outdoor places they can play is right next to the Hyatt at this pretty neat Japanese garden. There's
a few lawns, some small bridges over streams with fish in them, nice designs of rocks and plants. It's worked for
awhile. Zach really just likes to run up and down the metal ramp leading to the place. He also likes picking up pieces
of broken granite molding and throwing them into the water. I taught him how to throw rocks into the stream and he
can't stop throwing EVERYTHING into the water. But we've had a little post-breakfast fun here.

Long Run in Sao Paulo

2006-09-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone-finally a new posting!
We are about 4 weeks away from getting out of this concrete jungle. Cynthia and the kids are here and I am SO HAPPY to
be back all together as a family. They are getting into the routine here. Unfortunately-there's not so much for them to do here
as this is really a crime and poverty spot and we don't want to take too many chances. Nothing says we're not Brazilian more
than having three natural redheads in a family. The general gut feeling we have here is that things are just not quite as safe as
you'd want it to be to go around everywhere in town with small kids. Just the other day someone from Cirque witnessed a gunfight between two cars in traffic as they were coming back from downtown at noon. We aren't in a bad area but there's really not much to do besides go to the mall or go to site. Or stay at the hotel. It's just not a beautiful town like Buenos Aires-it's really a huge city with an incredible amount of economic disparity between incredibly rich (and lighter-skinned) "beautiful" people and INCREDIBLY poor (and usually darker-skinned) people living on a dollar a day who live in favelas made out of tin, cardboard
and scrap wood. There really is two Brazils and you can see the contrast everywhere. And there's some interesting decisions made by the authorities here that would surprise anyone. For example-on Father's Day here in Sao Paulo-they let criminal fathers out of prison because they have assessed that this is more SAFE than keeping them in. Apparently a lot of these criminals have connections to more criminals on the outside and hell can ensue. Everyone here is really ready to go on to Rio
after being here since late July. There's a social scene for some and some incredible music and culture but it's such a smoggy and crowded city with such bad smells and traffic that people are really ready for something else.
We are trying to work ourselves out of a pickle. When I got my family visas-they had to have proof that they were traveling-and they could not be traveling for more than a 3-month stay. It was told to me that when they got here they could extend their visa (and they are) and also change their ticket. Well-guess what. The airline we used to get down here was Continental.
I tried to change their tickets so that they could stay til the end of the tour and we could all go home together (Zach is a handful on a 20-hour flight). They told me that because I'm changing the ticket from a 3-month ticket to a 4-month ticket
I have to be put into a different ticket class and that the change would cost me $980 a ticket PLUS $150 for just changing the date. That comes to nearly $2300 (!?!) to stay an extra 8 DAYS! This sucks and the Cirque travel and lodging guy is trying
to pull a solution. Cynthia has been through hell more than once this year trying to keep our wild bear cub of a kid Zach from
tearing up the plane on a 18-hour jaunt South and North. Stay tuned.
Although the tone of this latest post is not too positive-we have had a great time just getting into the routine we have.
Breakfast in the hotel is fabulous and free-and there's a beautiful japanese garden right outside the hotel that the kids can play in and be with their friends from the circus. The pools are great here and the spa is wonderful-so is the gym. Just being in a routine all together for awhile is really nice. We have gone around a little bit and will some more. But we'd really love to
get to Rio as we are right on the beach and that will be great.

Two interesting glimpses into SALTIMBANCO

2006-09-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

We've been selling out here every show and there's been a lot of press. It usually doesn't involve me-although there was TV cameras and a crew filming for some Brazilian show that got some footage of Bella offering the woman interviewer a doll while
Zach, Cynthia and I were in the background (and I was in makeup and costume). I'm posting some URLs from a site
called YouTube that involve this show. One is a TV interview of our show with our media woman Pasqual. Another is something that was taken back in Argentina showing an act that isn't in the show but was in a special cabaret performance of non-SALTIMANCO stuff in Buenos Aires. NOTE: after posting this I see that there doesn't appear to be URLs but instead blue boxes
of question marks. Press on THOSE and you will get to the YouTube videos.

Party for Geremie

2006-09-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

There was a birthday party for our music director's son Geremie. I took a few shots of the scene.
In the second shot you can see Geremie underneath his mom Linda (who was an acrobat on this show) as
they look at cutting the cake. Zach is processing all the hubbub.The first is a shot including Bella,
her friends Alena and Cleo. And the last is more of Zach getting ornery.

At Caito's house

2006-09-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

This is a shot of me sitting with Miguel while Caito is in the back fixing some Brazilian barbeque. I'm sorry not to have more
shots of Caito as he is really an amazing Brazilian musician, composer and percussionist. And a great host. We are doing a duo
gig Oct. 2nd at a small theatre here in Sao Paulo. I was really, really tired and sick this day so we took it easy. Caito, his wife Regina and son Miguel were incredibly gracious hosts; I had to sleep there a bit while my kids were all over the place while our hosts were so supportive and happy to have us. I really wish I had more time to work out more stuff with Caito. He's performed
with just about everyone in the Brazilian jazz and pop scene: Milton Nascimento, Toninho Horta, Egberto Gismonti, Hermeto Pasqual, Rita Lee, Turtle Island String Quartet, John Scofield. He's also a great writer-I'm playing something he wrote for me on his new album. It's so difficult when I'm playing 10 shows a week and getting really, really exhausted to do something along the lines of what I was doing creatively before I joined this show. But we will do our best when we can.

Zach in the bidet

2006-09-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Zach is fascinated by water and toilet-like appliances. The first thing he did in his new home (Room 310, Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo) was to run to the bathroom and look for something to turn on. The easiest and most accessible was the bidet (god, I hope that's the right spelling). I hope you all know what a bidet is so I won't explain it. Anyway-Zach hauls ass into the bathroom, sees the bidet and all the faucets attached to it. He turns on all the knob handles and water shoots up into his face
and onto the ceiling. These shots are from a later period where he's reached a certain satisfaction with the thing. We also turned off the water supply as well.

Zach likes the bidet

2006-09-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

Irony in Sao Paulo

2006-08-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hi again-I came across some interesting moments living here in Sao Paulo. Since we've been told that it's a relatively dangerous
town with kidnappings and lots of robberies-I've been looking forward to going down to the ATM here at the hotel since our
Cirque handlers informed us that the hotel had an ATM. This is a lot nicer than going out somewhere and risk getting robbed.
So I go down there only to be told by the concierge somewhat sadly (but not too much) that the ATM won't work with our cards.
Sure enough-no go. So-I have to go down to the mall. I walk the three blocks to get there. The first ATM (an HSBC bank machine) won't do anything for me. No go #2. So I go to the next ATM there complete with security guard. I feel safe. The first
one doesn't work either. It says to put your card in with stripe up. It doesn't work. I put the card in the wrong way and IT WORKS-or at least for a moment. When I make a selection marking Cirrus as my network-it shuts me down. No go #3.
Then-I go the the other one there-this one has a picture of Ren Jun our trapeze artist on it over the words "SALTIMBANCO". Great-it's the show I'm playing-it's GOT to work. I try it and at first it doesn't work-I can't understand Portuguese and I'm trying to figure it out. There's a chance it will work. So-I get to the point where I put in my account number. The numbers are set differently than ATM machines everywhere else I've been-the top numbers aren't 1,2,3 but 7,8,9. So I have put in a wrong number and I'm trying to figure out how to cancel it and start over. I can't help being a bit frustrated and I say something like
"Damn machine!" only to sense that the security guard is looking me over (and he's armed of course). So-I calm down-put the card back into the machine while Ren Jun is on the screen of the "SALTIMBANCO" display-and finally I get my money.
To top things off-I go to the Cirque site later in the day to start work. There are signs plastered all around the site that say
(translated loosely) "SALTIMBANCO-brought to you by VISA!" I mean-VISA's got their sign plastered EVERYWHERE. I go up to
one of our crew members Sylvain. I tell him about my ordeal. He says "That's nothing. Do you see all the VISA signs here?
If you try to buy a ticket to see the show-guess what card they DON'T ACCEPT here-VISA!!!" Apparently it's true.
Whaddyaknow!

Hello from Sao Paulo!

2006-08-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Just though I'd finally update the blog a bit. I'm down in Sao Paulo, Brazil until October 22nd. Then we go to Rio for
about a month and a half starting in November after a week off. My family isn't here yet-they'll be coming in September as we got our house rented and Cynthia's making sure everything starts off smoothly as it can.
The show is sold out just about for every show. We got great attendance in Chile and Argentina-but here literally all but one
show so far has been 100% sold out. The show that wasn't was at 90%-and that was because it was a kid's show. That was
a wacky show with a lot of screaming kids aged 6-13. There must have been a charity at work because these were kids from poor areas-they LOVED it. The screaming was wild-especially when the twin male acrobats came out and took off their jackets!
The 12-year old girls screamed so much I thought we were the Beatles in 1964.
The hotel is grand-but so far I haven't ventured out so much. I'm working on learning the recording software Logic-it's great but an easy way to spend time. Also-there is the reputation and some truth to it that Sao Paulo is somewhat dangerous. We are in a business area that is pretty safe but also away from a lot of the things to see in town. There is a lot of danger here that we've been told about so I'll be careful when I do go out. I'm sure that eventually we'll know where to go and when to do it.

I don't know exactly how these pictures will post-but there's one of me here in a burgundy shirt with a flower in it. I'm standing next to Sheryl-Lynne our house manager and next to her is Serge Maheux our drummer. CLICK ON PIX FOR BIGGER VIEW!

2006-08-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

Let's see-Atlin on your far left (she's an acrobat). Then- let's see...Anna-she's quite a good acrobat. Does a lot of flying thru the air. Then there's "BuBu"-he's a fly-in guy that helps with lighting, rigging and general big top mechanical stuff. And on the far right is Atlin's boyfriend and fellow acrobat Jason. He's quite a chap-more on that later.

2006-08-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

This is Armen-who took all these photos (except when he's in the shot) and our incredible high wire artist Ren Jun. She does
normal stuff like ride a unicycle on a tightrope and jump off it onto another tightrope while balancing stuff. Just your normal everyday highwire act.

2006-08-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

Here's our guitarist Benoit with his trapeze artist girlfriend Taisiya Bazaliy. She and her sister Ruslana are known by the band (except for Benoit who knows a lot more) as the Blonde Trapeze girls. We also have the Brunette Trapeze girls-they are also twins.

2006-08-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

Our front-of-house sound man: Mike. He's also known by his DJ name-Senor BokChoy. He's worked with Megadeth and other
rock bands. We've worked a little on doing something with electric bassoon and beats.

2006-08-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

More partying. This is some of the staff letting off some steam as they had to be there from the beginning putting the site together from mid-July. The only name I remember here is on the top of the pile-Laila, assistant to the tour manager.

2006-08-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice picture of some great performers. On your left you have James; he's the head clown from NYC. A veteran
SALTIMBANCO character and a great guy. My daughter loves to get scared by him in the kitchen. In the back is a gymnast that I think is named Oxanna..please someone correct me if I'm wrong about the name or spelling. She's involved in a lovely act called
Adagio. To the right of her with his head down laughing is Jason-another adventurer and quite the acrobat. He drove with his girlfriend Atlin all over Chile, Argentina and other parts of South America in a 1966 VW Bus. I think he had to push the car himself over the last border crossing. And on your far right is our high flyer, Darin. He gets send by the Russian swing up over
a human tower of 4 people up about 40 feet in the air. He's gone about 60 I think. Party time...

2006-08-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Armen on your left-our crack keyboard wizard who's responsible for all these photos. He really thought ahead and remembered his camera for the party. He's also another musician who hears strange things like me. We both have creative hearing. We both can hear someone say "Is this seat taken?" and one or the other of us can hear something like "Want to see bacon?" In the middle is the talented and lovely Chantal Blanchard; she's one of our two lead singers-she's also my daughter's babysitter on occasion. And on your right is the man under the stage saving our ears and sanity; our man on the monitor mixer Martin.

HI! Welcome to Paul's travel-blog with Cirque Du Soleil!

2006-05-30T23:21:00.001-07:00

Hi There! WELCOME! You may have gotten here from www.jazzbassoon.com or just stumbled across this. This is Paul Hanson, jazz bassoonist and saxophonist showing you what I've been doing for the last 6 months. At the end of this page-down after all the pictures-is more about this fascinating new experience I've been having. And my bassoon is right in the middle of it.

Enjoy!

Zach in the park

2006-05-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

Here's little Zach in the sandbox with the other Cirque kids.

Guitarist Benoit Martin (and bassist/bandleader Marc Sohier)

2006-05-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

This dude is Benoit-our guitarist. He's a great player and band member-he knows too much to be just 24. We recently
had a gig outside of Cirque at the Hard Rock Cafe in Buenos Aires-Benoit put it together and really showed some great front-man chops. Marc in the back is our musical director-he gives the cues as well as great bass. He's also a father and has his wife and two kids on tour. When my family is on tour they play together.

My stage setup

2006-05-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Here's my stage setup: From left to right: Yamaha Soprano Sax, Selmer Mark VI Tenor, Selmer Mark VI Alto, my rack consisting
of a keyboard mixer, Kurzweil K2000 sampler, Akai EWI brain, 3 SD Systems sax mics, FRAP bassoon preamp, Digitech Studio Vocalist Harmonizer, Moosmann 200AP Bassoon (thanks Bernd and Justin!), Korg FANTOM X6 keyboard, EWI controller, Korg
Percussion pad. On the floor are various volume pedals for keyboards, EWI. There are pedals for the bassoon as well but they are not currently used in the show.

Zach likes the tango

2006-05-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

Daniel our taxi driver held Zach in front of the band. He really was interested in the instruments and the music.

Paul as a pretty bad tango dancer-and lovely wife Cynthia

2006-05-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

This is near one of the purported birthplaces of the tango in the Boca district on the street called El Caminito.

Boca Barrio in Buenos Aires

2006-05-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

After arriving in Buenos Aires on our off week-some of the band went out to the area called Boca. It is where there are a lot
of wildly painted houses, lots of tango restaurants and shops.

Bella and lead singer Chantal

2006-05-30T22:55:00.000-07:00

Chantal is from New Brunswick in Canada-she's a fabulous singer as well as Bella's babysitter once in awhile.

Paul the saxophone bassoon clown

2006-05-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

This is me in my makeup before a show.

Santiago and the Andes

2006-05-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

This is just the beginning of the Andes. There were parts just out of view to the left where on clear days you could see glaciers.

Pictures, pictures

2006-05-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

I will try to do this right. Bear with me. This should be a picture of my wife Cynthia, my daughter Bella and my son Zach
in the pool at the resort in Puerto Vallarta.

Hello there jazz bassoon and music fans

2006-05-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

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