Hello everyone. There sure hasn't been much going on here lately-sorry about that. Now I have some
news. In March 2008 the album FROLIC IN THE LAND OF PLENTY will be released on Abstract Logix Records
www.abstractlogix.com. I'll have some album art at the bottom of this entry from that upcoming release.
Even bigger than that-I've been contracted to perform in a new Cirque Du Soleil show in Tokyo, Japan
starting next spring and going til at least August 2010. The whole family will be out there-the conditions are
great and I'll be part of the creation process before we start. I'll try to get involved in the Tokyo music
scene when I'm not performing with Cirque-we'll see how that goes. On the one hand-I will miss playing with
all my compadres here in the States-on the other-this is too big an opportunity to pass up. Playing bassoon
and doing something new with Cirque will be really fascinating. Thanks again for your time-there's a new
snippet from the title track of this album for you to enjoy at the bottom of this entry. Here's some artwork from the new album. Ciao!

Download | Duration: 00:01:19

Hi everyone-I just took the plunge and am waiting for my video to show up on the search features of YouTube (which
seem to be a little slow). Click on THIS to see a very low-tech video of me in my practice room playing some Bird.

Hello-I have a great new group with Steve Erquiaga (guitarist with Joe Henderson, Andy Narell, Bobby McFerrin)-it's just
me and him playing jazz from around the globe. It's music pared down to the pure essence-just us two conversing in music conversation. Going from the "maximalist" approach from FROLIC to this bassoon-nylon string guitar group is really great fun. Check us out by clicking on HERE -there's samples for listening as well as a gig calendar. Thanks!

FOR PAUL HANSON/STEVE ERQUIAGA DUO-click on THIS
OR DOWNLOADS-click on THIS
FOR the FROLIC SITE-click on THIS

I would think that most of you who read this are saying "well, why in heck isn't Paul's album out yet?"
Well-I'll tell you. I'm very sorry for this but I decided to release my record with a record label rather than
putting it out myself. Haroun-the master mixer who has been juggling three and four projects all year in addition
to my project-has been hired to do a 'real job' in the big city where he will be paid finally what he is worth or close.

As this has put some time constraints on what he can mix for FROLIC, I've decided that while Haroun is mixing half
the album- Joel Hamilton is mixing the other half in Brooklyn. After figuring this out and realizing that my way-gone release date of June just wouldn't be salvaged as we enter September-I thought that perhaps there's a cool label that would release the record and do some of the promotional stuff for the release that I just am not good at. I play music-I'm not such a good self-promoter. It's hard to call someone up and have to say "Yes!! I'M GREAT!! YOU WANT ME!! I'M BADASS!!" It just doesn't sound good. So- Abstract Logix will release the album on their own label. Check out the link and you'll see (if you don't know them already) what this label is about. The album is tentatively scheduled for a March 2008 release.

I know that March is a LONG ways away. What I can tell you (to make it just a little better) is that I've started a completely different project with nylon-stringed guitarist Steve Erquiaga (Andy Narell, Joe Henderson, Bobby McFerrin). There will be soon a site for this group complete with music snippets and possibly some video in the coming months. It is such a pleasure working with Steve-we really compliment each other. I'll keep you posted very soon on this new exciting group! Bye now.

Hello everyone. I just found out that indeed my music is finally on iTunes. In case you haven't heard the
record VOODOO SUITE (or just have lost your copy)-you can get most of it on iTunes by going
to the iTunes "store" section and entering "Paul Hanson". There are 6 tunes from VOODOO SUITE on there.
Also there are some very interesting rock-jam band stuff (very electric) from a live album by "Jeff Sipe,
Paul Hanson, Jonas Hellborg" on there as well. That was from my days in a "power trio" with Jonas and Jeff.
Also there's a 11-year old track from Enrique Coria that I play on as well called "Milonga del Angel".
Ciao!

I don't usually go nuts over any product and I certainly don't ever write about it on my website or blogs. I don't write adds. However-I just have to say something about the reeds I just have started to use. It's only because of the
remarkable success rate I've had with them that brings me to talk about them at all.

At the IDRS convention this June-I always play in the Moosmann booth as I am a Moosmann bassoon artist and
Justin and Bernd have done a lot for me. As I was playing in the booth-Justin said "here, try this." I played it and
I'm still playing that reed; not only that, it sounded really great in all registers and I mean all registers. Most reeds
that I have tried really are limited in the far upper reaches of the bassoon's range-not this reed which is called
the Miller "Select Reserve" Professional Bassoon reed. And to top it off-this reed sounds full, big and rich all through
the lower registers as well AND it plays in tune. What was even better was getting 3 reeds the other
day from Justin to add to the 2 I got back in June. For bassoon players-when you have about 4 new reeds that you are about ready to try-you know you're lucky if 2 of them work well. A 50% success rate is really a very good rate I wish I
could say I've had throughout my life with reeds (in reality it's been about 1 out of 4). So-when ALL 4 of the reeds
sound really great without any alteration with sandpaper or any other adjustments-that is stupendous. Apparently this
reed is made on machines that ensure extremely exact replications of a very successful shape and design. Seriously-for
all you bassoon players out there-when's the last time you could buy a few reeds and EXPECT them all to really play?
The sound for me is very rich, not shrill, not buzzy, but full, great sound. For the link to the Miller Marketing site-
click HERE. Cheerio! The album is being mixed right now by the way.

Hello-I've been away from here too long. I've been a pretty lame blogster as I never put anything in this thing.
So what's going on? First-I really appreciate you all for reading this-I just don't have too much new to add and
I don't like to add mere trivial stuff. Like-"well, I did my laundry today and tried some new reeds!" I mean-that's not
worth writing about. What is worth writing about is that we start mixing for the last time tomorrow. No more recording-we've picked the tunes and all the parts are together. I redid some things I needed to redo-and we also were able to add a tune I was afraid we wouldn't be able to use. I'm just glad to have come to this point where there's
nothing more that needs to be added. Some of the reasons we've not done anything relate to Haroun having knee surgery and our busy schedules outside of music. Now-we should be able to get this done soon. 

I did a really fun session today for Eric Levy who was acting as producer. He's producing an album for a guitarist-composer named Ronnie Ray Padilla. Also on this recording were Mic Gillette (trumpet), George Brooks (tenor sax), Billy Johnson (drums), Kai Eckhardt (bass) and Eric on keys. Of course we didnt all meet and play together (I guess that's Old School)-I came in on an overdub session. Lots of fun.
                                                                                                                                                                                   

Hello again everyone. I wish I could add hypertext to my main jazzbassoon.com site but I can't do it-don't know how.
If I could do that then I'd have a link working like this: http://www.hickeys.com/ .
Hickey's is a music store in Ithaca that seems to have it all. They are supplying me with an amplifier so I don't have
to lug my 75-pound amp on the plane. Their owner, David Zimet, is a bassoonist and will be there at the convention so
go visit him either in Ithaca proper or at his booth at the IDRS. They were very helpful to me and from what I see they are a pretty darn complete music store.

Well-the pre-release will be available at IDRS 2007 AND at Forrests Music after the convention. We had some last-minute crisises but all's well that ends well. This pre-release is 4 completed tunes from the upcoming full-length album AND a bonus track of J.S. Bach's Cello Suite #4-the Sarabande and Gigue. The Bach won't be available on the full-length one-so if you want to hear me play some traditional classical music this is your chance! The other four tunes sound really, really good. I'm looking forward to getting it out there. This album is something I love but I'm getting impatient to get the whole enchilada DONE. I feel like a parent of a high school graduate-it's time to get out of the house and on your own, music!

..to the manufacturer. The pre-release album has been given to the people who will print the cover and mass-produce
the CD. It took mixing and mastering til dawn on 2 nights plus a 3AM visit to the cover artist to get this done. The five
tunes (4 album cuts plus a bonus track of J.S. Bach are a first version of what will be on the full-length CD. For those who are interested in this kind of thing-the full-length CD will feature some diferences-even possibly in the tunes that are on this first album. We are sure we will reflect on the first release and ways we'd like to update the music by the time the full-length CD is ready. Expect the pre-release teaser CD out and available the second weekend in June. Forrests Music will have this CD probably by June 11th if not a week later. The price will be $10-AND you will get a coupon redeemable for $2 off your purchase of the full-length release of FROLIC IN THE LAND OF PLENTY.

By the way-there's a eensy-weensy sample from the CD that's on the podcast page-check it out here. This is a tune that has never been on my site yet called Subtle Demons.