Hello!
Hi there. Welcome to my New Album Blog.
If you want my regular site-click on http://www.jazzbassoon.com
If you'd like to download pre-release tracks in progress from my upcoming album-click on this:
feed.jazzbassoon.com
It's really, really late on a Thursday night/early Friday morning. The kids and Cynthia are asleep as I peer over
this computer trying to get this blog all set up. A little on how this album came together.
I was lucky enough to be a sabbactical replacement Bassoon Professor at Ithaca College in New York in 2004. Lee Goodhew
took the semester off as I had a great opportunity to teach both classical and jazz bassoon to some great students in upstate
New York. After I was done-I was just getting the bug for writing music again for me to play-and it seemed that it was time
for an album. I was interested in an album that looked at the instrument a little differently than just as an instrument that plays
melody and solos. So I thought about doing an all-bassoon album where every sound was the bassoon. It didn't take long to realize that while I could have done that-what was more important to me was creating an album where every musical role was taken by the bassoon-at one point or another. By musical role I meant that bassoon could be the bass instrument, the melodic lead instrument, the chordal instrument and the rhythmic instrument. My experience with the band Zenith Patrol and our producer/guitarist Haroun Serang led me to ask him to help me put this together. We started recording at his house in San Jose as I would bring in my sketches from my little home studio as audio 'scores' and we'd put things together. One big challenge of this record is combining the technology of multiple bassoon tracks on one song with organic feel and vibe. In that sense this record is a lot different from a traditional jazz album date where the band plays all live together. Although there will be that live tradition too on some numbers. For the multitracking stuff-one of my biggest influences was the album "Medicine Man" by Bobby McFerrin. I first heard the album while on tour with the Cuban latin funk band Oaktown Irawo-we were playing for a ballet company. When our band took a break during the performance-music from "Medicine Man" was used for a few
ballet selections. It was really inspiring to hear his vision-which got me to thinking about doing something similar for this album.
Today-we just got done tracking "Flight of the Fly". It's a chorro-a style of music from Brazil that's become very popular the
last 10 years or so. Chorro music originated in Brazil in the early part of the 20th century. I first heard Mike Marshall and Darol Anger play the tune-I started playing it soon after. There's a LOT of notes! Somehow we had a great day in the studio-take a listen and download the MP3. This is not a finished track yet but it's getting close.
See you all later!
If you want my regular site-click on http://www.jazzbassoon.com
If you'd like to download pre-release tracks in progress from my upcoming album-click on this:
feed.jazzbassoon.com
It's really, really late on a Thursday night/early Friday morning. The kids and Cynthia are asleep as I peer over
this computer trying to get this blog all set up. A little on how this album came together.
I was lucky enough to be a sabbactical replacement Bassoon Professor at Ithaca College in New York in 2004. Lee Goodhew
took the semester off as I had a great opportunity to teach both classical and jazz bassoon to some great students in upstate
New York. After I was done-I was just getting the bug for writing music again for me to play-and it seemed that it was time
for an album. I was interested in an album that looked at the instrument a little differently than just as an instrument that plays
melody and solos. So I thought about doing an all-bassoon album where every sound was the bassoon. It didn't take long to realize that while I could have done that-what was more important to me was creating an album where every musical role was taken by the bassoon-at one point or another. By musical role I meant that bassoon could be the bass instrument, the melodic lead instrument, the chordal instrument and the rhythmic instrument. My experience with the band Zenith Patrol and our producer/guitarist Haroun Serang led me to ask him to help me put this together. We started recording at his house in San Jose as I would bring in my sketches from my little home studio as audio 'scores' and we'd put things together. One big challenge of this record is combining the technology of multiple bassoon tracks on one song with organic feel and vibe. In that sense this record is a lot different from a traditional jazz album date where the band plays all live together. Although there will be that live tradition too on some numbers. For the multitracking stuff-one of my biggest influences was the album "Medicine Man" by Bobby McFerrin. I first heard the album while on tour with the Cuban latin funk band Oaktown Irawo-we were playing for a ballet company. When our band took a break during the performance-music from "Medicine Man" was used for a few
ballet selections. It was really inspiring to hear his vision-which got me to thinking about doing something similar for this album.
Today-we just got done tracking "Flight of the Fly". It's a chorro-a style of music from Brazil that's become very popular the
last 10 years or so. Chorro music originated in Brazil in the early part of the 20th century. I first heard Mike Marshall and Darol Anger play the tune-I started playing it soon after. There's a LOT of notes! Somehow we had a great day in the studio-take a listen and download the MP3. This is not a finished track yet but it's getting close.
See you all later!
Early saturday morning, getting ready to go to the studio for another day of Cirque 2007. Listening to Fly and Darkweb puts me in a great mood. I know this nice warm, precise and "full of love" sound.
Makes my day. Thank you!
J.L.
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Hi Jean-Louis! So nice of you to say so! Thanks very much. I hope that show is coming along. I hope I see you when it hits San Francisco. When you get here-we'll be here to show you around! -all the best to you and your family- Paul
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it's always uplifting when i can be close to genius in action.
(that's you!!!!!!)
time to do a march b-day soon.
m.
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Hey Paul, got yer phone call. my cel is 415-827-2016. and has voice mail now
there's no money in this business
Talk to ya soon, Joe.
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Hey Joe-good to hear from you. Yeah man-it's a tough biz. I'll shoot you an email soon. Paul
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