We recorded the Chorro Flight of the Fly last night. It's something that I've done a lot in concert over the years
ever since I heard Mike Marshall and Darol Anger play it back in 2000. It's kind of a piece that's easier
than it looks because once you get started (and can circular breathe) it just keeps going. The bassoon is actually a perfect instrument for circular breathing because the opening in the reed is so small you can just become a human 'bagpipe' very easily. Haroun used some really nice Rode microphones (the more expensive ones) to get a realistic sound of the instrument that was pretty warm without a whole lot of high sheen. (I'm not the mic techie but I know what sound I like!)
When I do the tune live I just play the melody all the way without stopping. For me it's nice to play that to get the fingers warmed up for the rest of the show. On this recording I toggled back and forth playing melody and bass. Kinda complicated but it was just basically 1st bassoon playing the melody the first time thru then the bass line next WHILE the 2nd bassoon played the bass line first then the melody. It didn't take all that long but there were some pretty loud construction crews going on outside creating what Haroun called the "anvil chorus" of hammers, saws, routers, and jackhammers. Not the greatest background for recording bassoon-but it worked out because Haroun knows his stuff and selected a very tight pickup pattern on the microphones AND with all the notes I was playing it would have been hard to hear anything else but bassoon. There's not much long tones or rests on the take! After that-we went and met fellow Zenith Patrolian and bassist Victor Little at a brew pub in beautiful downtown Burlingame. Had dinner, some really nice strong WiesenBock beer and came back to the studio checking the tracks out and having a nice little hang. 

I'm trying to figure out how to get some pix in here-can't resize to fit so far. Oh well-it'll come.