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Paul Keller is a bassist and leader of the Bird of Paradise Orchestra. BOPO will celebrate its 13th birthday and the release of their CD Paris Blues on January 4-5 at their home base, the Bird of Paradise, 312 S. Main Street, Ann Arbor.

BOPO’s European Trip

BY PAUL KELLER

The Bird of Paradise Orchestra successfully completed their second annual European tour this fall. The trip was grueling yet gratifying, it was very hard work but it was energizing. We had short amounts of time in each city but we saw fourteen cities in fourteen days. This was truly a remarkable and sometimes overwhelming tour of two fabulous countries. The BOPO was proud to travel to Europe as good will representatives of the USA and of Michigan. We, as Americans, received many expressions of sympathy and condolence from the Spanish and Swiss people regarding the September 11 attacks on NYC and Washington D.C. We were always treated with great respect and with extreme courtesy. The tour was a great bonding experience for our band and as the tour progressed we played better than ever as a unit. The trials and adversities of touring with a big band (and all our equipment) in a foreign country are enormous.

After months of planning, the Bird of Paradise Orchestra finally departed from Detroit on October 27 bound for Barcelona, Spain. After a layover in London, we continued onto Barcelona where we met our tour guide/chaperone, Monica Segarra (who would become our unofficial band manager). We performed that night at L'Auditori of Barcelona to a crowd of two thousand appreciative Catalan people.

Top: BOPO on stage in Geneva Right: the Bird of Paradise Orchestra sets up on stage in Madrid photographs by Jeffrey Gedz

We departed Spain the next day to begin the Swiss portion of our tour. First stop, Geneva where we boarded our bus that we would be traveling on for the next 12 days. Our bus driver, Rene, was a friendly Swiss gentleman who spoke German in a very deep voice ("JAAAAAA!") and a little bit of English. Between Monica and Rene, we were never lost and always made it to our daily destinations. We drove to Wintertur and played in the Stadthaussal, a lovely 500 seat auditorium with a beautiful nine foot Steinway piano. In fact, the pianos were excellent at every venue. Rick Roe played piano with us on this tour and did a great job.

Next city: Zurich, another concert in a major city. This concert was at the Kongresshauss where the audience was warm and receptive. Throughout the tour we continued our refining and researching of our performance material. We played exclusively the music of Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller. It was fun to watch the guys on the bus with their headphones on, many of then listening to Ellington or Miller. Eventually, someone would jump up and excitedly say, "Hey, cats! Check out this tune. We should do it this way! What do you think?"

Switzerland is an interesting country in many ways, one of which is the usage of German, French and Italian in the various regions. Since we traveled all over Switzerland and our chaperone was Spanish, we experienced dealing with five languages in those twelve days in Switzerland: German, French, Italian, Spanish and English. Some days I couldn't remember whether to say Gracias or Danke or Merci or Gratzi.

Next stop, Lausanne, a beautiful city with another great auditorium, the Theater de Beaulieu. This day we had about four hours to roam around the city. From Lausanne we traveled to Olten, a smaller town, but historic and scenic. It was a genuine thrill to drive into a new town and see the promotional posters for our gig that evening pasted up onto the public kiosks. By now, we are fully acclimated to Swiss life and we are daily consuming massive quantities of chocolate, cafe con leche, brie and grape sandwiches and various types of schwein. That's good eatin'!

After Olten we drove to Bern. In 1998, Michelle and I stayed in Bern for a week when I played there with cornetist Tom Saunders. Next stop was Lugano and a successful concert at Palazzo de Congresi. We also played in Basel and Geneva. In Geneva we played in the most impressive concert hall we've seen thus far. Victoria Hall is incredibly ornate, complete with massive chandeliers, intricate ceiling murals, two balconies, protruding balcony box seats, a gigantic pipe organ and gold leaf on everything! I've never seen a concert hall quite that magnificent. The acoustics were perfect in Victoria Hall…another fine concert. We recorded our performances in Bern, Basel, Lugano and Geneva, perhaps we can make a CD from them.

We departed Switzerland on November 7 and headed with anticipation back to Spain for our final two concerts. First, we played at the National Auditorium of Spain in Madrid. We were joined there by our old friend and former BOPO member, trumpeter Chris Kase. Chris married a Spanish woman and now lives just outside Madrid. This was another huge crowd and another overwhelming reception. Additionally, we sold a lot of Paris Blues CDs. Our last concert was three hours away in Zaragosa (between Madrid and Barcelona). Zaragosa has a population of about 350,000 and is brimming with activity, restaurants, architecture and culture. We played for another big crowd (about 1200 people) in a candle lit cabaret setting. This was one of my favorite concerts of the tour because it was a real party and those Spanish people were ready to have a good time. As predicted, they went nuts! They loved the BOPO and we did three encores that night! What a fantastic way to end the tour! We returned to Detroit on Friday, November 9, exhausted but filled with exciting memories of an incredible tour.

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1. BOPO EUROPEAN TOUR---2. ICP ORCHESTRA
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