jarretribute.com - a tribute to Jean Michel Jarre

Kirk Whalum - saxophone player in the 1986 concerts in Houston and Lyon.

jarretribute.com: Do you remember your first meeting with Jean Michel Jarre, and your impression of him?

Kirk Whalum: I do remember the first meeting with JMJ. But meeting him was preceded by a few cool things. First I had studied in Paris as a 19 year-old on a French scholarship to L'Alliance Française, due in no small part to two wonderful people: my college French instructor Wanda Sandal, and my now long-time friend Yvette Rey-Herme. Yvette was instrumental in helping me get the actual "bourse" and then allowed me to stay at their home in Paris.

Of course, being a jazz musician in Paris changed my life forever. I all but failed my classes because I spent so much time playing in Place St. Michelle! I became a full-time street musician during my séjour. This impacted my playing as well.

Meeting Jean Michel was also "post" having the honor, though very sad, of being asked by the widow of my friend Ron McNair to replace him in the Rendez-vous Houston concert. This of course was a very big moment for me.

Then there was JMJ! His completely fresh and unique take on music and communicating with audiences, BIG audiences, very much stretched me and prepared me for what was to come in terms of new media and all the drastic changes that would occur in our industry in the 1990s.

jarretribute.com: As a fellow musician, how did you respond to Jarre's musical and creative requests?

Kirk Whalum: It was a wonderful challenge for me to find my place in this larger-than-life vision that JMJ had for Rendez-vous Houston (and subsequently the concert in Lyon for the Pope). I was given a tremendous amount of freedom in my actual performance because by definition my playing was to represent the spirit of an astronaut in space (Ron McNair) and all the wonderful freedom of America's only indigenous art form, jazz.

jarretribute.com: Was there anything that Jarre said or did that surprised you?

Kirk Whalum: It was my sincere pleasure working with Jean Michel. I had spent so much time through high school and college practicing French, little did I know that God would lay such an amazing challenge in my lap that involved two of my passions; music and French! I also enjoyed meeting Charlotte Rampling who was very much involved in the planning and execution - in fact everyone was involved because it was something that had never been done before.

jarretribute.com: What was your first reaction to being invited to participate in the Rendez-vous Houston concert, considering few people understood how special it would turn out to be?

Kirk Whalum: I especially remember the footage of regular folks, Texans, who were asked in interviews what they thought this was going to be or who in the world was Jean Michel Jarre. It was hilarious! Of course no one except the precious few ultra-hip JMJ fans knew who he was, including myself! And the scope of the event was truly beyond description before one actually experienced it. It was weird watching the fire chief and police chief panic, not knowing exactly how to prepare for something bigger than the biggest Texas-style state fair that had ever been!

jarretribute.com: What is your most vivid memory from the concert - the huge crowd, the performance, the environment, the energy... did you have a special feeling during the show?

Kirk Whalum: My position on stage (remember that the stage itself was a mock-up of the breathtaking skyline of downtown Houston) was on top of a "building." So just before my performance they had to hoist my soprano saxophone up and then I climbed a loooong ladder up to my perch! When the music began there were people as far as one could see (and then some) and the lasers began to dance from building to building... and the huge sky trackers began their choreographed dance on the sides of these skyscrapers and the fireworks and... it was overwhelming! And to top that off the "grooves" of the music was like the pulse of life itself. I will never forget it.

jarretribute.com: Do you sometimes think back to 1986 and the two concerts you participated in, two of the biggest concerts ever staged in the world?

Kirk Whalum: Not only do I think back to then, I speak and write about it very often. Having just turned 50 a month ago, having performed in South Africa with Whitney Houston, in Japan with Bob James and my own band many times... still these two concerts, for a 28 year-old, were two of the highlights of my life and career.