A demo reel I made for Rachel Beausoleil, using footage I shot of her jazz vocal performance at the NAC Fourth Stage, as well as snippets of an interview I did with her. As a way of getting more exposure for future gigs, she asked for some video that she could shop around to different venues. I agreed to make this demo reel for her in return for some tickets to the show for me and my friends.
It was a wonderful concert in an intimate setting. The repertoire was quite varied — from waltz to Bossa nova to ballad — but all songs were performed as a jazz interpretations. The setlist included Aquarius by The Fifth Dimension, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, and Evangeline by Isabelle Pierre.
Of special significance is that the performance was on Rachel’s 40th birthday. She had planned the concert over a year ago as a comeback after having two kids and giving up her time for them.
I can now embed videos in HD after acquiring a Vimeo Plus account; they look oh-so-sexy, and even better in full-screen.
One of the highlights of the night was Tom Posner’s bass solo during Caravan (a classic Duke Ellington big-band piece) clocking in at almost two minutes. You can see how surprised Rachel is when Tom loses himself in the music and keeps going on this great flurry of notes. This solo is some kind of awesome that I can’t even describe.