Weddings and Saxophones | Exclusive Interview with Mallorcan-based Sax player

Weddings and Saxophones, a heavenly fusion of love and music… Part II

Sunshine Weddings Spain welcomes back Norbert Fimpel, Saxophone player in Mallorca. Today we discover the peculiar way Norbert met Roger Hodgson and how he went on to perform with Joe Cocker in his world tours “Heart & soul” (2005/06), “Hymn for my soul” (2007/09), “Hard Knocks” (2010/12) and “Fire it up” (2013) performing over 550 concerts in over 50 countries, from Tasmania to Iceland.

 

 

Thanks for coming back today Norbert. What’s a normal day like for you when on tour? (Any measures to protect your throat, special food?)

A normal day when I’m on tour is pretty much like any other day. I don’t have any special routines, or particular foods I prefer. However, on the actual day of a show or concert, we have to do a sound check. This usually takes place a couple of hours before the show, meaning you must make sure you are at the auditorium on time, well before the concert is due to start. Have your instruments ready to do the sound check, and then you usually stay on site.

I’ll normally have an early dinner and rest for a while in the dressing room until it’s time to go on stage, but for me as a Saxophone player, I have no special routines. A singer possibly would though.

How much time do you spend in rehearsal before a tour, hours a day / and how many weeks of preparation?

When I was with Joe Cocker, we used to receive the music a couple of weeks before the tour. Of the 20 songs performed in a show, there would always be 11 or 12 songs that we always repeated, so we knew them well. Apart from these ‘classical’ songs, there would also be new ones from the current album that was presented on the tour, these would be the songs that I would really need to practise and learn.

I would firstly rehearse them at home, which in all truth never took me too long, and then the whole band would meet some three days before the tour, usually in France.

We would do three days of rehearsal, spending most of the time on the new songs and a little going over what we already knew. Then the tour would begin and you didn’t need to continue practicing the songs because they were already learnt.

That said, regardless of the situation, I aim to practise for two hours each day. Sometimes this is not possible, especially during periods when I have a lot of commitments as I spend a lot of time away from home travelling, which makes studying difficult. But the ideal, at least for me, is a minimum of two hours practise a day.

 

 

Do you prefer to perform alone, or in a group? And when you perform in a group, what do you look for in fellow band members?

I always prefer to perform in a group, because it’s more fun, it always sounds different, every performance is different.

This interaction with other musicians is not so frequent when I perform in private events like weddings, birthday celebrations or in hotels. On these occasions, due to the budget of the client, I tend to work alone with my backing tracks, but as I play music that people like, there is always a positive response from the guests.

Given the choice, however, I always prefer to play with other musicians, at least a duo or trio. A complete band is what I like most because of what I already said, the interaction with other musicians is more fun, every day the music sounds different and is more fresh.

 

 

Thanks for your fabulous answers Norbert, but before you go, I believe you toured with Roger Hodgson in 2004, where he invited you to play with him in “Night of the proms”.

This was a mega-production made up of 62 shows in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, where, apart from Roger Hodgson, you also played with James Brown, Joe Cocker, John Miles, Cindy Lauper and Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet.

Could you just tell us how you met Roger Hodgson, I believe it was in quite a curious way.

 

 

Yes, you’re right, it was very unusual.

I remember receiving a phone call one year, it was late at night and the person on the other side of the line, Lilo Drago, whom I didn’t know at the time, told me that a few days later, on the 3rd of December, Roger Hodgson would be playing at a private show in “El Divino”, a nightclub in Buenos Aires.

I was asked if I would like to play with him, of course I accepted.

Lilo then sent me a list of songs by fax and asked me to be at the venue the following Thursday.

I learnt all the solos and melodies that correspond to the saxophone and went to the sound check very excited.

There I met Lilo, who said, and I remember his words as if it was yesterday, “Roger is coming soon, let’s see if he’s ‘in a good mood’ to hear you play.”

“In a good mood?” – I asked him, rather surprised.

“Yes”- he answered. “I saw him last week in the Opera Theatre, he came only with a drummer and a bass player, so I thought he could need a saxophonist”.

That’s when the penny dropped, Roger Hodgson hadn’t asked for a saxophonist and in fact had no idea that I had showed up ready to play for him.

Surprised and disappointed I asked, “So Roger didn’t ask for a saxophonist?”

“No, no it was my idea, but be calm, he´s very nice…”

Of course I was terribly disappointed, I remember I didn’t even bother getting my instruments out of their boxes.

Finally, Roger arrived and after talking to Lilo he looked at me and told me to come to the stage.

I got my instruments ready, and we started playing the songs on the list.

Roger was impressed and not only invited me to play with him in two shows but also in his two performances at the Coliseo Theatre the following nights and accompany him in the rest of his tour through South America, playing in Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

 

 

In November 2000, Rodger invited me to be part of his “Open the door” tour in Europe.

In that tour, that took place in many cities of France, Belgium and Switzerland, I played soprano, alto and tenor saxophone, as well as keyboards and harmonica.

“Sometimes life surprises you in wonderful ways. I remember being 18 and getting together with my friends on Fridays nights to listen to music.

One of the LPs we used to listen to often was “Paris”, the live double disc by Supertramp, which I liked a lot. That was many years before I started taking saxophone lessons and I didn´t even dream of becoming a professional musician.

But dreams do come true and sometimes quite by surprise.

In April 2005 Norbert became a member of Joe Cocker’s band, playing with him in the world tours “Heart & soul” (2005/06), “Hymn for my soul” (2007/09), “Hard Knocks” (2010/12) and “Fire it up” (2013) performing over 550 concerts in over 50 countries, across five different continents.