Rendez-vous Houston

Rendez-vous Houston
Houston skyline during Rendez-vous Houston concert
Genre	Rock music
Dates	April 5, 1986
Location(s)	Houston
Founded by	Jean Michel Jarre

Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert was a live performance by musician Jean Michel Jarre amidst the skyscrapers of downtown Houston on the evening of April 5, 1986, coinciding with the release of the Rendez-Vous album. For a period of time, it held a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest outdoor "rock concert" in history, with figures varying from 1 to 1.5 million in attendance. Rendez-vous Houston is remembered for being the concert which celebrated the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which had happened only two and a half months earlier. One of Jarre's friends, astronaut Ron McNair, had been killed in the disaster. He was supposed to play the saxophone from space during the track "Last Rendez-Vous"; his substitute for the concert was Houston native Kirk Whalum.

In 1985, Jarre was contacted by the musical director of the Houston Grand Opera with the proposal for him related to the celebrations of Texas' 150th birthday in 1986, 150th birthday of the city of Houston and NASA's 25th birthday. Because of NASA's involvement, Jarre got the chance to keep in contact with a friend of his, astronaut captain Bruce McCandless II who later introduced Jarre to a flight companion of his, astronaut and jazz musician Ron McNair. Together they had the idea that for the celebrations, Jarre would create a piece of music that could be performed by McNair on his saxophone. The idea was that McNair, on his next trip into space in the Challenger Space Shuttle, would perform (and record onto video) the new piece of music, which would then be projected (through video playback) onto a giant screen that was to be constructed on the front of one of the buildings.

On January 28, 1986, McNair telephoned Jarre for the last time. "...Everything's ready. See you in a week's time. Watch me on TV for the takeoff!" On that same day, an appalled world witnessed a historic tragedy - the Challenger Space Shuttle disintegrated in mid-air while on its ascent into space. Distraught by what happened, Jarre almost decided to cancel the concert. However, astronauts from NASA (including Bruce McCandless) telephoned Jarre. They asked Jarre not to cancel, as now the concert must go ahead, and be held in tribute to pay respect to the astronauts who had lost their lives in the disaster.