Jazz Articles about Paul Shapiro

Paul Shapiro: It's In The Twilight

by Jerry D'Souza
March 5, 2006

The blessings of the sabbath were clearly upon Paul Shapiro when he wrote the music for and recorded this album. On Midnight Minyan, his first record as a leader, he dwelt on Saturday mornings and the Jewish tradition. This time he turns back the clock to Friday evenings and the glow of twilight that the sabbath brings. He has the same band of musicians in tow; they make this a listening experience that will long linger in memory. ...

Paul Shapiro: It's in the Twilight

by John Kelman
March 2, 2006

Reconvening the same group that made his debut, Midnight Minyan (Tzadik, 2003), so engaging, tenor saxophonist Paul Shapiro's new release is an even more exuberant affair. Combining a wealth of musical styles with the distinctive Jewish flavor that has made John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture series so unpredictable, Shapiro proves that twilight needn't be a time for introspection. If anything, Shapiro's music aligns itself with the idea of twilight as a transitional meeting time, creating something not of any one ...

Paul Shapiro: It's in the Twilight

by Dan McClenaghan
February 24, 2006

Consider a single member of any ethnic group in America (so the joke goes), and that person has more fun at one wedding reception than a “regular Anglo-Saxon white dude" does in his whole life. It's an unfair and untrue observation, of course, but saxophonist Paul Shapiro's It's in the Twilight does make a case for ethnic exuberance, joy and fun.

The disc comes to us from John Zorn's Tzadik label, known for melding traditional Jewish music with modern jazz. ...

Paul Shapiro: Midnight Minyan

by Celeste Sunderland
June 25, 2003

Jewish music is sexy. Slow, meandering melodies conjure hot, arid lands or intimate moments at the synagogue. Based on prayer, it's a mortal's direct link to divinely personal experiences with God. But its surface can evoke sensual undulations of the hips and exotic murmurs of the lips. On his debut disc as a leader, saxophonist Paul Shapiro combines ancient melodies with contemporary improvisation. Arrangements of seven traditional songs, two originals, and one tune from Fiddler On The ...