Michael Paulo brings it home with Hang Time
Making his Woodward Avenue Records debut, acclaimed contemporary jazz saxophonist Michael Paulo teams with two-time Grammy winner Paul Brown on Hang Time.
It’s an ultra-melodic collaborative effort with musical force and label mate Shane Theriot on keys, bass, guitars, and drums, with the combo masterfully brought together by engineer and sax star Euge Groove.
Paulo’s return marks a soulful and soaring celebration for smooth jazz and certainly fuels the artist’s 35-year solo career. He says 2022 was a busy yea and is pleased to be out playing again.
Paulo grew up in a musical family, his father a pianist, his mother a singer, and his siblings all playing instruments, and though he came upon the sax relatively late at age 15, he quickly became first horn player in his high school band and was playing professional gigs.
Rather than accept a scholarship to North Texas State, he chose a more adventurous road by joining Hawaiian pop/rock band Kalapana. After playing regularly and recording on all four of Kalapana’s albums from 1975 to 1979, he recorded a solo album for Japanese release on Trio records.
In addition to exposing him to the Japanese jazz audience, Tats in the Rainbow gave him the opportunity to work with legendary pianist Herbie Hancock.
In 1988 Paulo recorded his first major solo release One Passion on MCA records. It was critically acclaimed as one of the most influential recordings in contemporary Jazz at the time.
“Music is always going to evolve, and it’s up to the artist to respond gracefully to the changes,” says Paulo. “We don’t know what the music will sound like years from now, but no matter what, it will be based on what the people in the audience feel.”
…host of the Just Jazz radio show, writer, and occasional voice over artist.
