Album Notes

I WRITE CABARET AND THEATER SONGS HERE IN MY NATIVE NEW YORK CITY.

My songs show the influence of my wide-ranging musical interests: Blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters and Mississippi John Hurt; Jazz singers like Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald; Songwriters like Fats Waller, Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen; Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell; as well as John Bucchino and Ricky Ian Gordon; all mixed up with a big dollop of modern classical music.

“You do write some great stuff!” says veteran cabaret singer/piano player, Steve Ross.

The mood of these songs is by turns funny, dark, passionate and open hearted. Singers who hear the songs want to use them in their shows and concerts.

I DECIDED THAT IT WAS THE TIME FOR MORE PEOPLE TO GET TO HEAR MY SONGS.

My musical director, Seth Weinstein, and I went into the studio and laid down piano and vocal tracks for 14 of my songs. The experience was surprisingly pleasant, easy and fun thanks to Seth’s superb musical supervision and to the advice, expertise and enthusiasm of engineer, Chip M. Fabrizi of PPI Recording, here in New York City.

I am also writing a musical about a boy living in the Projects on New York’s Lower East Side who imagines that he is a beautiful princess. (Can’t imagine where I came up with that story…)

Meanwhile, Seth and I are planning another cabaret act. Here’s what Steve Ross had to say about my last show:

“A real revelation … you are SUCH a wonderfully communicative singer. You bring such heartfelt intelligence to everything you sing and say...”


BIO

PAUL BODDEN (the artist formerly known as Paul David Ross) is a native New Yorker of Jamaican and Polish-Jewish descent, which may or may not account for his “special” view of the world. He started playing guitar at age 9, beginning with folk music and later branching out to blues and jazz.

After pursuing dual careers in graphic arts and acting, Paul thought the world would be a better place if he would write a musical about youth and childhood. So he enrolled himself at the Extension Division of the Mannes School of Music in Manhattan where he studied musical theory and composition. He also took piano lessons with Tardo Hammer and Hector Martignon.

Paul has performed a solo cabaret act for many years for which he has often written special lyrics. He has recently started songwriting in earnest. The 2004-2005 season saw the debut of four of his songs by other singers in various cabaret and concert venues. He followed up with his own cabaret act at Helen's Hideaway Room in NYC in the autumn of 2005.

Paul currently lives in Manhattan and continues to write songs and work on his musical, which is based on short stories he has written about his childhood.