Guitarist/Composer Paul Meyers has performed and/or recorded with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Ray Drummond, Clare Fischer, Sonny Fortune, Eddie Gomez, Jon Hendricks & Annie Ross, Marc Johnson, Wynton Marsalis, Rufus Reid, Kenny Werner, Frank Wess and the Woody Herman Orchestra in appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kool Jazz Festival, jazz clubs and on national tours. International performances include tours to Japan and Hong Kong with the Salute to Duke Ellington Orchestra (featuring Paul along with Bob Brookmeyer, Mel Lewis and Joe Wilder), to Spain with the great percussionist Cafe, to France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy with Jon Hendricks, to England and the Netherlands with Andy Bey, and to Argentina with Gary Burton. Mr. Burton also recorded one of Paul's tunes, "Panama," on his "Reunion" album with Pat Metheny. Since the mid 1980s Paul has been very active in the vibrant Brazilian jazz scene in New York City. He was a member of the Terra Brasil, which featured pianist/composer Cidinho Teixeira and vocalist Vera Mara, both veterans of the great Gilberto Gil's band. From 1994 to the present he has co-led Brasil & Company with Ms. Mara, which performs extensively around NY and has performed as far away as Istanbul. He was also hired to perform in New York and Tokyo with the Tango-jazz pianist and composer Pablo Zeigler, who worked with Astor Piazzola for fifteen years. His great skills in both the jazz and Brazilian arenas have made him one of the most in demand players in New York.
Since 1993 Paul has been touring and recording with two great jazz vocalists, Jon Hendricks and Andy Bey, performing all over the world.
Paul's own groups include - Euforia, a Latin Jazz trio with Panamanian bassist/composer Santi Debriano and Brazilian drummer Vanderlei Pereira. The group released it's debut CD in 1998 on the Mapleshade label - Brasil & Company, a Brazilian jazz quartet with vocalist Vera Mara, who released their first CD in1999, and - Trio Concertant (combining guitar with cello and bass), who perform their own arrangements of jazz, classical and Brazilian music and have a award winning CD out on the Gunmar label.
In 1997 Paul released a solo guitar CD, Blues for the Millennium. It features his arrangements of jazz and Brazilian pieces, four original compositions (including the title track) and his transcriptions of 7 pieces from Bela Bartok's "Mikrokosmos." Other recordings include Trio Concertant (Gunmar Records), which was awarded the first runner-up for best chamber music CD of 1992, by NAIRD (National Academy of Independent Record Distributors) and a jazz trio album, Blues for Henry Miller (Adirondack). Paul is also featured on Tuedays in Chinatown (Ncoded) and Shades of Bey (Evidence) with Andy Bey, Hearts and Minds with Susannah McCorkle (Concord), 4 on 6 x 5 with the New York Jazz Guitar Ensemble (Choice), and three Latin/Brazilian jazz recordings featuring all original music - Obeah with Santi Debriano (Freelance), Utatuba with Kimson Plaut and Lucky (Origin) with Hans Teuber.
Paul has also given numerous clinics, master classes and workshops, travelling as far away as Argentina, Hawaii and Alaska.
He received a 1990/91 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for jazz composition. He holds an Masters of Mus. in jazz guitar from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelors of Music with honors from the New England Conservatory. He also studied with Gene Bertoncini, Jackie Byard, Barry Galbraith, George Russell, Chuck Wayne and Jack Wilkins. Paul teaches jazz guitar, improvistion and coaches jazz and Brazilian ensembles at William Patterson University (since 1988) and at New Jersey City University (since 1993). He taught at the first year of the Jazz for Teens program at NJPAC in Newark, and
For more ( reviews, soundclips, photos ) please visit: www.paulmeyers.info
"...one of the most eloquent jazz guitaists since Kenny Burrell..."
--James Gavin, New York Times
"An intelligent choice of music and excellent playing throughout marks this CD as something a bit special. Anyone who records Bela Bartok, Dizzy Gillespie and Dori Caymmi on the same CD is nothing if not eclectic. Furthermore, none of these vastly different musics are ever compromised. Meyers manages to get beneath their surface, revealing a surprising depth of musical understanding and sensitivity. A former student of Gene Bertoncini, Paul Meyers builds on his mentor's iconoclastic vision of musical multiplicity with unparalleled success."
--Adrian Ingram, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine
"Paul Meyers is a guitarist's guitarist. He displays a creative, fresh approach to harmonic and linear playing..."
--Gene Bertoncini
"Meyers has mastered many kinds of guitar-playing, all with a very direct and seductively melodic approach. Like his teacher-mentor, Gene Bertoncini, Meyers is drawn to a synthesis of classical and jazz guitar. The last six cuts on this rich recording -- it is hard to believe there is only one person playing on a Takamine classical guitar without amplification or over-dubbing -- are devoted to Bela Bartok's short pieces. Among the jazz highlights are the title cut, an original which starts the proceedings very effectively, a Herbie Hancock arrangement of Bronislav Kaper's classic "On Green Dolphin Street," and Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin," which Meyers certainly manages to do with his music."
--Lee Lo, N.Y. Jazz Newsletter
"In his remarkable solo guitar CD "Blues for the Millennium" Paul Meyers shows what's possible with only those six strings at his disposal. It's hard to believe that this recording contains no overdubs as a number of times I'd swear that there might be as many as three guitars playing at once. Paul succeeds in documenting his solo guitar work in a setting that not only showcases his talents as a performer, but demonstrates his abilities as a producer of the first order. His programming displays an incredibly rich mixture of musical styles including Be-Bop, Brazilian, Bartok, and the Blues. Throughout this CD the essence of each of these styles is purely distilled into the 'real deal'; i.e. each style sounds awfully true to the tradition that spawned it. Additionally, the lush, warm, excellently recorded sound captures a quality rarely found on most of today's CDs: genuine feeling! The blues are in evidence all over this disc. Make no mistake about it, these are happy blues. An! d this is music for the soul; music to lift the spirit!"
--Ray Drummond
Read more...