Berkshire Magazine has a nice article in their new issue called “Year-Round Sound: Well-known Musicians in the Berkshires.” I’m pleased to be included with my talented colleagues Sarah Aroeste and Rob Sanzone.

Contrary to public opinion, you don’t have to wait for summer to experience live musical performances in the Berkshires. Those who stay put in the county come winter through Memorial Day are fortunate to have an abundance of musical talent in our midst, providing inspiration, entertainment—and tremendous variety—all year round. And many of those musicians who play at various venues in this area are natives, or have lived here for many years. All have a passion for sharing their love of music with their neighbors and have formed a loose network among themselves, sometimes crossing genres and playing together.

Click here to read the full article

The Chicago Tribune has named “A Bissel Rhythm,” my latest CD with Two Worlds, one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2019. Here’s what Howard Reich wrote in his roundup of the year’s top ten jazz albums:

Jazz and Jewish music share a long and beautiful history, which clarinetist-composer Green traced on an earlier album, “Music Coming Together.” This time, rather than record songs reflecting both idioms, Green has written original compositions that give him and his colleague’s freer reign in which to experiment. The music—sometimes joyous, sometimes mournful—attests to these artists’ conversance with two alluring musical languages.

As many of you know, I didn’t get serious about jazz until I was in my 50s, so it’s thrilling and gratifying to see my hard work pay off. I am grateful to Big Round Records, a division of PARMA Recordings, and to my Two World colleagues—tenor saxophonist Charles Tokarz, guitarist Jason Ennis, pianist Ben Kohn, bass player Daniel Broad, and drummer Peter Sweeney—from whom I’ve learned so much. Each of these musicians can really feel both jazz and klezmer. They’re great at negotiating the differences between the two genres in their own playing but can also respond to the ebb and flow in the playing of their colleagues. Click here to see the original article and full list of Reich’s picks. 

Common Ground: A celebration of Jazz & Jewish Music with Wanda Houston & Paul Green

Renowned jazz singer Wanda Houston and clarinetist Paul Green will present a program that fuses jazz and Jewish music and reflects the longstanding fellowship between the African American and Jewish communities. The concert is a benefit for Clinton Church Restoration, which is restoring and repurposing the historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church in downtown Great Barrington as an African American heritage site, visitor center and community space. A reception will follow the program.

Date: Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 7pm
Location: Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, 270 State Road, Great Barrington
Cost: Tickets are $25 each (more if you can, less if you can’t)
Contact: For more information, visit Clinton Church Restoration or email admin@clintonchurchrestoration.org.

My new album is now available — my second recorded exploration into the fusion between jazz and Jewish music. Find it on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube!

From the Big Round Records website:

A BISSEL RHYTHM is composer and clarinetist Paul Green’s PARMA Recordings debut, although it marks his second recorded exploration into the fusion between jazz and Jewish music. A performance at Merkin Concert Hall resulted in the New York Times extolling his talents: “Like a cobra intent on doing some charming of its own, the clarinetist Paul Green weaved, darted and hovered over his instrument…conjuring gorgeous sounds.”

Green opens the album with the title track, A Bissel Rhythm, a reworking of the George Gershwin standard, “I Got Rhythm.” Already interpreted by such astounding jazz players as Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, Green turns the song into a Jewish expression by using traditional Hebrew scales, placing it in a minor Jewish-sounding key, and giving it a joyful, freilach (merry) fast tempo. That same joyful feeling is expressed in My Own Freilach, which should be familiar to anyone who has ever attended a Jewish wedding or bar mitzvah. Here, it is performed at near breakneck speed, leaving it to the players to see who can maintain the pace, whether they’re playing the tune as written or improvising their own licks.

With Doina and Ramble, the composer reimagines the funeral traditions of New Orleans, by placing the Doina, a klezmer form, in the context of an imagined New Orleans funeral. In this tradition, the slow funeral song would be followed by a joyful performance, which Green depicts in his piece Ramble. The Jewish March hearkens back to the time when Jewish musicians in Russia were often prohibited from playing loud instruments. When those musicians arrived in America, they let loose with drums, wind, and brass instruments. The Jewish March is a recreation of an early 20th century piece, complete with drum rolls – courtesy of Peter Sweeney – and plenty of loud, exuberant playing. This energy and spirit permeates the album as a whole, making for an experience that is as impressive as it is enjoyable to hear.

Release Date: February 8th, 2019

Paul is the featured artist for “The Inside Story,” PARMA Recording’s blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of their artists. Read on to learn about the experience that led Paul to pursue music in earnest… Click for full interview

There have been periodic waves of Klezmer revival as if each new generation discovers the energy and improvisational fervor that makes it one of the world’s most enduring popular musics. What makes clarinetist Green’s work different is that while respecting the tradition, he’s not afraid to take a breath and let the blues in, “Tarras Doina and Blues”, or to play sweetly and classically with traces of the lyricism of say Darius Milhaud. He takes Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints” to a magic understated place where he brings that special traditionally Jewish timbre to the piece while gently swinging in the breeze like a leaf about to take flight in the New England wind. Check out “Utt Da Zay” for the perfect Blues/Klezmer wedding.

–Hobart Taylor, KUCI 88.9 FM Irvine, CA

Keith Wolzinger of the Klezmer Podcast interviews Paul about his motivations for producing “Music Coming Together,” and what Jewish-Jazz fusion is all about.

Listen to the podcast here.

(Close Encounters With Music concert 4/17/16) Juilliard-trained clarinetist Paul Green’s exuberant playing, in particular, was spot-on and as spirited — in a Klezmery way — as one could possibly require. Not all classically-trained clarinetists are capable of performing Klezmer-inflected music convincingly, but Green has unquestionably mastered the style.

–Berkshire Edge