Apr.11, 2019 Paul Shapiro’s “Midnight Minyan”

Midnight Minyan

Paul Shapiro  tenor and soprano saxes
Steven Bernstein trumpet and slide trumpet
Peter Apfelbaum tenor and soprano saxes
Jerry Korman  piano
Booker King  bass
Tony Lewis  drums

A mainstay of the Lower East Side, saxophonist Paul Shapiro has played on hundreds of records with artists as diverse as John Zorn and Jay-Z, David Byrne and Michael Jackson. He has a huge and rich tenor sound and has released four deeply soulful records on Tzadik’s Radical Jewish series, all of which feature killer bands playing Paul’s original compositions.

Klezmer Instrumental Music Workshop with Paul Shapiro 6:30pm-8:00   $25 per class, 
Concert begins at 8:30pm – $15
Jam Session follows Concert 9:45-10:45ish 
Full night pass – $35 (includes Workshop, Concert & Jam Session)

at The Town & Village Synagogue, Social Hall,  334 East 14th St.(between 1st & 2nd Ave.)

 

About Midnight Minyan: 

“…Shapiro transforms the ritual of a Friday night Shabbat service into a rollicking downtown jam.”   Nate Chinen  The New York Times

“…a bubbling brew of soulful Jewish traditional music reimagined by someone who grew up playing tenor and flute while listening to Blue Note records and John Coltrane.” George Robinson The Jewish Week

“…a brilliant synthesis of klezmer and hard bop. The CD’s money track is a rousing rendition of “La Chaim.” He takes the drinking toast from “Fiddler on the Roof” and plays it like Sam Butera and Louis Prima.  Will Friedwald  the New York Sun

“Paul Shapiro’s Midnight Minyan could well stand as one of the supreme achievements of creative, modern Jewish jazz.”

Seth Rogovoy  Berkshire Jewish Voice

“Shapiro leads an outstanding sextet through some Jewish classics. Incorporating klezmer and Oriental modes, Shapiro’s approach is still surprisingly modern and quite swinging. Shapiro plays tenor and soprano with potent authority.”

Mitch Myers   Downbeat

“Midnight Minyan is a bubbling brew of soulful Jewish traditional music reimagined by someone who grew up playing tenor and flute while listening to Blue Note records and John Coltrane…a heady mixture of Middle-Eastern modes and bristling backbeats.”

George Robinson   The Jewish Week

“Mr. Shapiro’s “Midnight Minyan” is a brilliant synthesis of klezmer and hard bop. The CD’s money track is a rousing rendition of “La Chaim.” He takes the drinking toast from “Fiddler on the Roof” and plays it like Sam Butera and Louis Prima. This is a tenor exhibition of rare chutzpah, complete with honks, squeals, growls, abrupt, carnival-like tempo changes, and the noises of a cheering crowd of admirers.  In 2002, my favorite single track on a CD was Cassandra Wilson singing “Darkness on the Delta”.  So far this year, Mr. Shapiro’s “La Chaim” is the leading contender.”

Will Friedwald   The New York Sun

“…the aesthetic is something like a bar mitzvah afterparty, soaked in Manischewitz and smoky lounge jazz.  Liturgical material and Oriental-mode musings make up the tunestack.”        

Mark Schwartz   Barnes and Noble

“Jewish music is sexy.  Slow, meandering melodies conjure hot, arid lands or intimate moments at the synagogue…  Midnight Minyan breaks through the usually nostalgic sounding songs with brassy panache”. 

Celeste Sunderland   All About Jazz 

“On his first solo release saxophonist Paul Shapiro, who has played with everyone from Lou Reed to Ben Folds Five, offers several delightful rhythms… Shapiro’s leadership is forthright and detailed.  Midnight Minyan is all the better for it.”

Michael J. Ryan   Boston Herald

“The venerable melodies receive appealing contemporary treatments and are complemented by excellent mainstream improvisations.  Shapiro’s own “Lester Young’s Misheberakh’ does in fact evoke the cool, melodic style of Young, as does the tenorist’s smooth sound and laid-back improvisation.”

David Franklin   Jazz Times

“Saxophonist Paul Shapiro addresses the religious music of the Jewish tradition from a New York Downtown jazz perspective, and comes up with a very appealing hybrid in the process.”

Kenny Mathieson   Jazzwise

“From the opening moments when it becomes clear that bandleader Shapiro has actually gone to the familiar ‘Ma Lecha Hayam’ (What is happening, ye ocean) and made it work perfectly as a rhumba, this album demands attention and rewards that attention with absolute pleasure.”  

Ari Davidow   KlezmerShack

“I really loved Shapiro’s two original pieces.  The first one, a klezmer dance piece, ‘Freigish Behavior’ features the full Minyan band in full force.  The second one, ‘Lester Young’s Misheberakh’ is even better.”

Eyal Hareuveni   Squid’s Ear

“The ensemble occasionally projects notions of being in a smoky after-hours jazz joint, or perhaps enjoying the sometimes vivacious undertakings of a Jewish wedding.  No doubt, there’s a lot of goodness going on as Shapiro pegs a bona fide winner here!”

Glenn Astarita  All Music Guide

“While many of the neo-klezmer scene bring jazz into klezmer, some hepkatz bring some klezo-dynamics into small band modern jazz.  So it is with saxman to the stars Paul Shapiro, who’s debut disc ‘Midnight Minyan’ is a sextet date where exotic, midnight in Casablanca modal melody is injected into a context of piquant, ultra-modern but thoroughly swinging bebop (with a jump-blues chaser on the side).”

Mark Keresman  jazzreview.com

“There is, however, a thriving genre of contemporary Jewish music that could well be the elusive ‘Jewish jazz’ that listeners and musicians alike have been seeking for years.  And Paul Shapiro’s Midnight Minyan could well stand as one of the supreme achievements of creative, modern Jewish jazz.”

Seth Rogovoy  Berkshire Jewish Voice

There’s a version of “Ma Lecha Hayam” from the Hallel prayer done as a rumba, a raucous rendition of “To Life” from “Fiddler On the Roof” with a tango feel and an astounding transformation of the melody used for the blessings prior to chanting the haftarah in which the tune is reborn as a Latin jazz mambo.

Jon Kalish  The Forward