NY Klezmer Series Proudly Presents:

About Midnight Minyan:

 “…Shapiro transforms the ritual of a Friday night Shabbat service into a rollicking downtown jam.”

Nate Chinen The New York Times

“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

“…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

“…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

The saxophonist Paul Shapiro doesn’t tread lightly upon the Jewish-themed music he plays. His latest CD on the Tzadik label, “It’s in the Twilight,” displays all the turbulent beauty and tradition-bucking funk that his growing coterie of fans now expects.

The New Yorker

Jewish music usually runs either hot or cool, and this turns out to be a scorcher. Shapiro applies the heat to a handful of Jewish standards. Light fuse and step away.

The Village Voice

Tenor saxophonist Paul Shapiro (who’s played alongside artists as far-flung as Michael Jackson, Lou Reed and the Microscopic Septet) leads a band of friends in the feisty, funky arrangements of Jewish themes found on his new Tzadik CD, It’s in the Twilight.