MIDNIGHT MINYAN
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
“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