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Paul Asaro Champaign, IL |
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In addition to solo performances, Paul tours the country as accompanist to Leon Redbone appearing together on NPR?Ts ?oA Prairie Home Companion? and ?oMountain Stage?, and even performing at Adam Sandler's wedding. Asaro recently recorded with Loudon Wainwright III on his Grammy winning album "High Wide & Handsome - The Charlie Poole Project". An extended solo tour for Allied Concert Services received rave reviews and was followed by an encore appearance with Butch Thompson and Jon Weber for the Twin Cities Jazz Festival's "Stride Piano Night". In 2011 Asaro will tour Hungary as a featured soloist for the Bohem Ragtime & Jazz Festival. Paul has appeared with such musical legends and luminaries as Steve Allen, Marian McPartland, Jeff Healy and Vince Giordano. He was one of the featured pianists in the Obie award winning Broadway production of Vernel Bagneris?T and Morten Gunnar Larsen?Ts "Jelly Roll! The Music and the Man". Asaro has had long runs as house pianist aboard the legendary New Orleans steamboat "Delta Queen" and in Chicago with Jim Beebe's Chicago Jazz Band. |
Paul Asaro is known worldwide as one of the finest performers of the jazz piano style known as Harlem Stride, a demanding, swinging and two-handed solo style that dominated throughout the 1920s and 30s. Well known for his ability to capture the unique essence and feel of stride, Asaro is also renowned for his performances of Eubie Blake and Jelly Roll Morton, ragtime, swing, and boogie woogie. With his highly entertaining vocals and vivid descriptions of the era of the early piano greats and their music, Asaro blends 50 years of jazz piano together into a style all his own and is a concert and festival stage favorite, truly a "one man orchestra" according to the New York Times' Alvin Klein.