Paula Byrne Quartet

featuring Paula Byrne vocals

Gordon Lee on Piano

Tim Gilson on Bass

Carlton Jackson on Drums

www.PaulaByrneMusic.com

Paula Byrne's voice is like chilled champagne on a hot summer day. She moves easily between songs that are lush and beautiful to highly rhythmic, wild rides. Her sense of humor, revival of obscure songs and new twists on old standards keeps the audience engaged and enraptured.

Paula is eclectic in her choice of musicians with whom to perform, including many of Portland's best: Randy Porter, Gordon Lee, George Mitchell, Craig Bidondo, Joe Millward, Ron Steen, Dennis Caiazza, Rich Turnoy, Glenn Holstrom, Andrea Niemiec, Kevin Dietz, Christopher Woitach and Darin Clendenin, Matt Tabor, Craig Snazelle, Dave Captein, Vince Frates, Dan Gaynor, John Gilmore, Mike Horsfall, Greg Goebel, Dan Presley, Carlton Jackson, Gordon Lee, Todd Marston.

Born to a jazz drummer (father) and figure skater (mother), she has been a lover of music and movement since birth. Paula teaches dance locally and internationally, and has been a moving force in the dance scene in Portland since 1996. She is the creator of the Wild Grace™ and DanceQuest™ movement meditations, and is Founder of SomaSpace ~ Studio of Movement Arts in NE PDX.

Paula was an Oracle software developer in the corporate high-tech field for 20 years. She left that career in 2005 to devote herself full-time to her soul-work in assisting people to remember and reconnect to the body as a source of wisdom, pleasure and joy in the present moment.

Gordon Lee is a composer, jazz pianist, arranger, conductor and music educator who is well known throughout the Pacific Northwest for his work in all these fields. Although he is best known for his jazz performances and compositions, Lee is active with many styles of music. He has composed a symphony; a string quartet; a symphonic band piece; a woodwind quintet; choral music; duo sonatas for violin & piano; viola & piano; cello & piano and clarinet & piano, as well as numerous small group jazz pieces, big band jazz arrangements and arrangements for many vocalists. Lee believe that jazz has given him a music language to express himself in traditional forms from European idioms of music. As an educator he has taught at Portland State University, Portland Community College, Clackamas Community College and currently at Western Oregon University (WOU). Lee continues his intent of presenting the highest quality original music while educating the public about the many potentials that music can be.

Tim Gilson has been a mainstay in the Northwest for many years. In 1985 he joined the Mel Brown Quintet with which he recorded the award winning 'Gordon Bleu' CD. During this time Tim had the opportunity to play with many nationally acclaimed artists including Mose Allison, Ritchie Cole, Bud Shank, Herb Ellis, Julian Priester, John Handy, Ernestine Anderson and many others. In 1988 Tim won 2nd place in an international bass competition in Los Angeles and shortly thereafter substituted for John Clayton with 'Slide Hampton and the New Jazz Masters' in a concert in Sacramento. He toured Japan in 1993 with the Mel Brown Quintet with special guest artist Chuck Findley on trumpet; then in 1994 he moved to Madison Wisconsin where he served as Principal Bassist with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and substituted on a regular basis with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Since returning to Portland in 2002 Tim plays regularly with the Oregon Symphony backing guest artist such as Dee Daniels, Byron Stripling and Herbie Hancock. Tim has also accompanied several guest artists including Wycliff Gordon, Antonio Hart, Matt Wilson, Ingrid Jensen and Wynton Marsalis during their tours of the Pacific Northwest.

Los Angeles Times longtime Jazz Music critic Don Heckman once wrote of Carlton Jackson's drumming as being "intensely musical..."

The description perfectly describes Carlton, as he has been associated with various areas within the musical world, and continues to be a first call musician in the performance and recording industry. His flowing, incisive style & a firm respect for the inherent tradition of various music genres has made him a natural choice for local, national, and international projects. This awareness has led to his performances appearing in feature films, television and radio.

Celebrating the diverse musical community which continually engages him, Carlton brings his distinctive style to each musical endeavor. A native of Portland, Oregon, his well-documented work with contemporary jazz pianists Tom Grant and Dan Siegel, guitarists Dan Balmer and Terry Robb, Blues/R&B singers D.K.Stewart and Curtis Salgado, country-pop singer Toni Land and iconoclastic composer Jon Newton, have solidified his performer status as engaging and versatile.

A further sampling of the artists whom Carlton has worked with includes the legendary "Father of the Jazz Walking Bass" Leroy Vinnegar, as well as other greats such as Billy Eckstine, Bo Diddley, Jerry Hahn, Maryann Price, Mark Isham, Jim Pepper, Bobby Torres, James Cotton, Houston Person, actor Bruce Willis, Melissa Walker, Dianne Schuur, Larry Coryell, Danny Barnes, Bill Frisell, and Gordon Lee (in Trio & Big Band settings.)

Carlton is currently a member of the teaching faculty roster with the award-winning Western Oregon University/Mel Brown Jazz Workshop. He teaches privately at Trade Up Music in Portland, and is engaged in many facets of music education at the grade, high school, and college levels.