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Paul
was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, minutes from the world
famous “HOLLYWOOD” sign. He showed an interest in music at an early age, and
started drum lessons at 11 with the in-house studio drummer at MGM studios.
By 14 he had added guitar, bass, and keyboards to his repertoire. Moving to
West L.A., he majored in music harmony and theory at University High School.
He played in various bands plus marching band, while also playing defensive
end and offensive guard on the varsity football team. Upon graduation, he
attended Santa Monica College, where he added choir and madrigals to his
studies. After 2 years, he moved to the San Fernando Valley to attend Valley
Junior College, home of one of the best big bands in the country. He took up
trumpet as well as big band arranging, writing for working dance bands in
the L.A. area. Among his classmates was guitarist/arranger/writer Jay Graydon. Paul started playing and jamming in local bars in Santa Monica and
the Valley, landing a guitar job with a band from Santa Barbara that became
the house band at San Marcos Lanes for 2 years. When that band broke up, he
headed out on the road across the U.S. with an L.A. based hotel lounge band.
He returned to Santa Barbara a year later and stayed there until a fire
wiped out quite a bit of the town. Moving back to L.A., he joined a band
that required him to play every instrument onstage: guitar, bass, keys,
drums, and trumpet. He eventually took that band to Alaska; when it broke
up, he put together a house band for the same owner who brought his band up
from L.A. That club shut down a year later when the owner was convicted of
conspiracy for arson. As many club owners had offered the band work, he
stayed on in Alaska until 1995, when the oil and fish industries took a
major dive. (He left Alaska on 2 occasions to live in Seattle and Hawaii,
for a year each). He returned to L.A. where he enrolled in Musicians
Institute in Hollywood (B.I.T./G.I.T) taking advanced courses in reading and
bass technique. He was offered a show job in Las Vegas, and moved there
after graduating from B.I.T. Unfortunately, the show never materialized, so
he moved to Reno for 3 years to do a lounge gig, returning to Vegas in 1999.
He ended up being in the house band at the Las Vegas Blue Note Jazz club for
almost a year, before returning to Reno for a full time job from 2001-2005.
He is currently freelancing with casino bands in Nevada and splits his time
between Reno and Las Vegas. |
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