RECORDINGS AND PERFORMANCES OF NOTE
Paul has performed with Medeski Martin and Wood, Bob Weir's Ratdog, Wayne Shorter, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Oaktown Irawo, Steve Smith, Peter Erskine, Ray Charles, Dewey Redman, Roy Wooten and the ROYEL Philharmonic, Eddie Money, Bob Moses, Alan Broadbent, Don Cherry, Boz Scaggs, Kotoja, The Temptations, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, St. Joseph Ballet Company, The Klezmorim, Chamber Music West, and as soloist with the Napa Symphony Orchestra.

He has appeared on recordings with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Peter Erskine, Paul McCandless, Omar Sosa, Jesus Diaz, Billy Higgins, Billy Childs, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, Ray Obiedo, Darol Anger, Brian Bromberg, Chester Thompson, Eddie Money, David Garibaldi, Kotoja, and Peter Apfelbaum and The Hieroglyphics Ensemble.

His major festival performances include North Sea Jazz Festival, The Ravinia Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Leverkuzen Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival-England, The 1999 NAMM Show/Nashville, Monterey Blues Festival, and the Interlink Festival in Japan.

AWARDS
Paul Hanson was the 1996 Grand Prize Winner of JAZZIZ Magazine's Woodwinds on Fire Contest. Paul was also recipient of a 1995 NEA Jazz Fellowship Grant, and his first album THE LAST ROMANTICS received Best Jazz Recording for January 1994 from Audiophile Magazine of Japan.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
The Last Romantics, his first compact disc recording as lead artist, was released in Japan by Midi Records in 1993. His second compact disc, Astro Boy Blues, also on the Midi Label, was released in the U.S. in December 1996. Paul recorded an album of jazz duets performing Jewish and Eastern European traditional music. Paul has also recorded with South American guitarist Enrique Correa for David Grisman's Acoustic Disc label, and Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa for Tonga records. Paul has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States. In 2000 and 2001, Paul played on tours with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Paul, sponsored by Fox Bassoons, performed as a soloist at the 1995 International Double Reed Festival in Rotterdam, Holland, where Hanson's compositions and performance received great acclaim from many of the world's renown double reed artists. Paul also appeared at the 1996 and 1999 IDRS festivals as a performer and as a clinician. In 2003, Paul performed at the IDRS festival as a Moosman bassoon artist.

Among the places Paul has performed with his own group: Yoshi's in Oakland, at the Monterey Jazz Festival, at The Dakota in Minneapolis - sponsored in part by the Minnesota Bassoon Association, and at the Belage in Los Angeles. Paul was also music director and primary performer for a three part academic jazz series at several California Universities with the Paul Hanson Ensemble; this ensemble has performed in 1997 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

EDUCATION
Paul graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a B.M. degree. He was a pupil of San Francisco Symphony Principal Bassoonist Stephen Paulson.

CREDITS
Thanks to: Moosmann Bassoons, Forrests Music in Berkeley CA for the very best in double reed service and supplies, Digitech for their harmonizer, Korg and Mu-tron for their great stompboxes, Ultrasound Amplifiers and SWR for their bass amps.

"The incredible bassoonist Paul Hanson..blew the entire audience away. The bassoon isn't supposed to be able to be played so fast but Hanson did it, digging deep into the changes, combining awesome technique and precise articulation with hot fire."

- Glen Dour, California JAZZ NOW magazine