Paul Hanson, a musical innovator
I first discovered Paul Hanson around 2002 through a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones video called Live at the Quick. I had never heard of Paul before, and honestly, I barely knew the instrument he was playing. But he was blowing the hell out of it — with a ferocity, fluidity, and imagination that made me stop everything I was doing. That performance sent me down a rabbit hole, trying to understand who this musician was and where he came from.
Paul lived mostly in the classical world, a universe I wasn’t deeply familiar with. But his voice on the instrument — the phrasing, the articulation, the fearless improvisational spirit — stayed with me.
More than a year later, I was still devastated by the passing of Shawn Lane, with whom I had a few dates booked alongside Jonas Hellborg and Jeff Sipe. Losing Shawn was not just losing a guitarist; it was losing a once‑in‑a‑generation musical mind and a dear friend. Cancelling the gigs felt wrong, and replacing him with another guitarist felt even more wrong.So we did something different. We invited Paul.
He stepped into those concerts not as a substitute, but as a new force — improvising, exploring, and bringing the bassoon into the context of heavy electric improvisational music. It was unexpected, daring, and completely his own. Those few shows were unforgettable. We had some great hangs during those days. Something healing happened in that space: grief gave way to curiosity, and the music found a way forward. I knew this is what Shawn would have wanted.
A few years later, I had the chance to work with Paul on his record Frolic in the Land of Plenty, one of the very early releases in our catalog. The album got some great buzz, but shortly after, Paul moved to Tokyo in 2008 to create his own role as an electric improvising bassoonist in Cirque du Soleil’s ZED, a resident show in Tokyo. It was such a Paul move — bold, imaginative, and completely outside the expected path.
After all these years, I am so excited to work again with someone who is as original, prolific, and groundbreaking as they come. And the musicians on this new record are fantastic in their own right — Charlie Hunter, Jeff Sipe, Bill Stevens, Calvin Napper, John Daniel Ray, and the new guitar slinger Issac Lee Hadden ( I just met him recently, what a force. Jimmy Herring has rubbed off on him in a very nice way) .
Hearing them together, recorded live in the studio, is pure joy.
Paul Hanson is a visionary and deserves far wider recognition in the world of improvised music. There is simply no one that sounds like him.
– Souvik Dutta, Abstract Logix
