Paul Faatz is up to stuff. Having comfortably settled into retirement following a harrowing and disorienting career, Paul has been diligently working toward reclaiming his self of old and is making up for lost time with a vengeance. He is happy to have reunited with the dreams and fancies of his youth, choosing to build and expand on that model while shedding the shell he'd grown in order to deal with the expectations of an untrustworthy and superficial world.

Though rusty to the point of decay, when active, Paul has been known to perform on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, and a host of pennywhistles and small instruments.

His list of previous performing experiences is broad and alarming, heavy on the blues, rock, jazz, and swing fronts, but also including Brazilian music, traditional Irish music, a decades-long stint playing polkas and traditional Bavarian music with the Edelweiss Band, and a number of performances on contrabass clarinet with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Paul has been a member of the rock group Four Zoas, New Orleans funk aggregate Funk Master General, Doc Scantlin’s Imperial Palms Orchestra, Dave Tucker's Roaring Big Band, Gene and the Cadillac Cruisers, the Bayside Big Band, The Majestics, the Hank Levy Legacy Band, the Melting Pot Big Band, jump blues band Totally Confused, salsa band Nuevo Cache, and the Intergalactic Liberation Front.

Paul's been writing big band charts for years, and realizes he's got enough material for a CD or two. If he can get his act together, maybe he'll assemble a big band to do a live performance and recording. His original big band compositions have been featured in performances by the Melting Pot Big Band,  the Baltimore Jazz Alliance Big Band, the Peabody Jazz Orchestra, the Bayside Big Band, the Michael Raitzyk Jazz Orchestra, and the Paul Faatz Big Band.

Paul’s primary composition studies took place at Berklee College of Music, where his teachers included the legendary Herb Pomeroy, Bob Freedman, Allan Chase, and Ken Pullig.  Besides works for big band, Paul also writes the occasional piece of chamber music, and has arranged the horn books of several bands with which he’s worked.

When not writing or playing music, Paul enjoys reading, hiking, history,  photography, chess, Scrabble, and spending time with his lovely and talented wife, Kris, and their cats Alafair, Templeton, and Fergus.

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