“Beyond Blues” Gabwalk Records 0601

Philadelphia Inquirer
Beyond Blues Review

Somewhere on that Buddy Johnson ditty "Since I Fell for You," guitarist Paul Renz will knock you out. The Norfolk, Virginia native, now based in Minneapolis, with jazz degrees from both the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, projects his fuzzy tone all over that soulful chestnut, and then turns it into a rocker before it comes back to gin-soaked repose. What a ride.

Renz's quintet is a tad more cerebral for most of these seven cuts. The title track, with the Jaco Pastorius-like doodling of bassist Eric Graham and the deft stickwork of drummer Nathan Fryett, is a veritable mood cleanser. These players happily are not phat-free. A Renz original, "11th and LaSalle," is guaranteed to shake some tail feathers. Organist Brian Ziemniak and tenor saxophonist Andrew Schwandt are responsible for some of the requisite soul.

Renz's solo take of the Beatles' "I'll Follow the Sun" makes for a warm closer.

-Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 2007

-Jim Meyer, Minnesota Monthly, "Best Of Minnesota" edition, January 2007

Yet another of those educators by day and working musicians by night jazz guys, Paul Renz heads the Jazz Studies Department at Minneapolis’ West Bank School of Music. Here on his fifth CD as a leader, the guitarist is joined by B3, tenor and rhythm section players for a romp through a collection of originals and classics. His tone alternates between that classic warm dry tone and the more modern Metheny-esque style, depending on the direction this versatile player decides to go. Those looking for some awesome segue music should check out the brief rendition of the Beatles’ “I’ll Follow The Sun,” but there is plenty of adult portions here to be had-“11th & LaSalle” is a nice bluesy groove, the open ended title cut pushes at the edges, and “Yardbird Suite” brings it all back home (to crib a phrase from another Minnesotan). Not something on the radar for most of us, but certainly a nicely varied effort that will have something for everyone to dig.

-Tad Hendrickson, JazzWeek, 2006

With his new Beyond Blues, Twin Cities guitarist/composer/educator Paul Renz now has a discography five discs deep. This one indeed goes beyond the blues, pulling in some funk, fusion, and more classical jazz elements to create a diverse set of originals and covers that showcase not only the guitarist but his accomplished bandmates as well: tenor saxman Andrew Schwandt, B-3 player Brian Ziemniak, bassist Eric Graham, and drummer Nathan Fryett. All will be on hand November 1st when Renz holds a CD Release Party at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis.

A native of Virginia, Paul Renz earned degrees from Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. His academic resume includes developing jazz curriculum at a performing arts high school in Norfolk, VA and teaching jazz at Tidewater Community College before coming to Minneapolis in 1993 to direct jazz studies at the West Bank School of Music. He's also the resident jazz guitar instructor at the MacPhail Center for Music. Renz wasted no time becoming an integral part of the Twin Cities jazz scene in the mid 90s, continuing his roles as composer and bandleader as well as performer on guitar and electric bass. His previous recordings earned such accolades as "neatly balancing taut and tuneful charts with spontaneous solos" (Tom Surowicz re Everlasting), "a challenging guitarist who keeps the pot boiling" (Frank Robolino re Dish It Up), and "impressive compositional and instrumental chops" (Dan Emerson re Hubbub).
Beyond Blues (Gabwalk Records) is as eclectic as Paul Renz, with three original tunes and a diverse set of four covers that range from jazz classics (Yardbird Suite, I'll Remember April) to cross generation-pop (Since I Fell For You, I'll Follow the Sun). It's a relatively short set at 42 minutes but it covers a lot of territory. The title track takes a blues groove to the great beyond from the first notes of an off-kilter duo vamp of sax and guitar. Schwandt's rich, buzzy tone twists and somersaults through Renz' composition, while bassist Eric Graham bubbles with acidic phrases and gurgling pops. The arrangement of Charlie Parker's Yardbird Suite swings hard as Renz delivers the theme over Ziemniak's subtle comping. Sax and guitar alternate melodic and harmonic leadership, while Ziemniak's relaxed and high-speed phrasing will be pleasingly familiar to anyone who has heard his work on acoustic keyboards.

You might wonder if you are tuned into a 21st century adaptation of American Band Stand as the quintet launches into Buddy Johnson's pop classic, Since I Fell for You. Particularly enhanced by the B-3 and some jet-propelled percussion from Nathan Fryett, a rock n blues groove permeates this track until it hits an abrupt end. Switching gears, Renz seems to chase his own notes through a bouncing I'll Remember April, while the guitarist lays back on his own Early Morning, giving lots of space to showcase Andrew Schwandt.

Renz's 11th and Lasalle is a funky blues delight, evoking the busy traffic of the downtown intersection near MacPhail. It's a grooving romp for Ziemniak on B-3, while Renz delivers some of his best lines in this conversation, and Schwandt contributes some bright and snarly licks. Turning 180 degrees, the final track finds Renz alone to deconstruct the Lennon/McCartney classic, I'll Follow the Sun. In a more acoustic fashion, the guitarist manages to pay homage to the original while still turning it into his own statement in very compact, under-two-minute finale.
It all seems to end too soon, but there's another helping close at hand in live performance. Apparently anything can happen when these guys get together, as they will prove on November 1st when the Paul Renz Quintet celebrates the release of Beyond Blues at the Dakota.

-Andrea Carter, jazzpolice.com, October 2006

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“Hubbub" Gabwalk Records 0401

Minneapolis-based composer, guitarist and educator Paul Renz flexes impressive compositional and instrumental chops with his new CD, the self-produced Hubbub. Renz wrote five of the seven tunes, showing a refreshing penchant for offbeat melodic and rhythmic twists and turns. Renz honors a kindred spirit with “Well You Couldn't”— a tune based on the changes of Thelonious Monk's “Well You Needn't,” combined with a bit of New Orleans second line rhythm supplied by drummer Greg Schutte. Trading licks with Renz are harmonicat Clint Hoover, young tenor saxophonist Chris Thomson, electric bassist Eric Graham and drummer Greg Schutte. A special guest of sorts is percussion wizard Ernesto Laboy, who's based in Renz' former home of Virginia. Once again, the imaginative Hoover validates his place as a world-class player on the challenging chromatic harp.

-Dan Emerson
The Chord

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Hubbub

From the trenches of academia, guitarist Paul Renz emerges with his magnum swingin’ opus, a calling card that should open the door of any jazz club where the booker has ears. Hubbub is a box of musical truffles that won’t make you fat. Everything sweet (and salty) about modern mainstream jazz is in there. The invention, the drive, hot solos aplenty, nods to past masters (Yo Miles! Yo Monk!), the “Latin tinge” courtesy of percussion all-pro Ernesto Laboy, plus a shot or two of rock energy and electricity.

Renz’s talent for writing hip, complex, yet hummable themes is uncanny. “Hubbub,” is Exhibit A. Right from the first bluesy, bent-string guitar notes, the listener is sucked in, led astray, caught between bop and a rock place, buoyed by the groove, lost between blues and bliss. OK, that’s a bit florid, I’ll admit. But this CD oughta come with a yellow-and-black sticker reading: “Caution, Composer At Work.”

Duke Pearson’s most famous tune, “Jeannine,” is Exhibit B of Renz’s compositional prowess. Yeah, it’s a bar standard, done very often and very well—by everybody from Cannonball Adderly, Gene Ammons and Teddy Edwards, to singers Eddie Jefferson and Georgie Fame. But dig Renz’s long, insistent, mysterious intro. It had me reaching for old Gabor Szabo LPs. While Renz is proving himself to be a fluid, potent soloist, the hip intro could easily stand alone as its own groove tune. Some samplin’ trip-hop kids might really have fun with the driving bass line. And “Jeannine” has another surprise before her track ends, a Latin sibling we’ll call Juanita, who makes an appearance about eight-and-a-half minutes into the track, trailing along a salsa band. Timbales, anyone? Maybe Renz should have retitled this, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Jeannine.”

Hubbub is chock full of such hip twists and turns. The beat shouts New Orleans, yet the model is obviously Monk, on “Well You Couldn’t,” another catchy bullseye. Midwest young lion Chris Thomson gets to swagger a bit here on tenor sax, then erupt briefly on “A Fit of Fifths”—remember the name, he’s a comer! Thelonious is lurking in the shadows again on “Blues In the Open.” And it’s a shame Bill Evans isn’t around to hear the beautiful ballad gem, “Everlasting.” He’d want to round up Toots Thielemans and cut his own version, I’d bet.

Speaking of Mr. Thielemans…To the short list of great jazz harmonica players—Toots, Hendrik Meurkens, Howard Levy, Gregoire Maret—you can now add the name Clint Hoover. Mild-mannered off the bandstand, he’s a monster onstage or in the studio, a smokin’ and soulful soloist who will huff and puff and cajole your house down. Just listen, the evidence is everywhere on Hubbub.

Now do you think “All Blues” has been done to perfection, and to death? So did I, before hearing Renz’s kitchen sink, tour-de-force, positively giddy update! ‘Tis a gift to be simple? Maybe. But ya gotta be gifted to construct a crazy quilt musical collage this colorful, too. By the time we get to the fiery fusion finale, it’s easy to see even old hardass Miles up in heaven with a broad grin. Or, maybe down in the other place—he was the “prince of darkness,” after all.

No jazz album this satisfying would be possible without a first-class rhythm section, as Renz well knows. In his parallel career as a music school prof, the guitarist/composer gets to spot and nurture new talent. And he’s certainly found a couple of keepers in bassist Eric Graham, whose electric solo bounces along very electrically indeed on “All Blues” and able drummer Greg Schutte, an ally for several years now, both in studio and on occasional cross-country road trips.

On one of those hit-the-highways jaunts out of Minneapolis, through Chicago and the rest of the Midwest, back to his old Virginia stomping grounds, Renz re-connected with congas wizard and dear pal, Ernesto Laboy, the truly “special” guest who puts Hubbub over the top. New York City-born and Virginia-based, Laboy has been a Latin music deejay, a Bruce Hornsby sideman (on the jazzy double-album Spirit Trail) and a mainstay of the East Coast bands, Hot Sun Trio and Classe Aparte. In the middle of a Minnesota winter, Laboy brought his ritmo caliente to town, and the musical picture was complete.

The word hubbub can be traced back over four centuries, to the early Celtic inhabitants of Britain and has generally always carried pejorative connotations. Even today, Webster’s dictionary defines hubbub as: “a noisy confusion of sound; an uproar, a tumult.” With his latest and finest recording, Paul Renz has at last given Hubbub a good reputation, a positive spin, a ***** rating.

-Tom Surowicz
Tom Surowicz contributes regularly to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and is the host of “Monday Evening Jazz” on KBEM-FM radio.

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“Dish It Up” Gabwalk Records 0101

Playing well-honored compositions does not necessarily mean there cannot be a novel spin to an album. On “Dish It Up,” guitarist Renz proves that with a vibrant spin around such well known pieces as Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee” and the movie composition “Secret Love.” He also plays four original compositions, one of which splices in Coltrane’s “Impressions” while displaying a fast, technically sophisticated and artistically satisfying style. Keeping pace with Renz is bassist Iden and drummer Schutte, who have to scurry to match his vigor. Tenor saxophonist Reynolds makes it a quartet on three selections. He interacts in unison with Renz on the theme statements and becomes an additional foil to set Renz off and running on his typically long improvised excursions. Reynolds’ improvising touches on the funky side, ranging far afield but having an earthy, barnyard sound.

The class of the album is the 24-minute “Latin in Deed/Impressions.” It has changing tempo and plenty of opportunities for Renz and Reynolds to open wide. Renz gets into some exciting improvising while the rhythm section keeps a steady and provocative beat. Although Renz does some quoting, (“Norwegian Wood” and “Billy Boy” are obvious), his runs are mostly energetic exercises of freely flying guitar spikes. Reynolds is in a mellower mood on this track and turns in soulful and rolling improvisations on the bouncing theme. Iden and Schutte also enjoy their moment in the sun on this piece that ends with a rousing version of the Coltrane classic. Renz is a challenging guitarist who keeps the pot boiling throughout this set. It is a fine example of open-ended guitar trio music with a tenor punch.

Frank Rubolino, Cadence Magazine, October 2001

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Bright Moments, The Best in Jazz
Paul Renz, Dish It Up (Gabwalk Records)

This is the second self-produced CD by Minneapolis-based guitarist/bassist/composer Renz, a Berklee and New England Conservatory of Music grad who teaches at MacPhail Center for the Arts and the West Bank School of Music. There’s nothing academic about the music here, it’s a stylistic collage that includes four originals and a smokin’ cover of the Charlie Parker chops-buster “Donna Lee.” Renz’ knack for eschewing jazz cliches in favor of unexpected musical detours gives him a certain kinship with another modern iconoclast, guitarist/composer Bill Frisell. Renz and his accompanists, bassist John Iden, drummer Greg Schutte and tenor saxman Ruston Reynolds, apparently spent plenty of time jamming on the charts before committing them to vinyl.

Dan Emerson, Pulse Magazine, August 2001

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Starting Fresh
Paul Renz left his jazz career in Virginia and has spent the last few years creating one in Minneapolis

A few years ago, jazz guitarist Paul Renz did what every musician dreads: he pulled up stakes in a place where he had established a bustling career and moved across the country to a place where he knew no one. The strain of that move is still evident in his voice today, although his words are peppered with ambition, tenacity and passion. “It was kind of gut-wrenching to leave Virginia, which had been my home for a long time,” said Renz. “It’s incredible how much work it takes for a musician to start afresh. It’s evolutionary, not something you do instantly. It’s not something I would ever like to repeat.”

Today, in Minneapolis, Renz has established a busy career as a jazz musician. He is the director of jazz studies at the West Bank School of Music, which credits him with bringing a new focus and energy to its rapidly developing jazz program. He teaches private lessons as well as three jazz ensembles. He also teaches at MacPhail Center for the Arts.

Renz and his quartet perform several times a year at the Loring Café and Dakota Bar & Grill, and they recently released a new CD, “Dish It Up,” a lively collection of bebop by Charlie Parker, a well-loved standard by Fain & Webster and several fascinating new compositions by Renz. The group recorded the CD shortly after an East Coast tour last winter. “What I’m focusing on is touring more,” said Renz. “I’m exploring markets all over the world: Montreal, Scandinavian countries, Japan. I would like to try to tour for a month at a time. I’m caught in this place where I want to be nationally recognized so you cannot play regularly in your hometown because you don’t want to saturate the market “For me, it kind of works out the way it should by playing just a few concerts at the Dakota and the Loring. On one hand it would be great to have a regular gig, but I also teach full time and have a family and like to compose, so I have to balance it all.”

Renz’s professional journey has been an unusual one. He initially decided against college and instead focused on a performing career in the Tidewater area of Virginia. “I had a nice touch and good technique and I was a good band leader. But I was an unsophisticated player and my knowledge of theory was pitiful. I didn’t want to shake up my life so significantly, but I did when I was 29 and it was a profound thing.” The “it” was the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he began his undergraduate studies at the age of 29. He then earned a master’s degree at New England Conservatory of Music. “It changed my life,” said Renz of his college experience. “I lived like a monk. I ate, drank and slept music 16 hours a day for six years. It was what I call essential isolation. I was reclusive and I led a contemplative life where I could intensely apply myself to study.”

After earning degrees, Renz moved back to Norfolk, Virginia and established himself as a leader in the jazz scene. In 1993, when his wife was offered a job with Martin Williams Advertising in Minneapolis, the couple headed north. He exhausted himself with auditions and interviews. “It was tiring and discouraging, but I had to be tenacious,” said Renz of his first few months in town. West Bank School of Music took notice of him and hired him as a jazz instructor. “Actually, they had no jazz program, just a couple of instructors,” said Renz. “I told them what I wanted to do and they hired me. They hadn’t had somebody so industrious at that point.” It took another year to be hired by MacPhail, where he now has a bustling teaching schedule.

Along the way, Renz has distinguished himself as a gifted jazz composer. His works can be heard on the “Everlasting” CD, released in 1996, and on the “Robert Black Conducts” CD by the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, a world-class symphony based in Poland. “Everlasting” features all original material by Renz. For the Silesian Philharmonic CD, Renz’s former professor, William Thomas McKinley, chose him to compose a work alongside other leading contemporary U.S. composers.

While he loves composing, Renz said that often takes the backseat to teaching and performing. “I don’t have time to do everything. I have to prioritize. My hands are on my instrument six hours a day because I teach all the time and perform as much as I can. But composing is periodic. I really need quietude.”

Renz said he has found an active jazz community in the Twin Cities, but that “characteristic of all big cities, there is an abundance of great players and few places to play.” “The trend is not to go out to clubs and hear live music. People are more sedentary,” he said. “I’m combating that. My students and audiences reflect hope because people want human contact, live music. You can sense how productive and nourishing it is.”

Kathy Graves, Southwest Journal, Arts Spotlight, June 25, 2001

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Paul Renz’s jazz chops haven’t cooled off in frozen north

For jazz guitarist, composer and educator Paul Renz, the most difficult thing about departing Hampton Roads for Minneapolis was leaving close friendships and one-of-a-kind opportunities behind. Friends like the Virginia Symphony musicians who premiered his several string quartets and the leaders at the Tidewater Classical Guitar Society who commissioned his original music. Opportunities like teaching at Tidewater Community College, founding the jazz program at the Governor’s Magnet School for the Arts and performing extensively in the region for more than a decade. This weekend, Renz will have the opportunity to reunite with old friends as he brings his jazz quartet to Norfolk for a two-night stand at the Bienville Grill. Renz will also teach a master class at the Governor’s Magnet School on Friday. “It was a difficult decision to leave,” Renz said recently from his Minneapolis home, “to sever my ties in Norfolk which were and still are considerable. I was very much a part of the artistic and cultural life of Hampton Roads.”

But in 1993 Renz’s wife, a native Midwesterner, received a job offer too spectacular to turn down, so the couple started packing. It took Renz a full year “to get things rolling” for himself in Minneapolis, but he now teaches at three schools. He is the director of jazz studies at the West bank School of Music, a jazz guitar instructor at MacPhail Center for the Arts and artist-in-residence at St. Mary’s University. He also teaches private students-young musicians who want to learn music theory and improvisation-20 hours a week. Add a regular performance schedule and Renz is busier now than when he left Hampton Roads. “I’m extremely lucky to be doing something I love,” he says.

Renz’s appearance in Norfolk is part of an East Coast tour that will find him performing in St. Louis, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and other cities. He is not touring in support of album-his first jazz CD, “Everlasting,” came out in 1995-but he will be recording after the tour is over. Renz’s jazz pieces, for all their sophistication, sport a sound most anyone can enjoy. Renz chalks it up to where he’s coming from as a composer. “I’m a romanticist, I’m very melodic, in contrast to being an avant-garde composer or someone that’s producing music that’s less accessible. The truest music that comes from me is generally accessible.”

One of Renz’s classical works, “A Symphonic Poem,” can be heard on a 1994 compilation CD of modern composers entitled “Robert Black Conducts” on MMC Records. “Poem” is performed by the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland, a world-class European symphony. The work was commissioned by the renowned composer William Thomas McKinley, under whom Renz studied. “It was thrilling…revelatory…very moving,” Renz said of hearing his composition performed and recorded in Poland by the Silesian Philharmonic. “It’s so big. When a composer composes it’s in complete solitude. To hear that for the first time, it was truly remarkable.”

Sue VanHecke, Virginian Pilot, November 2000

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Renz Appointed Artist-In-Residence

The St. Mary’s University, Minneapolis campus, has appointed Paul Renz Artist-In-Residence. The appointment represents a serious effort to broaden the curriculum to include study of the arts and music in particular. Renz is the Director of Jazz Studies at the West Bank School of Music and also teaches at MacPhail Center for the Arts.

Twin Cities Jazz Society, Jazz Notes, December 1999

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Paul Renz appointed Director of Jazz Studies

The West Bank School of Music announces the appointment of Paul Renz to the newly created office of Director of Jazz Studies. As Director, Renz will be overseeing the rapidly developing jazz program at the school, increasing its offerings and faculty and bringing a new focus and energy to the program. While jazz has been a focus of the West Bank School of Music since its inception in 1970, Renz is committed to bringing the program to a new level, aiming to make it the best in the Twin Cities.

In his three years as an instructor at WBSM, Renz has been instrumental in the growth of the jazz program at the school. His Jazz Improvisation classes have been the entry point for many students into the realm of jazz and he has molded several student ensembles into fine performing groups, most recently seen at several gigs at Pepito’s Restaurant in Minneapolis. It is Renz’s commitment to professionalism and his exacting yet accessible teaching style which lead the WBSM Board of Directors to appoint him to spearhead this important effort.

Paul Renz graduated summa cum laude from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he made the National Dean’s List and was listed in ‘Who’s Who Among Students at American Universities and Colleges 1984-1985.’ He began his teaching career as a tutor at Berklee, then became a gifted student teacher at the Governor’s Magnet School for the Arts in Virginia, the music director at Camp Encore/coda in Maine, and an instructor at Tidewater Community College in Virginia.

Renz’s compositions include both jazz and classical works from string quartets to pieces for solo jazz guitar. His recordings include: Everlasting, by The Paul Renz Quintet (1996 Walker Records); A Symphonic Poem (1992, MMC Records); and Introducing Paul Renz, Jazz Guitarist (1992). His publications include An Introduction to Sight Singing (1991) and Nine 2-Part Inventions for Piano (1987). Twin Cities jazz critic Tom Surowicz wrote, “Paul Renz’s music is a kick! It’s a fresh, breathing, surprising, tune-filled, character-to-spare personal amalgam of so much that’s so fine about modern mainstream jazz.”

In addition to his duties as Director of Jazz Studies, Renz teaches classes in Jazz Theory, Jazz Improvisation, and The Joy of Sight Singing, as well as private lessons in jazz guitar and bass, and leads his three student jazz ensembles.

For information on West Bank School of Music, please call 612-333-6651.

Twin Cities Jazz Society, Jazz Notes, 1996

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Paul Renz Quintet CD-Release Party

It was my great pleasure to write liner notes for electric bassist, educator and composer extraordinaire Paul Renz on his second album and first CD, the disarmingly good Everlasting. Equally adept on guitar, and just as liable to compose symphonic pieces as hard bop grooves, new dad Renz lets some of the Twin Cities’ finest improvisers shine on Everlasting, neatly balancing taut and tuneful charts with spontaneous solos. Though tonight’s cast of characters is significantly different from that heard on the CD, the mood should be celebratory, the playing all-pro and the echoes of old Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside sessions cheerfully abundant. So party! 8 p.m. Dakota Bar & Grill, Bandana Square, 1021 E. Bandana Blvd., St. Paul.

City Pages, Tom Surowicz, April 1996

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Paul Renz Quintet

The debut gig of a curious and promising new band. Leader Renz has successfully straddled the classical and jazz worlds for the last couple decades. His melodic and beguiling 1992 Symphonic Poem was recorded by the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra (of Poland) on MMC Records of Massachusetts. Ten years earlier, Renz starred on Introducing Paul Renz, Jazz Guitarist. These days, he’s concentrating on bass, and preparing for the release of an all-original CD of well-scripted 90’s bop jazz. Tonight’s lineup includes a host of capable local improvisers: Gary Berg (sax), Skatet and Size Six member Jon Pemberton (trumpet), David Singley (guitar), Renz (bass) and Ronald Edgar (drums). 8 p.m., Dakota Bar & Grill, Bandana Square, 1021 E. Bandana Blvd., St. Paul.

City Pages, Tom Surowicz, July 1995

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“Everlasting” Walker Records 9601

Renz the composer-performer places full faith in his compositions, foregoing the safer and more usual practice of including at least one standard, or piece by Monk or the like, to mollify marketers and other air-play-friendly types.

Renz comes close to the usual practice, though, with “Well You Couldn’t,” a smoothed out version of Monk’s piece. Here as elsewhere the Minneapolis-based electric bassist and guitarist rearranges the building blocks of the modern mainstream into something comfortably his own. He’s not satisfied with writing something that sounds like something else; instead he imbues each work with personal nuances. The result is a solid date that requires the listener to concentrate to appreciate its distinctiveness.

Renz especially likes contrasting styles, as evident on “Latin in Deed,” “Latch On,” and “Fanfare for Jan.” The latter is a clever mix of Copland and calypso with nursery rhyme turns. Sounds complex, yet the performance is smooth with each improviser working within the piece’s framework. True as well, here and elsewhere, the musicians seem to be careful, maybe overly so, about sticking with the composition’s conception. At any rate, no one here really stands out, save perhaps saxophonist Keni Holmen, who displays his full, soulful vision on “Didn’t You Know,” a Renz nod to the 1950s Blue Note sound. Renz also gets solid performances from his rhythm section. His electric bass is the catalyst here, though he has recorded as a guitarist, I suspect he focuses on bass on this date to allow himself more control over the interpretation of his pieces. On “Cabin in the Rain” he sets forth strong counter melodies under both the doleful head and the blowing (trumpeter Pemberton seems very at home in this cabin during his muted spot). Renz’s playing displays the mix of creativity and craftsmanship that is so evident on the whole date.

David Dupont, Cadence Magazine, December 1996

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“Everlasting” Liner Notes

Paul Renz has been an all-star student, mastering guitar, bass and composition. A scholarship boy on the National Dean’s List. Summa cum laude at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. “Who’s Who Among Students at American Universities and Colleges 1984-1985.”

Paul Renz has also been an all-star teacher. Tutor of ear training, composition, harmony, theory and arranging at Berklee. Then a high school gifted students teacher in Virginia. Summer camp music director in Maine. And a community college prof back in Virginia. Presently Renz is a Minnesotan, working at both the MacPhail Center for the Arts and the West Bank School of Music.

That’s a lot of time spent in classrooms. Yet the good news is that there’s nothing remotely academic about Renz’s music. Nothing dryly theoretical or by-the-book predictable whatsoever. Paul Renz’s music is a kick! It’s a fresh, breathing, surprising, tune-filled, character-to-spare personal amalgam of so much that’s so fine about modern mainstream jazz. Paul Renz’s sounds are certainly well-schooled, but never dry or fuddy. Renz has had some great teachers, including composer, arranger, pianist and “Lydiot,” George Russell-the post-bop and big band living legend. And ECM guitar star Mick Goodrick. Not to mention Berklee’s venerable Herb Pomeroy. He does all those cats proud on Everlasting.

The CD certainly isn’t a one-man show. Bassist Renz is in great Land O’Lakes company. There’s trumpeter Jon Pemberton, of Size Six, the Skatet and his own Pembertones, making a belated CD debut. Plus longtime Guthrie Theater musician, Keni Holmen, Cedar Ave. Big Band saxophonist Dave Brattain, TC Jazz Cartel guitarist extraordinaire “Wally” Walstad, fellow Berklee grad and trio leader David Singley, plus crafty drummer Ron Edgar. The latter gent spent 12 years in L.A. as a studio drummer, working with Victor Feldman and other heavyweights. Edgar describes himself as an “underground, selective player,” and the same tag could be applied to the rest of Everlasting’s clearly talented cast.

Renz gives each of them plenty of space to shine. He’s the most democratic kind of bandleader, a fellow whose primary interest is making the compositions blossom fully. That’s no surprise, since Renz wrote all 12 tunes on Everlasting. Composing and arranging is obviously the man’s forte. Some of these songs will stick to your ears like white on rice. Renz is a helluva chart writer.

I won’t do any blow-by-blow review of Everlasting’s contents. You can hear for yourself how hip the music is. Let’s just mention a few salient points. It’s apparent from the very first notes blown by Keni Holmen’s solo saxophone that listeners are in for something special. There are no tired head/solos/head arrangements on Everlasting, no overworked bop chords strung together haphazardly and no slumming blues ditties. Instead you get, boom! –an instant cadenza. There are several such solos that leap off this album and Renz the composer wastes no time letting Holmen fire off the first one. This is no random gesture, either. Everlasting is loose and a bit rambunctious, yet ultimately as well scripted as a play by Pinter.

“Well You Couldn’t” is an obvious tip of the composer’s cap to his greatness, Thelonious Monk. “Latin in Deed” is a stunner with plenty of Afro-Cuban fire yet no latin cliches. Brattain and Pemberton blow with precision then abandon, their horns soaring and sparring and scintillating. Singley sounds just a tad like 60’s Hungarian wizard Gabor Szabo in his splendid solo. And Edgar will have you reaching for those old Art Blakey meets Sabu records as he closes the track with some hands-on beauty.

Now dig the elegant voicings of “Cabin in the Rain,” where Renz’s electric bass packs room-filling weight. And relish the intertwined horn lines of “E flat Potato” and “Latch On,” worthy of some classic Blue Note or Prestige albums. Amazingly, these tracks were recorded live, with just one serious rehearsal and no overdubs or editing. “Tritone City,” with its extra sax part, is the only exception.

Well, I promised not to turn these notes into a review, so find your own fun on the second half-dozen tunes. But keep this is mind. On his 1982 debut album, Paul Renz was a guitarist in Virginia, playing mostly standard tunes. On the 1994 recording, Robert Black Conducts the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, Renz was represented as a classical composer from the tundra of Minnesota. His “Symphonic Poem” was gorgeous, by the way. Now on this 1996 gem, Renz is an electric bassist and jazz bandleader with the best results yet. If in the next century, Renz returns as a cellist with a chamber group, or a dobro player in a country swing band, don’t be startled. Just listen hard. Because this guy’s bound to be up to something interesting and vital.

-Tom Surowicz

Tom Surowicz writes about music for the Twin Cities Reader, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Midwest Jazz, the Highland Villager, Request and other publications.

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“Robert Black Conducts” Liner Notes

Renz’s Symphonic Poem
In the traditional senses Symphonic Poem is particularly euphonious, with smooth, polished string lines almost approaching the pop flavor of film scores from that medium’s romantic golden age. “I’m a fool for melody,” said the composer, whose score directions encompass such terms as “affettuoso,” “passione,” “molto legato espressivo,” “delicately,” “bluesy” and “melancholy.” His violin lines and hoedown tunes also suggest Copland in the bouncy “Rodeo” mode, and Renz points out that Gershwin and Ellington are among other intentional references.
Surging and receding through rubatos and fermatas, this well-proportioned tone poem is not programmatic, but reflects the composer’s spontaneous writing method, which he describes as sitting down with a guitar—which along with the bass fiddle is his instrument—and letting the music flow, without prior knowledge of how it will turn out.

-L Kandell

Leslie Kandell is a well-respected and prolific writer and lecturer about music and journalism. She has written many articles and columns for newspapers throughout the United States and has contributed to publications such as the New York Times and Symphony Magazine.

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Work those bows

He’s firmed up your abs, so why not go hear his string quartet? Composer Paul Renz, whose new String Quartet, will be premiered March 12 at the Unitarian Church fund-raiser, is perhaps better known as one of Hampton Roads’ favorite aerobics instructors. Twenty hours a week he holds forth at the Norfolk YMCA, helping trendy downtown yups sweat themselves to a disco beat.

But Renz, a member of Granby High’s Class of ’70, is also a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, and now teaches a variety of subjects at the Governor’s Magnet School for the Arts. He has composed a set of two-part inventions, and is thinking about a symphony. But for the time being, the string quartet is challenge enough.

“I love the instruments, I love the intimacy,” he says. “I feel like I could be contented with the string quartet for years.” Renz said he has been influenced by many masters of the form – Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Debussy – but his style is not allied with any particular fad or fashion. “I wouldn’t call it modern. There are definite aspects of romanticism and also a lot of classical underpinnings,” he says, adding that there are also contemporary aspects such as frequent meter and mood changes. And he sometimes uses the blues.

The quartet will be played by members of the Virginia Symphony, on a program that also includes standards by the Paul Renz Trio (with Renz on guitar). The concert begins at 8pm. A donation will be taken.

Mark Mobley, Virginian Pilot, March 5, 1989

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Musician shows a new side

Fresh from earning his master’s degree in composition at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, jazz guitarist Paul Renz will demonstrate his newfound skill in a concert Monday at the Unitarian Church of Norfolk.

This skill, however, may surprise a few long-term Renz watchers. No longer can the Norfolk musician be considered strictly a jazz musician with a reputation for quiet, introspective music that relaxes and draws his audience in. Instead, Renz has expanded his musical talents by tackling the world of classical composition.

Renz is no stranger to local jazz aficionados. The 35-year-old Granby High School graduate has been a highly visible force in the area jazz scene for more than a decade, even though his performing in Hampton Roads has been limited to special holiday concerts for the last five years.

During that time, he has been “eating, drinking and sleeping” music as a student, first at the Berklee College of Music and then at the New England Conservatory. The result of those rigorous studies, however, is Renz’s first major classical composition, String Quartet Opus 1, which will be performed at the concert Monday by members of the Virginia Symphony. Renz’s recently published inventions for piano will also be performed.

But Renz’s jazz fans are not to be disappointed in this annual New Year’s concert. The guitarist will also perform his latest jazz compositions, thereby demonstrating the performance skills he has developed since leaving Norfolk. “The premiering of works though, is new for me,” Renz said. “It took me about two years to write these pieces…but I’m always working on sundry other projects at the same time. What’s interesting is that I play a little classical guitar, but I’m really a jazz guitar player. But now I can compose both types of music.

Now that he’s out of school and “in the real world,” making a living by composing, or performing both types of music, Renz admitted, will be an uphill struggle. “The market is really poor,” he said. “You almost have to be internationally recognized to get a major recording contract, and there’s a lot of luck involved. And there are literally hundreds of people out there, who are quite good, throughout the country. It’s just incredible, the competition.”

But Renz contends he doesn’t have a burning desire to obtain a major recording contract. Because he plays the less popular main-stream jazz of swing and bebop instead of rock influenced fusion, Renz said he plans to independently produce his own recordings se he can retain control and be sure it appeals to a more specialized market. His first LP, titled Introducing Paul Renz, Jazz Guitarist, was released in 1982 and received favorable reviews from local critics.

“I have an abundance of material; I could easily do another album,” Renz said. And within the next 10 years, I probably will. But for now, I want to get back into the performing scene. I’m going to take a respite from writing.”

He will also continue to teach privately as well as conduct classes at the Governor’s Magnet School for the Arts. Teaching, Renz said, is definitely in his plans. “As a musician, it’s essential that you do a variety of things to make a living.”

But on Monday, thoughts of earning a living will be far from Renz’s mind, when he gets his chance to showcase his musical creations to a hometown crowd. “The Unitarian Church is really a wonderful setting. It’s one of my favorite places to perform,” he said. “There’s really a very special creative ambiance there. For the last four years, I’ve played a New Year’s concert there whenever I’ve come home for the holidays. But this year should be a little something different. It should be an exciting evening.”

Joan Stanus, The Compass, January 10, 1988

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No frilly jazz, just quiet pizzazz

INTRODUCING PAUL RENZ
Jazz Guitarist (PFR-1000)

To anyone with even a passing interest in the local jazz scene, Paul Renz needs no introduction. He's been a highly visible moving force behind Tidewater's recent jazz renaissance, and there is hardly a club around that has not at one time or another called upon Renz' talents.

For his album debut, the 29 year old guitarist has wisely chosen not to stray too far from the familiar territory he's staked out during the past four years of live performances. With Renz that means mostly quiet, introspective jazz that's incessantly swinging and totally devoid of fancy frills.

Like his obvious stylistic mentors, Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery, Renz most frequently plies his trade using the compositions of others as the improvisational vehicle. But here Renz has included two of his own tunes, and they provide the album's most interesting moments.

On both the originals, "Swing" and "You," Renz augments the basic guitar; bass drums format with a three-piece horn section. With the almost funky "swing," Renz' horn arrangements give the tune a punchy Brecker Brothers feel, while on the more tranquil "You," the horns achieve a more airy ambiance, effectively blending with the earthy swing of Renz' guitar.

The balance of the album finds Renz in the company of his regular rhythm section, bassist Jimmy Masters and drummer Dave Lemay. There's an almost instantly discernable rapport among the trio as they work their way through the five jazz and pop standards that round out the LP. They give a lively, upbeat reading to "I'll Remember April," and combine just the right amount of rhythm and sensitivity on "Here's That Rainy Day."

In live performance, Renz, who will be leaving the area in September to attend Boston's prestigious Berklee School of Music, makes no attempt to overwhelm or startle his audience. He prefers instead to relax you and draw you in. The same approach is evident on record. The attentive listener will not come away unrewarded.

Jack Frieden, Virginian Pilot, July 18, 1982

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Quotes

“Paul Renz’s music is a kick! It’s a fresh, breathing, surprising, tune-filled, character-to-spare personal amalgam of so much that’s so fine about modern mainstream jazz.”
-Tom Surowicz
City Pages, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Midwest Jazz


“Renz’s playing is a tantalizing mix of creativity and craftsmanship.”
-David Dupont
Cadence Magazine


“Renz is the Van Gogh of jazz guitar.”
-Lois Berg
Twin Cities Jazz Society


“Glistening horn-like lines, Copland, calypso and bop.”
-Joe Lowrey
National Public Radio


“Incessantly swinging!”
-Jack Frieden
Virginian Pilot

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