PAULA ATHERTON

Paula Atherton has loved music all her life and first became active in grade school in the chorus as well as picking up flute in fourth grade. After getting an alto sax in her teens, her attention turned to jazz. She gleaned much of her playing fluidity from studying the phrasing and techniques of everyone from singer Billie Holiday to saxophonist Lester Young. She studied with some notable teachers in the Lennie Tristano “school of players,” and practiced countless hours a day, as she still does today. Ultimately her influences swing between a wide range of players including Charlie “Bird” Parker, Lee Konitz, Cannonball Adderley, Phil Woods, Michael Brecker, David Sanborn and Bob Mintzer. Her focus shifted to more popular music once she began writing her own songs. “I wanted to explore and go more places musically,” she states. “I wanted to have an identity all my own – a place read more...