Our Weekend with Paul Serrato

New York legend Paul Serrato joined The Jazz Destroyers for an epic weekend of performances and archiving tapes.

in June of 2002, i graduated high school. I received the John Philip Sousa award. Paul was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I had come to know Paul through a neighbor, her name was Lee Dratfield. She was amazing. She was a singer and Paul had

New York legend Paul Serrato joined The Jazz Destroyers for an epic weekend of performances and archiving tapes.

in June of 2002, i graduated high school. I received the John Philip Sousa award. Paul was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I had come to know Paul through a neighbor, her name was Lee Dratfield. She was amazing. She was a singer and Paul had been her accompanist in the cabaret clubs of New York. I kept in touch with Paul over the years and in February of 2017, we were finally able to come together for a weekend of community, exchanges of ideas, and most importantly, music. Before Paul, I didn't know that music was even an option beyond that of a hobby. He was the first professional musician I had met. I had originally intended to record more of our weekend, but I didn't. I was able to capture two recording sessions, one live at Cafe Creme in Austin, TX for a live #FreeformFridays session with Thomas Baker on bass and Josh Peters on drums. We also digitized tapes from the early 1980s, when Paul was adapting "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis for the stage. The other session was a collection of Paul's pieces in the Get Off My Lawn Records studio with Benjamin Vogel on upright bass and myself on guitar. My wonderful wife Carissa recorded the sessions for us and Paul was kind enough to provide the archival tapes and photographs from his trip to Brazil, where he began to write Blues In Rio. I hope you enjoy this album as much as we enjoyed making it.

Sincerely, Donald W. Mohr Founder, Get Off My Lawn Records