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Greg Pagel


"A musician of the Highest Rank" - jazz legend Joe Maneri

"Beautiful Composition" - WGBH Radio, Boston

Greg Pagel is a jazz pianist, accordionist, and composer from Wisconsin. He is a member of the Green Bay jazz quintet, "Open Interest", and of the accordion/guitar duo, "Pick and Squeeze." He has also been working with the Janet Macklin Group.

Greg has performed at Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston, as well as Lincoln Center in New York. He has performed on stage with such notable musicians as Kenny Wheeler, Benny Golson, Joe Maneri, Cecil McBee, Bob Moses, Luciana Souza, Ricky Ford, Matt Turner and Bobby Vinton.

Greg's latest CD, "Plastic Machine Music," is a daring fusion of jazz with hip-hop and electronica. CD Baby gave the CD 5 stars, calling it "an ingenius hybrid of jazz fusion backdrops, experimental electronic innovation and a poprock-informed writing," and praising its "creative development of motives and ideas, an overall giddy enjoyment of urban, industrial and machine noises.”


Here are some excerpts from listener reviews:

"Greg Pagel has created an important and much needed art form -- one that represents human evolution in its present state between organic and machine." -composer/percussionist Gary Fieldman

"Plastic Machine Music communicates well Greg Pagel's immensely infectious humour, which somehow he manages to fuse with his sophisticated compositional style and adept keyboard chops. Never one to say something not worth saying, this recording is a fun conversation with plenty of variety of moods and topics thrown in." -bassist/composer Jonathan Dimond

"...an experience in sophisticated and very groovy fun. We are in very good hands with Greg." -flutist/musicologist Laura Osborn

"Bright, creative, wacky, adventuresome, exploratory, whimsical, dangerous, invigorating... it's the audio stuff that HAPPY is made from." -visual artist Tim Nyberg

"This is one of the best CDs I have purchased in the last few months. Mixing wav manipulation (sampling and resampling) and jazz-based composition, Pagel creates a completely unique and inimitable sound exhibiting humor and pathos. This is highly imaginative, talented work, a real joy to listen to. Make sure you are NOT listening to it in the car for the first time -- it'll make you laugh out loud." -poet Steve Mueske

"We needed something to listen to while we made decoration for the up coming 'dance'. I plopped in this cd that I had recently bought, and after only two minutes we were laughing and dancing!" -MacKenzie Kuester, 7th grader



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Album Review

Greg Pagel: Plastic Machine Music

Read "Plastic Machine Music" reviewed by Matt Cibula


Greg Pagel is a nut, and I mean that in the best way. I have never met him, even though we both live in Wisconsin--I know, you're shocked that we're not all huddled around the same ice-fishing hole and/or Lambeau Field brat grill, but there you have it. But yeah, Plastic Machine Music is proof enough that the man is off his damned rocker, and proud to be so. And I think it is a very good thing for all ...

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