Born: July 17, 1964 Primary Instrument: Reeds
Welome to my MySpace page. My main interest is in being involved in the original music projects of creative musicians, especially involving improvisation. I started out as freelancing with classical orchestras as a clarinet player. These days I play most of the single reeds. Some of the diverse groups I’ve played with include Ten Part Invention, James Morrison Quintet, Judy Bailey, Steve Hunters’ Nine Lives, Clarion Fracture Zone and Wanderlust. International acts include Lou Reed for the 2007 Sydney Festival, American drummer Bobby Previte's Bitches Brew Project and New York pianist and composer Jim McNeely. I’ve been with world/jazz group MARA! since 1997. They’ve taken me on five European/ North American and numerous Asian tours. Notable festival performances include Koprivshtitsa Festival (Bulgaria), LiteraturWERKstat festival (Berlin), European Broadcasting Union Festival (Roznov, Czech Republic), Isola Del Cinema (Rome) Greenwich and Docklands Festival (London), WOMAD festivals in Britain, Singapore, Auckland and Adelaide. I appear on two CDs with MARA! including the ARIA winning album Live in Europe. We have performed hundreds of school shows for Musica Viva, touring all Australian states and Singapore. See www.maramusic.com.au I am also a member of the Australian Art Orchestra, having recorded three albums, collaborated with Danish Trumpeter/ Composer Palle Mickkelborg, a quartet of Indian musicians, played in Sandy Evans’ TESTIMONY, in Ruby’s Story featuring Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, and Meet me in the Middle of the air featuring Paul Kelly. We travelled to Mexico City with Ruby’s Story in 2005. See www.aao.com.au Since 1997 I have led the group Coltrane Project, which has been recorded 3 times by the ABC. I am a member of the innovative ensemble Gest8, which had its debut at the Jazz Now Festival at the Sydney Opera House Studio in August 2004. In 2003 I composed the music for and performed in the acclaimed theatre production Birth of the Cool for the Sydney Festival. A unique combination of narrative, performance poetry, programme music and jazz, it celebrates the lives and poetry of the “Beat Generation” of American poets of the 1940s and ‘50s. It enjoyed subsequent sell-out seasons at the Seymour Centre and Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005, and at the Ruhrfestspiele, Germany in 2006. See www.birth-of-the-cool.com In 2007 he has performed at the Auckland Festival with the AAO, at the Paris quartier d’été with bassist Philip Rex and drummer Nico Schäuble and co-produced the duo album Simpatico with fellow saxophonist Andrew Robson. See www.cdbaby.com/cd/robsoncutlan and www.lamplightrecords.com
“…This was played by Cutlan on tenor with a guileless tenderness added to the warmth he exhibited elsewhere.” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, July 28 1998 Paul Cutlan’s Coltrane Project, Harbourside Brasserie
“soprano saxophone…played by Paul Cutlan, who attains one of the most softly burnished sounds on it you will hear.: “This time on tenor, he swooped through the range of the horn, the low notes pulsing with a warm vibrato and the high ones wailing with echoes of both despair and hilarity.” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 May Side On Cafe
“Paul Cutlan’s typically stunning melodic invention on bass clarinet ran from shrill trills to evil growls…” “Cutlan’s soprano interludes a frenzy of colour and light” John Shand, Sydney morning Herald, Feb 22, 2001 Harbourside Brasserie
“Cutlan’s soprano sax is a dervish frenzy of melody on Llew’s thrilling Eyes Like Berries. Then his clarinet, an especially evocative texture in this music, slinks to the fore on Robson’s silken Alessandria…” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, 21-22 April, 2001 Mara! Live in Europe CD review
“….Cutlan’s tenor producing narrative of thrilling twists and turns….” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, 17-3-2001 Canticle, Paddington Uniting Church
“Having seen the initial gig of this outfit I can safely say they provided one of my most vivid and memorable musical experiences. The sound Paul'’ band generated was overwhelming in both its emotional intensity and physical power... You should definitely see this outfit at least once in your life.” Craig Pearce, Drum Media, May 2001 Coltrane Project publicity
“…Paul Cutlan’s ‘Grassboy’ was ripe with wit,…….Cutlan was flashing with mercurial ideas…..his bass clarinet mischievous….. John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, 5-8-2002
“Cutlan's bass clarinet showed off its kaleidoscope of tonal colours on Por Ali Paso Un Cavallero, with its lugubrious bottom, sleek, dark middle and sprightly top. Above that was a register of heartbreak, and when he slid back down the horn it was not so much a release as an affirmation of the intensity.”
John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, 21-11-03
“…a jazzier rampage, celebrated by Cutlan’s piping and absurdly happy Eb sopranino clarinet…”
John Shand, SIMA website review, 2-8-06 http://www.sima.org.au/2006/08/02/gest-8-at-the-sound-lounge-july-21
