Paul Heckel / John Hunter Duo
Paul and John’s duo performances are dynamic & energetic - both musically and visually. They play a wide-ranging repertoire of jazz standards, other tunes and a few originals that include compositions by Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Milt Jackson, Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton, Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck, Radiohead and many others. Solos often meld into conversation-like exchanges of musical ideas on the fly with improvised interludes between tunes.
Paul Heckel - Vibraphone
Paul has been an active freelance vibraphonist in the New England jazz scene for over 30 years. He has had the opportunity to play with many world-renowned jazz artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Joe Williams and Buddy DeFranco. He also plays with many well-known regional players such as John Hunter, Charlie Jennison, Nate Therrien and Tim Webb.
He has a wide-ranging repertoire of jazz standards and other tunes that includes compositions by Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Milt Jackson, Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton, Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck, Radiohead and many others.
Paul can draw on a network of musical collaborators to put together groups of different instrumentations (adding bass, drums, saxes and/or brass) and sizes (solo, duo, trio, quartet) to match the needs to many different types of performance venues. He often plays duos with John Hunter on bass where the improvised musical interactions resemble conversations among friends.
John Hunter - Bass
Bassist John Hunter has performed in concerts and television appearances from Maine to San Francisco while accompanying such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, James Williams, Louis Bellson, Milt Jackson, Joe Williams, Paquito d’Rivera, Marian McPartland, Jeff Coffin, Wycliff Gordon, and Mike Metheny. He has accompanied singers Toni Tenille, Maureen McGovern, and The Four Freshmen, and also appeared with such diverse groups as the Broadway touring company of “Chorus Line” and the Los Angeles Opera a la Carte.
He is a member of the Seacoast Big Band and the newly formed Capital Jazz Orchestra, which toured the eastern U.S with Ken Peplowski in the fall of 2013.
His teaching credits include faculty positions since 1979 at the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, the University of Maine at Augusta, the N.H. Summer Youth Music School, and numerous clinics and workshops at colleges and public schools throughout the Northeast.