Sax Player Paula Atherton Featured At Branford Jazz Series

BRANFORD, CT -Sax player/vocalist and songwriter Paula Atherton has shared the stage with such contemporary jazz notables as The Rippingtons, Nick Colionne, Chuck Loeb, Cindy Bradley, Gail Jhonson, Karen Briggs, Althea Renee, Matt Marshak, Four80East, David Sanborn, Bob James, Marc Antoine, Hiroshima, Gerald Albright and Chieli Minucci.

She is the headliner at the Branford Jazz Series this coming Thursday, July 19th, at 6:30 p.m. on the Green.

Paula has also worked in the traditional jazz field; one of the notable performances being a week long engagement at the Blue Note NYC with pianist and jazz legend, Hank Jones. . Paula also performed with Grammy award winning singer Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Annenberg Theater, for the Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival.

Paula’s 3rd CD, “Enjoy the Ride,” had 2 Billboard charting singles. The first penned and co-produced by Nick Colionne, entitled, “Sassy Strut,” reached #15 on Billboard, and was on the chart for 15 weeks. The second was the Herbie Mann influenced flute feature entitled, “Herbie,” which reached #22 and was on Billboard for 7 weeks.

Paula released her 4th CD titled, “Ear Candy” on February 17th, 2015 on the Kalimba Music label, owned by Earth, Wind and Fire. Special guests include Nick Colionne, Cindy Bradley, and Gail Johnson.

The single “Between You & Me” , featuring Cindy Bradley on trumpet, reached #21 on Billboard. Some tour dates include Jazz at Jack’s in Denver, Discover jazz Series Detroit, Spaghettini’s in Seal Beach, CA, Jazz in the Park in Birmingham, AL, Idlewild Music Fest MI, Smooth Jazz Festival in Atlanta, Suite Jazz series in Atlanta, Gallery Suite Jazz series in Lansing, Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Fest in CA, Las Vegas Jazz Festival, Capital Jazz fest and Low Country Jazz fest with Jazz in Pink, Smooth Jazz at Sunset in MI (opening for Marc Antoine), Southern Tier Jazz festival in Elmira (opening for Rick Braun), the 3rd annual Women’s Jazz festival in Huntsville, AL, and the New Brunswick Jazz Fest in NJ.

Her television work includes appearances on the Today show, Good Morning America, and Rachel Ray, with Michael Bolton, Paula also wrote the score for the independent film ‘The Definition of Insanity’. Paula released her 5th CD, “Shake It,” in February 2018, with many special guests, including Nick Colionne (guitar), Cindy Bradley (trumpet), Bill Heller (keys) from the Rippingtons, Dave Delhomme (Keys) from the Tonight show band with Ricky Minor and American Idol,) Schuyler Deale (bass, co-producer) who performed with Jeff Lorber, among many others, and a few other great guest artists! The first single, “My Song For You,” written by and featuring Nick Colionne, been picked up by the SJNT (35 station network), has been added to Sirius XM on the Watercolors (ch 66) Channel, and also is being played on stations across the US and Europe. “My Song For You” chart numbers over the past couple of months include Mediabase #6, Smooth Jazz Network #12, and Billboard #16 (on the chart for 12 weeks).

Paula was recently featured on a single of Cindy Bradley’s on Trippin’ ‘N’ Rhythm entitled, “Girl Talk.” It reached #2 on Billboard Oct 2017.