About

Paul currently plays piano, guitar and harmonicas and has been playing and writing music in the San Francisco music scene since 1987. He has arranged music for and played trombone with many of the top area salsa bands including Louie Romero and Mazacote, Azabache, Candela, Benny Velarde, Julio Bravo, Sensual, Tito Garcia and others.

Paul has toured the United States, played the San Francisco Jazz Festival, San Francisco and Monterey Blues Festivals, North Coast Jazz Festival and recently the San Francisco Flower Piano. For over thirty years Paul has freelanced extensively in a many styles and genres – big band, rhythm and blues, bluegrass, Americana, classical, salsa and Latin-jazz.

Paul received a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin where he studied with Les Thimmig, Richard Davis and Randy Tomasello.

In 1998 he published the controversial Arranging for Salsa Bands – The Doctor Big Ears Essays where he gives away the secrets to cuing a salsa band. The book is available in digital format at Lulu Press and other outlets.

In 2006, while living in the Western Highlands in Guatemala, Paul began playing chromatic harmonica eventually studying the music of Toots Thielemans. In 2014 he published Ten for Toots – 10 Toots Thielemans Chromatic Harmonica Solos – Transcribed and Analyzed available in both book form and digital ebook.

Paul plays piano currently with Ray Martinez and Los Latin OG’s. We play music from the Azabache album from 2000, other originals as well as classic salsa tunes from New York. Beginning in 2020, Paul has been playing chromatic harmonica with Cuban pianist Eduardo Corzo in smaller intimate settings.

Some Recent Examples of Arrangements

In the last few years, I have written many arrangements for my buddy Manny Martinez who resides in Cali, Colombia. Below are a few of these arrangements.

Este Diciembre from In The Zone/En La Zona by Manny Martinez – Arrangement by Paul Lyons
Aunque el Mundo se Impone from EVOLUTION by Manny Martinez – Arrangement by Paul Lyons

Partial credits as an arranger

All of the albums listed below are available on the major streaming services/publishers (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, Facebook, etc.)