Longtime Northampton Jazz Leader Paul Arslanian Honored

NORTHAMPTON — Pianist, composer and band leader Paul Arslanian has been named a Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association in its 26th annual recognition of “activists, advocates, and altruists of jazz” across the United States.

Since 2001, the Jazz Journalists Assoc., a nonprofit organization with 250 international members, has identified and hailed individuals from local jazz communities across America who go beyond their basic responsibilities to sustain and expand musical activities.

For the past 16 years, Arslanian has led the Northampton Jazz Workshop, a year-round organization that brings leading jazz musicians from New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia to Northampton nearly every week to perform with the Green Street Trio. Performances are followed by Arslanian-curated jam sessions featuring students, professors, teachers, and other local jazz musicians.

The presentation of Arslanian’s Jazz Hero certificate will be held at The Drake in Amherst on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. before the regularly scheduled Northampton Jazz Workshop featuring special guest, saxophonist Chris Cheek. Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival and a 2025 JJA Jazz Hero and Bonnie Johnson, host of Colors of Jazz on WICN in Worcester, a 2024 JJA Jazz Hero, will be in attendance for the award presentation. The Northampton Jazz Workshop is open to the general public with a $10 cover fee.

“Sustaining the Northampton Jazz Workshop over the years hasn’t been easy,” said “Arslanian. Typically, jam session formats can be pretty short-lived, but the combination of being within driving distance of major cities, the large number of professors, teachers and students of jazz in the area plus a hip and generous jazz audience has kept this thing going beyond what I thought possible when I started it at the Green Street Café back in 2010.”

Arslanian, of Northampton, is also an advisor to the Northampton Jazz Festival, having served as Executive Producer for 14 years. In that capacity, he led the creative direction of the festival, seeking out and booking jazz musicians as well as directing all aspects of producing the concerts on Jazz Fest Day each year.

In 2018, Arslanian founded the Jazz Artists in the Schools program with the JFK Middle School and Northampton High School. An educational program of the Northampton Jazz Festival, Arslanian collaborates with the school band directors to bring in working jazz musicians each semester for workshops and clinics with students. Funded through donations, it exposes young jazz musicians to professionals, allowing them to experience and play at a level not afforded in the normal classroom environment. Arslanian works closely with the band directors to select artists who will support and complement the students’ specific music needs.