What the Funk Thursdays – a funk jam session

Paul and Nico Vasquez host a monthly funk jam session at the Wolf.

Since 2015, Paul Smith has been a freelance guitarist in the Orange County and Los Angeles area, performing in venues such as The Carpenter Performing Arts Center, The Wray Theatre, The Fox Performing Arts Center, The Newport Film Festival, Grand Annex Theatre and more. He graduated in 2019 from California State University, Long Beach with two Bachelor of Music degrees in Jazz Guitar Studies and Music Composition. Since then, he has successfully released two albums of his own music. Currently he regularly plays jazz and solo guitar for Disneyland.

Paul’s music reaches beyond the Los Angeles area—in 2017, his arrangement of 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman was premiered by Malburn High School’s orchestra in Darjeeling, India. In 2019 he co-founded and wrote for a jazz combo called The New Gnus. That same year, they toured California and were the featured artists of the 2019 San Joaquin Valley Jazz Festival. He also partnered with World Pride NYC to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots by editing the music for QUILT, A Musical Celebration. In 2023, he toured with Colorado-based folk artist, Buudrow.