The violin has been a jazz instrument from the birth of the music, but the number of notable fiddle soloists has been remarkably small. In the 1920s and 30s Eddie South, Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti and Stephane Grappelli carved out a niche for the instrument, and Ray Nance made his mark with Duke Ellington in the 1940s, but after that there were few new players of note until the emergence of Jerry Goodman, Billy Bang and Jean Luc Ponty in the 1970s.
'It used to be you could hardly find a good jazz violinist,' Paul said. 'Nowadays there are four for five really good players, but there is nobody better than this guy.'
Howes splits his professional life between his role as a music educator - he's an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music - and as a gigging and recording jazz musician.
He has an interesting career history, which includes a couple of years in prison for a drug offence. While inside he played the violin in gospel church services and says that experience led him to explore jazz and the Afro-American musical tradition more thoroughly.
He was released in 1996 and made his first album, Confluence, which included music made with fellow inmates from the correctional institutions in which he had served his time.