Reed player, composer, and ethnomusicologist Paul Austerlitz combines his background as an ethnomusicologist specializing in Afro-Caribbean music with his creative work as a jazz musician. As an instrumentalist, Austerlitz has dedicated himself to mastering the bass and contrabass clarinets. He also plays Bb (soprano) clarinet and tenor saxophone. As a composer, Austerlitz weds his backgrounds in jazz and ethnomusicology, producing works that incorporate the musics that he researches. He has been especially active in blending Latin and Caribbean music from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere with free forms of jazz.

Austerlitz studied music with Bill Dixon, Milford Graves, Dave Liebman and Frank Wess and received the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 1993. His work as an ethnomusicologist includes the books Jazz Consciousness: Music, Race, and Humanity (2005, Wesleyan University Press) and Merengue: Dominican Music and Dominican Identity (1997, Temple University Press).