In 1994 Shapiro co-founded a musical collective with American record producerArthur Baker called Brooklyn Funk Essentials.[2] In 2014, the Wall Street Journal's music critic Will Friedwald wrote that "Shapiro's tenor saxophone sound itself is big, rich and full, and 'davens' in the direction of the great Italian tenors, like Vido Musso, Charlie Ventura and Sam Butera."[3]