Jean-Paul Bourelly

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Jean-Paul Bourelly (born November 23, 1960 in Chicago ) is an American jazz guitarist who also plays blues , rock and world music .

Jean-Paul Bourelly in Holland (2008)

Early years

Jean-Paul Bourelly grew up in Chicago, where Muddy Waters made a lasting impression on him. In the school band he played Carlos Santana in hard rock version . The Band of Gypsys as a record is one of his earlier musical impressions. Through his Haitian parents he was familiar with merengue , voodoo and roots music ("world music"); he was also influenced by the music of the Chicago Southside, particularly its urban blues . From his brothers, Carl influenced him conceptually and with rap and R&B , and Marc played Miles' On the Corner on saxophone. His father could play classical music from the sheet on the piano, as well as Haitian party music, for example a Viennese waltz in merengue form.

Life in New York

In 1979 Bourelly moved to New York City , recorded Blues Forever with Muhal Richard Abrams a year later at the age of 19, and played with Pharoah Sanders and drummers Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones . Jones impressed him with his understanding of African polyrhythmics as the heart of jazz. He also played on George Adams ' That Old Feeling and Cassandra Wilson's Point of View . The blue in green played on it shows his skills. With Miles Davis he was in the record studio ( Amandla ) . He also influenced movements such as the Black Rock Coalition and the M-Base - musicians. In rock, he recorded albums with Robin Trower and Rod Stewart and performed with Jack Bruce and Terry Bozzio . He played with the European rock band Matalex around Alex Gunia , which played a kind of "jazz grunge" and which he also produced. Since then, his futuristic funky sounding guitar has been heard in collaboration with musicians such as Pee Wee Ellis & The JB Horns, Steve Coleman , Defunkt , Geri Allen , Graham Haynes , Marc Ribot , Me'shell Ndegeocello , Trilok Gurtu and Dennis Chambers .

International orientation

Bourelly earned most of the fame in Europe and the Far East. In Germany his sound was described as "thick and rough", in Japan by Yoriko Kawachi as heavy, powerful, violent and beautiful. The album Trippin (1991) was praised by the American press and named recording of the year in Japan. The 1996 album Rock the Cathartic Spirits was ranked high on lists by non-US critics; it was again Record of the Year in Japan and came second in Music Magazine worldwide.

In the 1990s, Bourelly presented challenging projects at some of the most important European festivals. He worked with conceptually similarly free guitarists such as Vernon Reid , Marc Ribot , David Torn and Elliott Sharp (as a duo). In 1996 he introduced a new group under his direction: African Boom Bop , with the Senegalese griotsinger and drummer Abdourahmane Diop and the percussionist Mino Cinelu and formulated his philosophy for each of his BluWave bandits formations. Musicians as diverse as the keyboardist and rapper Kundalini Mark Batson (from Get Set VOP), Darryl Jones , Melvin Gibbs, Reggie Washington , drummers Alfredo Alias ​​and Will Calhoun have played in the BluWave Bandits since the late 1980s . The style mixes the whole range of jazz with a lot of blues and groove.

Personality and music

Bourelly considers the question of classification as a jazz / funk guitarist or rock / blues experimenter to be of secondary importance and, as he said in an interview, “only important for people who have to classify.” In the same interview, he was impressed by the music of Morocco, after he got to know music from there through his Moroccan wife Gnawa as well as the popular ghetto music from Tangier and Casablanca. It had (according to Bourelly) changed his way of listening to tonality and he would no longer understand if someone called this music out of tune, because once you had started to hear quarter tones, it would add a new dimension to the music.

His music took on new forms and elements since the Rock the Carthartic Spirits . It contains many bi-, tri and quad (four) tonal harmonies and an African approach to rhythm.

Bourelly is interested in the political situation of Afro-Americans in the USA, which plays a role in his early albums in the lyrics, but his music does not show (“I don't preach in my music ... if I want to be political I write a book. ").

Some of his texts are simple:

"You needn't blame me on the weather
cause what you lie in is your own quick sand
sinking you slowly through the mud."

(Aqua Blu)

You don't have to complain to me about the weather,
it's your own quicksand that you lie in that
pulls you into the mud.

(Water blue)

... or motivating:

"Time is never wasted
when you're willing to,
there's always hope,
time to smell roses."

(Hope)

Time is never wasted
when you try
there is always hope,
time for the scent of roses.

(Hope)

... or politically:

"You're only recapitulating what you've been fed like an
African in Europe talkin 'notty dread style
and the tv be blaming the sweet lies
the grand master wants to hide".

(The Lonely Know)

You are just repeating what you have been fed
like an African with a European twisted scary speech,
and it is the television's fault that the sweet lies
can be hidden by the great master.

(The lonely knowledge)

He thinks that black music like R&B and rap limits the understanding of music among black people in America because it has been defined as their need by white producers. In his opinion, the album Trippin ' was so successful because it was easy for the listener to empathize with the music and at the same time hear the style of Jimi Hendrix .

Bourelly produces his albums himself, or happily with DIW and PAO, because he doesn't want to be restricted artistically.

His daughter Bibi Bourelly is also a musician and songwriter.

Discography

  • Jungle Cowboy ( JMT , 1987)
  • Trippin ( Enemy , 1992)
  • Saints & Sinners ( DIW , 1993)
  • Blackadelic-Blu (DIW, 1994)
  • Tribute to Jimi (DIW, 1995)
  • Fade to Cacophony: Live! (DIW, 1995)
  • Rock the Cathartic Spirits (DIW, 1996)
  • Mag Five (PAO, 1998)
  • Vibe Music (PAO, 1999)
  • Boom Bop (PAO, 2000)
  • Trance Atlantic (Boom Bop II) (Double Moon, 2001)
  • News from a Darked Out Room (Phonector, 2006)
  • CutMotion (2009)
  • Kiss The Sky (JPgotMangos, 2017)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Interview 1999 with Michael Bohn on his former homepage
  2. ↑ His former homepage
  3. ↑ The name comes from a French journalist who once called Bourelly's stylistic synthesis "blue wave".
  4. ↑ all texts on vibe music , PAO 1999
  5. ↑ CutMotion, by Jean-Paul Bourelly . Retrieved May 2, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Bourelly, Jean-Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz, rock, blues guitarist, world musician
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago