Jon Paris

New York City-based guitarist, bassist, singer/songwriter, and bandleader Jon Paris has long had a gift for singing and playing blues and blues-rock. He was raised in Milwaukee, a town famous for those styles, and cut his teeth in a procession of area bands in the 1960s. But in recent years, Paris has branched out into jazz as well, through his long friendship with guitar legend and inventor Les Paul. Paul maintains a weekly residency at the Iridium jazz club in Manhattan, and for years before that, he performed a weekly residency at Fat Tuesday's, a now-closed jazz nightclub. Paris may be best known as a longtime sideman to Johnny Winter in his various trio groups during the 1980s and '90s, but in recent years Paris has launched his own successful solo career. He recorded Rock the Universe in 1996 for Fountainbleu Records and Blue Planet in 2004 for the New Jersey-based Blues Leaf Records label. Paris began his performing career in high school, playing drums. By the time he had graduated from high school, Paris could play guitar, some bass, and harmonica, and found work filling in with various area bands, as Milwaukee had a vibrant club scene. Raised by parents who were both artists, Paris grew up thinking he'd be a commercial artist or a painter. But the music he heard on the radio in the '60s, by artists including Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, was all blues-based. He and his peers didn't realize right away that they were close to the blues center of the universe -- at least at that time -- Chicago, IL. Paris admitted it took British Invasion musicians like the Animals, the Rolling Stones, and Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac to turn Paris and his friends on to what was going on in Chicago. Soon, they turned their attention to the living blues musicians who were in...