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Junius Paul
Junius Paul is an internationally recognized composer, bandleader, and acoustic and electric bassist born and raised in the Chicago area. He has shown himself to be a highly versatile bassist, with performance and/or recording credits that include The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Famoudou Don Moye Sun Percussion Summit, ensembles led by Roscoe Mitchell, Kahil El’Zabar, Makaya McCraven, The Fred Anderson Trio, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Vincent Davis & Percussion Plus, Dee Alexander, The Curtis Fuller Quintet, Oliver Lake, Willie Pickens, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Marquis Hill, KRS-One, and Donald Byrd, among others.
Junius began playing electric bass at 15 years old, beginning his journey at Covenant United Church of Christ in South Holland, Illinois (where he still plays weekly). Upon graduating from Mount Carmel High School in 2000, Junius enrolled in St. Xavier University (Chicago), studying music performance with a concentration in bass studies under the tutelage of Rich Armandi. After graduating in 2005, Junius began performing internationally as a sideman, initially in the United Kingdom and Ghana, West Africa. These stints would be followed by many more opportunities to perform in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. He tours internationally as a sideman and with his own ensembles.
In 2013 and 2014, Junius served as music department faculty for Trinity Christian College (Palos Heights, IL). In February 2017, Junius began performing and touring internationally with The Art Ensemble of Chicago (led by Roscoe Mitchell and Famoudou Don Moye). In October 2018, he recorded with The Art Ensemble of Chicago for their album We Are On The Edge (dedicated to the late ensemble bassist Malachi Favors) celebrating 50 years of the Ensemble’s existence. In 2017, Junius was the featured artist and honoree for his alma mater, St. Xavier University’s Jazz Weekend.
Junius' debut album, Ism, was released in November 2019 by International Anthem Recording Company, receiving four stars in Downbeat Magazine in addition to widespread critical acclaim from numerous platforms. Junius plans to continue touring as a bandleader and sideman in 2021.
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Junius Paul: Asé
by Scott Lichtman
Bass lovers unite! For those who adore the dexterity, the groove, the sheer “plunk" of a crisply-recorded upright bass, check out “Asé" by Junius Paul. The piece opens with an anthemic motif that quickly transforms into a beehive of motion. Paul continues this jaw-dropping flurry of sound until he shifts into a modal groove that welcomes drums and brass accompaniment. “Asé" is off Ism, Paul's first full recording as bandleader. The acclaimed album demonstrates that free jazz can be catchy, ...
Continue ReadingArt Ensemble Of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris
by John Sharpe
Having first come to international prominence in Paris at the end of the '60s, it seems fitting for the Rogue Art imprint to celebrate the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's progression into their sixth decade in the same city. This double CD documents the performance of an extended AEC at the Sons d'hiver Festival in February 2019. Only reedman & composer Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye survive from the original quintet but, rather than accept this as a limitation, ...
Continue ReadingKahil El'Zabar: What It Is!
by Howard Mandel
Behold and behear: What It Is!, the 58th recording to feature composer-drummer/percussionist-bandleader-music director and interdisciplinary arts activist Kahil El'Zabar. The album debut of a six-year-old band comprising three Generation Next players who've emerged from the school of Chicago's renowned AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) with chops benefitting from 59-year-old Kahil's mentorship, What It Is! is an hour of now-jazz that looks to the future while embracing the past. It's a statement of the joy of interactive play, ...
Continue ReadingArt Ensemble of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris
by Mike Jurkovic
Recorded live in Paris in February 2020, The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris. presents Art Ensemble Of Chicago—as defiantly daring avant-garde as that first night in Paris, 1969 —giving no quarter whatsoever in their lifelong, diasporic pursuit of creation unbound. Breaking at the pace of a dream, surviving co-founders saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye return to the moment of conception with a two hour, double disc set The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris, ...
Continue ReadingArt Ensemble Of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris
by Giuseppe Segala
Parigi è città fatale per l'Art Ensemble of Chicago: nel 1969 fu traguardo del prodigio artistico e umano preparato negli anni precedenti da Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors e Joseph Jarman, che avevano incrociato le proprie esperienze dapprima al Wilson Junior College di Chicago, nel 1961, poi nel lavoro con la Experimental Band di Muhal Richard Abrams, che dal '66 vide anche la partecipazione di Lester Bowie. Infine, nella formidabile attività musicale, didattica e sociale dell'Association for the Advancement of Creative ...
Continue ReadingMakaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message
by Angelo Leonardi
Il debutto in casa Blue Note di Makaya McCraven è un omaggio alla storia musicale dell'etichetta, espresso ovviamente in prospettiva personale. Come ha fatto nei suoi dischi recenti—e in particolare nell'omaggio a Gil Scott-Heron (We're New Again, XL Recordings 2020)-il batterista e produttore di Chicago usa creativamente la tecnologia sperimentata dai DJ e produttori di hip-hop e club culture, in prospettiva nuova. Il classico repertorio Blue Note degli anni cinquanta e sessanta suscita l'attenzione delle subculture giovanili ...
Continue ReadingRoscoe Mitchell Quartet: Come and See What There Is to See
by Mark Corroto
In a recent interview, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire related the story of when he first visited a jazz club; as an eighth grader in Oakland, he experienced a performance by The Art Ensemble Of Chicago. What a spectacle it must have been and, of course, he would have witnessed the maestro himself, Roscoe Mitchell. Decades later Akinmusire, some 42 years Mitchell's junior, dedicated a song, “Mr. Roscoe (Consider The Simultaneous)," on his release On The Tender Spot Of Every ...
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Junius Paul
Location: Chicago
Instrument: Bass, electric
