Results for "Paul Bollenback"

Paul Bollenback

Born: June 6, 1959

"Not one jazz virtuoso could put the definition of jazz into words, but all agreed that you know it when you hear it. That's the way it is with Paul Bollenback. It's bona-fide playing, unambiguous, up-front and powerful," summarizes George Benson, a long-time friend. His debut recording, Original Visions, as a leader with Challenge Records, is one of the most creative efforts by a guitarist in recent memory. Double Gemini, his second CD, features four of his own compositions and won the title of CD of The Month in Jim Fisch's distinguished jazz column in 20th Century Jazz Magazine. It won the same award from the renowned jazz radio station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey. Challenge Records has recently released his third recording, Soul Grooves.

Paul Bollenback's emotionally expressive style and eclectic approach is the result of years of listening, studying and playing music by Carlos Santana, Yes, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Kenny Burrell, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Lenny Breau. At the age of seven, Paul received a nylon-string guitar from his father, a classically trained trumpeter and lover of music. When Paul was eleven, his family relocated to new Delhi, India, on a three-year consulting engagement with United States Aid. It was there that he cultivated his life-long interest in exotic musical sounds and timbres, which is evident in Original Visions. When his family returned to the United States, Paul's father bought him an electric guitar and he began listening to rock-and-roll. Then he heard Miles Davis and his world changed forever.

Bollenback attended the University of Miami as a Music major, he later studied privately for eight years with Baltimore-based professor of Theory/Composition Asher Zlotnik. In 1993 while touring in Europe Paul was awarded a grant from the Virginia Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to compose and perform "New Music for Three Jazz Guitars". In 1997, Bollenback was named Musician of the Year at the Washington Area Music Awards, and became an Adjunct Professor of Music at the American University in Washington, DC. His two compositions, "Wookies's Revenge" and "Romancin' the Moon" (featured on Joey DeFrancesco's Rebboppin') earned him the SESAC award for original songs and he was later invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Paul was featured at the 1998 World Internet Trade Show in Los Angeles, and his band opened the New York Guitar Show in May 1998 where he also performed with John Pisano.

Paul has appeared on the Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Joan Rivers, The Today Show, and Entertainment Tonight. He has contributed some acoustic guitar work to America's Most Wanted and has played with an impressive spectrum of musicians, including Stanley Turrentine, Gary Bartz, Joey DeFrancesco, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joe Locke, Gary Thomas, Steve Wilson, Shunzo Ohno, James Moody, David “Fathead” Newman, Jack McDuff, Charlie Byrd, Paul Bley, Carol Sloane, Chris McNulty, Melissa Walker, Carter Jefferson, Dave Valentin, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Bruno, and East Meets Jazz(with Sandip Burman).

Reach for Tomorrow

By Anna Kolchina

Label: OA2 Records
Released: 2026
Track listing: Dancing in the Dark; You and the Night and the Music; Who Can I Turn To?; Invitation; All or Nothing at All; Right from the Start; What Now My Love?; Vacation from the Blues; Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams; So Many Stars; Whistling Away the Dark; Reach for Tomorrow

Vacation From the Blues (feat. Russell Malone)

February 20, 2026

Album: Reach for Tomorrow
By Anna Kolchina
Label: OA2 Records
Released: 2026
Duration: 04:30

Nico's Dream

By Tony Miceli

Label: SteepleChase Records
Released: 2025
Track listing: Winther Blues; Nico's Dream; Have A Sense Of Humor; Breathe Deep; Sambarific; Vince Guaraldi; Green Dolphins Treat; End Of A Beautiful Friendship; Yas

“Body and Soul” - Single

By Michael Moody

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2025
Track listing: Body and Soul

Gary Bartz Quintet at Jazz Alley

by Paul Rauch
May 5, 2025

Gary Bartz Quintet Jazz Alley Seattle, WA April 29, 2025 As an alto saxophonist, NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz has merged freedom and form in historic fashion, in the process acquiring an understanding of the art of improvisation, or what Bartz refers to as “informal composition," in a unique ...

Soul Jazz

By Vincent Herring

Label: Smoke Sessions Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: Filthy McNasty; Too Blue; Mean Greens; The Chicken; Driftin'; Slow Drag; Strasbourg/St. Denis; Naima.

Bridges

By Brian Ho

Label: Cellar Music Group
Released: 2024
Track listing: Essence; Yearnin' For Your Bonnie; Ellisin'; Just in Time; Alone in the Morning; John's Abbey; Silver's Serenade; Into Somethin'; Saving All My Love.

Green Lights

By Troy Roberts

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2024
Track listing: Green Lights; The Question; By Your Side; Solar Panels; Harry Brown; Jive Dumpling; Up to No Good; The Scotsman’s Ballad; Stretch Armstrong; Soundcheckin’.

Secret Message

By Joe Syrian

Label: Circle 9 Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: Bye Bye Blackbird; Star Eyes; People Make the World Go Round; Here, There and Everywhere; Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing; This Masquerade; Night and Day; I Should Care.