Jean-Paul Bourelly is an innovative and experimental guitarist, composer and producer who excels at blending and bending various musical styles into cohesive form. His solid and often penetrating guitar sound is influenced by his Haitian and urban blues roots growing up on Chicago’s south side. Early highlights include appearing on the album Amandla by Miles Davis as well as being included in the all-star band of Coltrane Alumni at the age of 25 with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Pharaoh Sanders. He worked through a wide array of different genres, from hip-hop with BDP’s master DJ D-Nice to more progressive direction working with colleagues such as Elliott Sharp, Dennis Chambers, TM Stevens, Joe Bowie’s Defunkt, Cindy Blackman, and produced albums for Cassandra Wilson. He has led over 20 recordings as a guitarist, including Truth to Power, Stone Raiders with longtime associate bassist Darryl Jones, and Boom Bop featuring Archie Shepp and the late great griot Abdourahmane Diop.

His work continues to lead him in a variety of areas including reworking the harmonics of the blues and a quest to formulate new material inspired by imaginations on dream states and groovy otherness. His label and production studio JPGotMangos serves as a creative outlet for his most progressive projects and collaborations including his critically acclaimed 2022 release of Masters of Mud (Shape Shifting) with rapper Sub Z for the Black Lives – from Generation to Generation project, the Hips Project – Sound and Motion in the Other-Sphere, as well as the upcoming Il & Wah album release with electronic musician Infinite Livez.