interview: Jon Paris
Tune in as Sonia chats with blues legend, Jon Paris who is in town for a show in Milwaukee!
Though well known for his work on the road and in the studio with Texas guitar-slinger Johnny Winter, Jon Paris has toured with a number of rock and blues greats. The impressive list includes the mighty Bo Diddley, Rock-a-Billies Robert Gordon and Link Wray, piano pioneer Johnnie Johnson, former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, and British ace Chris Spedding. Paris has backed Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Hubert Sumlin, Rudy Ray Moore (Dolomite), Elvin Bishop, Phoebe Snow, Percy Sledge, and Big Jay McNeely to name just a few.
Paris’s recording credits include sessions with Bob Dylan, Ron Wood, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, and John Hiatt. He has jammed on stage with most of his heroes: B.B. King, Freddy King, Muddy Waters, Luther Allison, James Burton, Scotty Moore, Dr. John, Edgar Winter, Steve Miller, John Mayall,
the Yardbirds, Gregg Allman, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle…the list goes on.
Over the past several years Paris has been a featured guest with Les Paul, the-living-legend-of-the-electric-guitar, at Les’s regular Monday night shows in Manhattan. All the while Jon Paris has maintained his own New York City based Rock’n’Blues band. He performs regularly at the B.B. King Blues Club on 42nd Street in Times Square, and at clubs, casinos, and festivals on the East Coast (from Maine to Florida) as well as the Mid-West (Harley-Davidson’s 90th/95th/100th, Milwaukee’s Summerfest, the Toledo
Blues Fest…) and Canada (the famed Montreal Jazz Festival). He’s appeared in concert opening for George Thorogood & the Destroyers, Brian Setzer, Etta James, Albert King, Dick Dale, Cheap Trick, Little Feat, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Southside Johnny, O.A.R., the Guess Who, Foreigner…and he’s headlined shows in Norway, Sweden, Israel, and South Africa.
As a songwriter, Jon Paris’s compositions have been covered by the likes of Johnny Winter, and have appeared in major motion pictures (Naked Gun 2 1/2 & 33 1/3, My Boss’s Daughter, Shall We Dance, Scary Movie 3 & 4). His critically acclaimed debut CD “Rock the Universe” includes eight of his powerful Blues and Rock anthems, and his latest CD “Blue Planet” features another eight Blues-drenched, rocked-out originals…plus Paris’s own unique versions of some great Blues classics.