Jean-Paul Bourelly is an innovative and experimental guitarist, composer, and producer who excels at blending and bending various musical styles into a cohesive form. His solid and often penetrating guitar sound is informed 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.

Theatre and Curatorial works:

Jean-Paul composed stage music for Penthesilea at the Schaubühne (directed by Luk Perceval) and Lauf zum Meer at the Volksbühne Berlin (directed by Torsten Lensing). He founded the Backroom Project at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (1999-2004), was the musical curator for the Black Atlantic project in 2004, and brought the musical library Spontaneous Situation to life at the Werkstatt der Kulturen. He is also the Main Jury member of the German Jazz Prize for the years 2022 and 2023.