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Paul Bollenback was born on June 6, 1959 in Hinsdale, Illinois. The guitarist first got his hands on a nylon stringed guitar when he was seven years old. It was a gift from his dad, who played trumpet, adored music as much as the his son. He developed a taste for the exotic over the course of the three-year period his family lived in India at the age of 11 years old.

At the age of 14, the budding guitarist returned to the states with his family, where he discovered the delights of rock & roll. Around this time he started to play the electric guitar, but it was when Paul discovered Miles Davis that his musical development took a major turning point.

Bollenback studied music at the University of Miami then went on to eight more years of private instruction under the tutelage of Asher Zlotnik in Baltimore. By 1993 he embarked on a European tour and received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in conjunction with the Virginia Commission on the Arts, for New Music for Three Jazz Guitars.

He was named 1997 Musician of the Year by The Washington Area Music Awards, SESAC honored two of his original pieces, Romancin’ the Moon and Wookies’ Revenge, both of which were included on the album Reboppin’ by Joey DeFrancesco. He joined the music faculty at American University, has been an artist-in-residence at the Litchfield Jazz Festival Summer Music School and is a featured artist on the bill of the Summer Guitar & Bass Workshop offered by Duquesne University. T

Throughout his career Paul has performed on among others Entertainment Tonight, The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Joan Rivers, and Good Morning America. He has shared the stage with a long list of musical artists, including Charlie Byrd, Arturo Sandoval, Herb Ellis, Stanley Turrentine, Spyro Gyra’s Scott Ambush, Della Reese, Carol Sloane and Gary Thomas among others.

Guitarist Paul Bollenback, who uses modern quartal harmony, and has eight albums under his name as a leader to date since his debut of Original Vision in 1995, continues to teach, record and perform as both leader and sideman.

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