ABOUT
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Grounded in spirituals and trained in classical, Paul Bailey’s passion has always been the pursuit of excellence in jazz performance and the preservation of the jazz music form.
A native of Washington, DC, Paul began playing the trumpet at age 9. As a youth, he performed with the Blues Alley Youth Jazz Orchestra, DC Youth Orchestra and DeMatha Catholic High School's Wind and Jazz Ensembles. Paul received numerous music awards including selection to the 2012 Maryland All State Jazz Band. He has also performed in the 2009 Jazz Studio at the White House with Wynton Marsalis, hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, and was a featured young artist for the 2012 DC Jazz Festival Family Day.
Paul honed his performance skills at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music matriculating in the Jazz Studies Department and performing with the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble (OJE) under the direction of Dennis Reynolds as well as various small ensembles as a leader and a sideman. Paul was the OJE trumpet soloist at the 2014 Tri-C Jazz Festival Big Band Competition and the 2015 Ohio State University Jazz Competition where the band received superior ratings. Paul also performed regularly at Oberlin's Jazz Forum with various small jazz ensembles, which highlights student and guest performers in an intimate jazz setting allowing for immediate feedback from the audience. In 2017 Paul would also participate in the Performance & Improvisation program. Performance & Improvisation (PI, for short) invites students to deepen their understanding of their own playing through immersive experiences with accomplished guests who represent an exhaustive range of world music styles. Each guest residency consists of master classes with PI students as well as a performance on campus. Paul would graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Trumpet Performance from Oberlin in 2017. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Jazz Studies at Howard University. While at Howard, Paul would perform with the Howard University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Fred Irby, III, the Jazztet under the direction of Charlie Young, and the Wind Symphony under the direction of Kelvin Washington. He has recorded multiple albums with the jazz ensemble including their latest which is soon to be released. In the Spring of 2019, Paul performed at the New Jersey Music Educators conference with the Wind Symphony which was the first ensemble from a historically black college to perform at that conference.
Paul’s trumpet acumen has been shepherded by many extraordinary musicians including David Kellert, Robert “Brother Ah” Northern, Kieron Irvine, Donvonte McCoy, Dennis Reynolds, Sean Jones, Derrick Gardner, Eddie Henderson, Jeremy Pelt, and he is currently studying with Fred Irby, III. He has also been mentored by Michael Bowie, Davey Yarborough, Paul Carr, Bobby Ferazza, Jay Ashby, Paul Samuels, Peter Dominguez, Dan Wall, Gary Bartz, Billy Hart, and Charlie Young. Paul also has a wide array of performing experience. While a student at Oberlin, Paul performed professionally with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Heritage Orchestra, Columbus Jazz Orchestra, the TrueNorth Big Band, and the Funkyard Experiment. He has also showcased his talents at Minton’s in New York, The Bop Stop and Nighttown in Cleveland, Blu Jazz+ in Akron and the legendary Bohemian Caverns in Washington, DC. He continues to display his work at local DC jazz venues including Blues Alley, Twins Jazz, Sotto, and Mr. Henry's as well as An Die Musik and the Keystone Korner in Baltimore. He has performed at numerous jazz festivals including the DC Jazz Festival, Tri-C Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, and the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival. Paul has shared the stage with numerous jazz artists including John & Gerald Clayton, Joe Lovano, Sullivan Fortner, Ben Williams, Lewis Nash, Anat Cohen, Wycliffe Gordon, Tia Fuller, Brian Lynch, Terell Stafford, and Christian McBride. He has also worked with numerous R&B artists including Larry Graham, Dwele, Faith Evans, Raheem DeVaughn, Eric Benét, Tamar Braxton, and Monica. He remains grounded in spirituals by performing at Metropolitan Baptist Church and has also worked with Gospel artists Richard Smallwood, Kierra Sheard, Yolanda Adams and Mary Mary.
Paul not only has a passion for playing, he is also dedicated to the preservation of the arts. He served as a jazz trumpet teaching assistant at Oberlin as well as the trumpet instructor at the Washington Jazz Arts Institute and most recently served as an assistant to Jazz at Lincoln Center's Summer Jazz Academy summer program. He has also served as a clinician for the DeMatha Catholic High School Jazz Band, runs his own teaching studio and an active Jazz Education Network (JEN) member. Composing and arranging new music is another element of Paul’s musical contribution. He documents his life experiences through musical composition and hopes to record an album of his compositions in the near future.