Episode 69: Jeff Paris (solo AOR artist)

Jeff Paris is an American vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist who began his career as a session musician in the 1970s, appearing on albums by such acts as Jay Gruska (Gruska on Gruska) and Bill Withers (Naked & Warm, 'Bout Love). His initial band was the jazz/soul/disco quartet Pieces, who released an album in 1979. He continued writing songs and performing on sessions for other high-profile artists such as Jeffrey Osborne (self-titled debut, Stay with Me Tonight, and Don't Stop) and Leon Ware (self-titled album), the latter a famed Motown songwriter in his own right, throughout the early/mid-1980s.

In 1984, Paris branched off in a more hard rock direction as a songwriter and musician, contributing to albums by Lita Ford and Y&T that year. His credits included "Gotta Let Go" (Ford) and "Lipstick & Leather" (Y&T). He went on to work as a session musician on Cinderella's 1986 debut album, playing keyboards. Around the same time, he signed with PolyGram, releasing two solo albums, Race to Paradise in 1986 and Wired Up in 1987. In the 1990s, Paris released three more solo albums: Lucky This Time (1993), Smack (1997) and Freak Flag (1998), and also continued working as a session musician and songwriter.

In this session player/songwriter role, Paris worked with different bands and artists such as, in addition to the abovementioned Lita Ford and Y&T, the female rock band Vixen, Michael Sembello, XYZ, Stevie Salas, Mr. Big, and many others, primarily as keyboardist and backing vocalist. As a songwriter, he co-wrote many hits around the late 1980s and early 1990s such as the song "Waiting for Love," which became a successful single for the Canadian band Alias in the early 1990s. Also, the songs "One Night Alone", "Charmed Life" and "Cryin" from Vixen's self-titled debut album were all covers of Paris songs, that had originally appeared on his Wired Up album. "Cryin'" became one of the Vixen album's two big hits (following up their first hit single, "Edge of a Broken Heart"). He also penned the song "Let It Out" for Y&T's Ten album and "Road To Ruin," recorded by Mr. Big, who also recorded his song "CDFF-Lucky This Time" for their album Lean Into It; two years later, Paris re-recorded the latter song for his 1993 solo album.

Since the 90s, Paris has reinvented himself by studying blues music while writing, producing, and playing with artists such as Keb’ Mo’ and currently Coco Montoya (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers) and more recently even studying the jazz genre. The man simply has a ton of stories and a desire to play any and every type of music out there, so please enjoy episode #69!