Paul Novotny
Biography
PAUL NOVOTNY (bassist, producer, composer) was born on July 25, 1958 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He has been a familiar figure on bandstands and concert stages throughout Toronto and at jazz festivals for a number of years as a member of The Brian Browne Trio and bassist for the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra. As a sideman, he has worked with many other great jazz artists including Cedar Walton, Geoff Keezer, Jo Anne Brakeen, Junior Mance, Darrell Grant, Don Thompson, Joe Sealy, Tommy Banks, Moncef Genoud, Phil Nimmons, Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, and Reg Schwager.
Novotny also currently performs as a member of the Daniel Barnes Quintet, and plays electric bass with The Blay Ambolley/Joe Sealy African Projekt, a feature in several recent Ontario jazz festivals with additional bookings throughout Canada well into the future. He is also a partner in a recently-formed blues band entitled Home Cookin’ with Jackie Richardson, Danny B, and Joe Sealy.
Novotny’s enduring musical partnership with pianist Joe Sealy started in 1981, becoming a business partnership when Sealy and Novotny established their own jazz record label in 1989. The Novotny/Sealy co-owned Triplet Records Inc. has released 14 CDs to date (2008), three of which have garnered JUNO nominations and one which won a JUNO Award in the ‘Contemporary Jazz’ Category.
As a composer and member of The Guild of Canadian Film Composers, Novotny also creates music for television, commercials and film, Conversant in traditional and contemporary musical idioms composing accomplishments to date include CBC’s The National, The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, Newsworld’s News Now, and Space for Living on the HGTV Network. His work on commercial recording tracks is heard on advertising spots for several leading products and companies. He has also written music for several documentaries and three feature films.
Paul Novotny is on the teaching faculty of Humber College where he instructs in Music Business, and recently re-designed the Music Business Course there.
Awards:
As a bass-player and music producer, Paul Novotny’s co-owned jazz record label. Triplet Recordings. has released JUNO Award-winning and nominated CDs including Joe Sealy’s Africville Suite. Caro Welsman’s Lucky to be Me, and Sealy/Novotny’s Dual Vision and Blue Jade.
