"Paul Dunmall was born 1953, Welling, Kent; saxophones, clarinets, bagpipes, miscellaneous wind instruments.

As told to Watson (1989), Paul Dunmall was a working class lad from Welling who left school at 15 and spent two years repairing instruments at Bill Lewington's shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. He turned professional at 17 and, following two years touring Europe with a progressive rock band (Marsupilami), joined the Divine Light Mission, a spiritual movement led by Guru Maharaj Ji and moved from London to an ashram in America. He told Isham (1997), 'I moved to an ashram full of musicians - a music ashram - but it was still spiritual practice. That gave me a spiritual understanding through meditation, Coltrane's music, and all the rest of it, led me to that, and that's been a fundament in my life ever since - that I can actually sit down and meditate and forget my body. I realise how important meditation is in my life... but I don't do it so much these days.' During the three years he lived in America, Dunmall played with Alice Coltrane (in a big band with the Divine Light Mission) and toured for twelve months with Johnny 'Guitar' Watson.

Back in England, he played with Danny Thompson and John Stevens as well as folk musicians Kevin Dempsey, Martin Jenkins and Polly Bolton and then, in 1979 he became a founder member of Spirit Level (Tim Richards, piano; Paul Anstey, bass; Tony Orrell, drums), staying with the group until 1989. During his time with Spirit Level, Dunmall joined the two-tenor front line group Tenor Tonic with Alan Skidmore (1985), played and broadcast with Dave Alexander and Tony Moore in the DAM trio (1986) and formed the Paul Dunmall Quartet with Alex Maguire, Tony Moore and Steve Noble (1986).

In 1987 Paul Dunmall joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, being a constant member and appearing on all their recorded output from that date onward. The following year the improvising collective quartet Mujician was formed by Keith Tippett, Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin and has continued to be a regular performing, touring and recording group, sometimes augmented by other musicians. Dunmall has also played in a trio with Keith and Julie Tippetts and in Keith Tippett's big band Tapestry. Two other duos have also sprung out of Mujician: Dunmall with Tony Levin (two CD releases) and Dunmall in folk-influenced outings with Paul Rogers. Another regular playing partner throughout this period and up until the present includes Elton Dean.

In 1995, two trios were formed, the first with Oren Marshall, tuba and Steve Noble, percussion, the second with John Adams, guitar and Mark Sanders, percussion, these sometimes coming together as a quintet. More recently, Dunmall has played in another reeds/guitar/drums trio with Philip Gibbs and Tony Marsh and there appears to be regular crossover between all these players. The Paul Dunmall Octet was founded in 1997."

Dunmall also has released a large number of albums and a box set on the UK FMR label, in various configurations and instrumentation.

"I'm a jazz and improv double bassist, based in Hastings, SE England.

I lead and compose for The Olie Brice Quintet, which released our debut album 'Immune to Clockwork' in 2014. The quintet was named as one of the 'new bands 2014' in the El Intruso Critics Poll, and was described by Richard Williams as "one of the most interesting and satisfying bands on the current UK scene". The current line-up of the quintet features George Crowley on tenor, Alex Bonney on cornet, Mike Fletcher on C-melody sax and Jeff Williams on drums. Our 2nd album, 'Day After Day' will be released in Jue 2017 on the Babel label.

I'm also involved in several collaborative projects, including;

a Trio with Tobias Delius - tenor sax, clarinet and Mark Sanders - drums

duos with Achim Kaufmann - piano, Rachel Musson - tenor sax and Tom Challenger - tenor sax

BABs (James Allsopp - bass clarinet, Alex Bonney - laptop)

and am in a few people's bands, including:

Mike Fletcher Trio (Mike Fletcher - C melody sax, Jeff Williams - drums)

Dee Byrne's Entopri (Dee Byrne - alto sax, Andre Canniere - trumpet, Rebecca Nash - piano & Matt Fisher - drums)

Alex Ward Quintet (Alex Ward - clarinet, guitar, Rachel Musson - tenor sax, Tom Jackson - bass clarinet, Hannah Marshall - cello)

Loz Speyer's Inner Space Music (Loz Speyer - trumpet, Chris Biscoe - alto sax, alto clarinet, Rachel Musson - tenor & soprano, Gary Willcox - drums)

Alex Bonney Quartet (Alex Bonney - trumpet, James Allsopp - reeds, Jeff Williams - drums)

Other musicians I've appeared with include Tony Malaby, Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall, Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Vandermark, Steve Swell and many others..."