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JULIE MOURILLON was born and raised in the Caribbean island of Dominica. He started music at an early age, playing with top Dominican bands of the early seventies and quickly became one of the top guitarists on the island.

In November 1973, he teamed up with several Dominican musician friends and moved to the neighbouring French island of Guadeloupe where they created the Group Exile One and pioneered a new musical form called cadence-lypso. A fusion of Dominican and Caribbean rhythms, cadence-lypso revolutionized the music scene and became the main dance music of Dominica, Martinique,Guadeloupe and other French Creole Caribbean islands during the 1970s. Julie’s strident guitar rhythmic style became one of the defining elements of this new musical form. Julie Mourillon is a prolific song writer, composer and singer and has largely contributed to the success of Exile One with his compositions such as Cadence-lypso, Ilyne and Jumbolo.

In 1975, Julie moved to Paris with his Exile One colleagues. There he made his first solo album Rock Your Bones. The hit track Pays a Moin shot up to number one in Dominica and other Caribbean islands. His solo career however really began to take off in 1980 when he returned to Dominica where he formed his own backing group called Emphasis and shortly after, released an album Julie Mourillon and Emphasis which topped the local charts.

In 1982, Julie returned to Paris where he teamed up with some of his colleagues from Exile One and formed a new group called Roots of Exile. Together, they launched a new beat dubbed Island Boogie, a fusion of cadence-lypso and North American funk and soul and toured Africa and Europe.

In 1984, Julie went truly solo as a main act. Since then he has released 14 albums including 2 reggae albums, unleashing hits such as Aniece, Ecoutez, Piman Cho, Julianna and Trodding On.Over the years, he toured Africa, Europe, USA, Caribbean and the Pacific. Julie is also very much in demand as a session musician and has worked with top rap and reggae acts in Paris as well as with Jamaican musicians including Cat and Rugs of Third World and more recently, superstar Jimmy Cliff.

In recent years, Julie’s music is being distributed by Jet Star Phonographics, a worldwide record distribution company based in London. Jump Up Party is the newest offering of Julie Mourillon. As the name suggests, it is a party album with great ambience and Julie is dishing out hot spicy Caribbean music: soca, bouyon, cadence and merengue. Jump Up Party truely demonstrates the versatility of Julie Mourillon as a composer, writer and singer.