Gregory James (musician)
Gregory James is an American guitarist and composer from San Francisco, CA.[1] He has performed or recorded with musicians such as Vince Guaraldi, Ray Charles & Chico Hamilton, and opened for acts such as McCoy Tyner, Sérgio Mendes, Max Roach, Stan Getz,[2] Mark Isham and Steve Smith’s Vital Information. James has also recorded ten albums. He is primarily a jazz musician, but experiments with fusing styles such as flamenco and pop.
History
At the age of 11 Gregory James began studying guitar with David LeRoy Smith, and by 15 was performing around San Francisco with artists like Amandio Cabral, Eddie Duran, and Vince Guaraldi. After moving to New York City in the 1970s he signed with Inner City Records, and in 1978 released the debut of the Gregory James Quartet, Alicia, with bassist Andre St. James, drummer Randy Merritt, saxman Barry Shulman, and percussionist Baba Daru. In 1982 James formed the Rogue Records label in San Francisco.[1][3] He later went on to study flamenco guitar with Jason McGuire [4] and to record with artists such as Kai Eckhardt, Benny Reitveld,[5] Ron Miles, Paul McCandless, Mark Russo, Peter Michael Escovedo, Marc and Paul Van Wageningen, Jenny Scheinman, DJ Fly and Rasaki Aladokun.[1]
Currently Gregory James is recording The Valence Project with producer/engineer Cookie Marenco at OTR Studios in the Bay Area. Drummer/programmer Bryan "Brain" Mantia (Primus, Tom Waits, Guns N' Roses), bassists Jon Herrera and Kai Eckhardt, and vocalists Melissa Reese and Deborah Charles are all involved in the project.
Discography
- Alphabet Town (1983)
- Tibet (1983)
- Ananda (1997)
- The Search (1998)
- Traveler (1999)
- Reincarnation (2001)
- Come To Me (2003)
- Samsara (2007)