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James Hurt

James Hurt, born on May 8, 1967 in Memphis, Tennessee in the historic Orange Mound Community, credits his mom for his early exposure to blues, jazz, and soul music. James became dedicated to the drums by age twelve. At age fifteen, James auditioned as a percussionist and was accepted into Watkins Overton High School of the Creative and Performing Arts. At age sixteen James did his first session as a recording engineer. Musically, James is genre bender who approaches music as a journey in sound.

Though James studied percussion while attending TSU, his harmony, counterpoint, form and analysis and applied piano instructor Dr. Donald Barrett, Oberlin Conservatory Alumnus, attempted to switch his focus to piano. Barrett exposed him to the classical piano literature of Bartok, Prokofiev, Ginastera, Liszt, Chopin, Gershwin, Legeti, and Rachmaninoff. James graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master of Science Degree in Computer-Based Music Education yet was determined to pursue creative music further.

James moved to New York City by train in 1994 and gained a lot of press in a short amount of time by conducting, composing, and performing as a pianist in several bands nightly with his unique sound and spontaneity. Rashid Ali, Antonio Hart, Russell Gunn, Gregory Tardy, and Abraham Burton enlisted James simultaneously. James served as guest conductor and arranged for both the Tess Marsalis Swing Daddies at the Iridium and the Jason Lidner Big Band at Smalls. As a pianist James played in the Oliver Lake Big Band at the Knitting Factory in New York City, and on electronics, laptop, and keyboards in Butch Morris’s Nublu and Lucky Cheng Orchestras. Since 2008 James has performed with Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures Ensemble and Go Organic Orchestra as a percussionist.

As a recording artist James can be heard on such labels as Atlantic, Impulse, Motown, High Note, Fresh Sounds, Innerscope, Reservoir, Enja (Germany), Polygram Polydor (France), Red Records (Italy), Pi Records, Sony Music (South Africa), Small Records (NYC), DreamWorks Records and Adam Rudolph’s Meta Records. In 1995 Bruce Lundvall signed the Sherman Irby Quartet after hearing at their Smalls Jazz Club late night residency. Afterwards James recorded and released Dark Grooves Mystical Rhythms on the Blue Note Records label in 1999.

James recorded on Grammy nominated albums for Antonio Hart (Here I Stand), Abbey Lincoln (Wholly Earth), and Russell Gunn (Ethnomusicology Vol. I). James co-created and presented the first hip-hop band to play at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City under the group name the “Real Live Show”. MTV2 placed Shop Rockin’ and Come Back in their rotation from their CD Class is in Session. James secured placements for both HBO and FORD ad campaigns. Throughout his career James has shared his talents with several creative artists including Louis Hayes, Eric Wyatt, John Ore, Butch Morris, Adam Rudolph, Francis Mbappe, Dominick James, Greg Tate, Joseph Bowie, Donald Byrd, Q-Tip, M.C. Special Ed, Vernon Reid, Melvin Gibbs, Corey Glover, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Soul Live, DJ Logic, J.D. Parran, Vijay Iyer, Essiet Essiet, Eric McPherson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Reggie Washington, George Porter Jr., Bernie Worrell, Maceo Parker, Buster Williams, J.T. Lewis, Wil Calhoun, Jeff Tain Watts, Pheron Aklaff, Sarah Morrow, Kim Thompson, Nikki Glaspie, Brandon Ross, Pete Cosey, David Gilmore, Oliver Lake, Sam Newsome, Waddada Leo Smith, Nels Cline, Sherman Irby, Arto Lindsay, Mark Kelly, Gregoire Marett, Taurus Mateen, and Nasheet Waits. The foundation crafted by Mr. Hurt can be heard in several emerging artists of today’s creative music scene.

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2
Album Review

Hanka G: Universal Ancestry

Read "Universal Ancestry" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


For a recording that combines, jazz, rock, gospel soul and r&b with Slovakian folk melodies, look no farther. Hanka G, who has artists as different as Abbey Lincoln and McCoy Tyner as her models, was raised in Mongolia, coming to the United States in 2018. This is her first stateside recording, and it is an innovative album for people fond of crossing cultures, mindscapes, ethnic and racial boundaries. She kicks things off with a grittier, rougher version of ...

82
Album Review

James Hurt: Dark Grooves-Mystical Rhythms

Read "Dark Grooves-Mystical Rhythms" reviewed by John Sharpe


First of all, ignore the spacey, futuristic cover photo and zodiac-theme song titles. They are nothing more than marketing mumbo-jumbo and bear little relation to the musical content. What we have here is a pianist who has done some nice work as a sideman with Antonio Hart (Here I Stand) and Sherman Irby (Full Circle), but sounds out of his depth on this CD — his debut as a leader. Throughout Dark Grooves-Mystical Rhythms, Hurt’s piano lines are often smothered ...

164
Album Review

James Hurt: Dark Grooves - Mystical Rhythms

Read "Dark Grooves - Mystical Rhythms" reviewed by Jim Santella


For his first recording session as a leader, pianist James Hurt creates quite a rhythmic stir. Performing his own compositions, Hurt steers his piano trio and guests in a modern mainstream program that features drummers. Polyrhythms and frequent changes in meter or tempo keep the listener on the edge of his seat, while familiar structures, such as a New Orleans shuffle or calypso, duck in and out of the formula. Hurt’s bassists employ the acoustic stand-up bass, helping to capture ...

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“…pianist James Hurt, whose eccentricities make him important. Mr. Hurt sounds as if he has absorbed Elmo Hope and Herbie Nichols and early Cecil Taylor, but he has added his own baroque sense of ornamentation, building static piles of rumbles and glittering figures. And he's percussive, sitting on repeated notes until drama springs from his improvisation…” – THE NEW YORK TIMES “…Hurt, yet another pianist from Memphis, has an exploratory personality and sounds resolutely like himself…But it's his early training as a drummer that makes him distinct...Mr. Hurt's sure sense of time allowed outrageous play on his part, rhythmic gestures that would have sent most bands spinning out of control

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Education: M.S. Mus Ed-Master of Science in Music Education. Tennessee State University at Nashville, TN Designed a Music Laboratory for Computer-Based Music Education (with a remote learning component for off-site administration from a teacher) to regulate self-paced learning modules to teach music theory and Fundamentals from Beginner to College Student levels. The model sought to improve the diminishing population of music taught in the public school system and proposed this alternative to music education which is now referred to as Online Learning. Private Instruction for available for Piano, Drum set, Fretboard Organization, Music theory, Finding Your Instrumental Voice, Music and Movement, Music and the Chakras, Music as a Healing force, Music and the biochemical connection, Musical Syntax and Linguistic Development, Arranging and Composition, Rhythm and Proportion, and more. Availability and Rates may vary: Hourly lessons start at $90 per hour; $75 per hour (wo hour session); $180 per hour (three hour session)

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Universal Ancestry

Culture Bridge Records
2022

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Sonic Mandala

Meta Records
2013

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Beka and Logic...

Exitus Entertainment
2013

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(Can You Imagine )...

Meta Records
2012

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Abbey Lincoln:...

Unknown label
2010

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Melvin Gibbs:...

Unknown label
2009

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