Stafford L.
James
Biographie
Double Bass / Composer
“The world of music is far greater than one’s categorization of musics or
musicians.
The common thread is based on excellence and one’s openness to the global community and not only to special
interests”
– S. James
Born: April 24, 1946,
Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.
French & American citizenships
EDUCATION
• Chicago Conservatory
College: Bass Studies - Rudolf
Fasbender, Major Professor
• Mannes College of
Music: Bass Studies - Julius
Levine, Major Professor
Stylistic
characteristics:
Fluid Arco Style
where Contrabass plays Melodies & Solos.
Pizzicato: Singing
Quality in approach.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
(Contrebass - Classic)
• United Nations
International School - New York (73-76)
• Umbria Summer
Music Clinics, Perugia - Italy (84-86)
• The New School -
NYC (86-88)
• Music
Conservatory of Sydney, Australia (81 and 82)
COUNTRIES TOURED
U.S.A. (including
Hawaii), Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, England, France, Holland, Germany,
Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, Italy, Sardinia,
Spain, Portugal, India, Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Japan, Australia,
New Zealand, Canada, Uzbekistan (Samarkand).
PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE
— Jazz
Kenny Barron, Betty Carter, Al Cohn, Alice Coltrane, Dameronia,
Sonny Fortune, Dexter Gordon, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Bobby Hutcherson, J.J. Johnson, Milt Jackson, Melba Moore, Woody Shaw,
Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Mingus Dynasty, Freddy Hubbard, Jacky Maclean, Art Blakey, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner Trio.
— Other
Ukrainian National Orchestra (by invitation - 1991)
DISCOGRAPHY (Selection)
Albert Ayler "Music
is the Healing Force", ABC
"Water
Music", Paramount Impulse
Gary Bartz I've
Known Rivers", Fantasy
"Follow the
Medicine Man", Fantasy
Dexter Gordon "Homecoming",
C.B.S.
"The Best of
Dexter Gordon" C.B.S.
Robin Kenyatta "Namosa",
Muse
Andrew Hill "Spiral",
Arista
Oliver Lake "Heavy
Spirits", Arista
John Scofield "Rough
House", Enja
Woody Shaw "Little
Red's Fantasy", Muse
"Live at
Berlin", Muse
"For Sure",
C.B.S.
"The Best of Woody
Shaw", C.B.S.
"Master of the
Art", Elektra
"Night
Music", Elektra
"Live in
Europe", Red Records
"Lotus Flower",
Enja
Bill Hardman "Focus",
Muse
Cecil Payne "Casbah"
Empathy
Jimmy Heath "Peer
Pleasure", Landmark
Ronnie Mathews "Salana's
Dance", Timeless
Barney Wilen "French
Movie Themes", Timeless
Pharoah Sanders "Moon
Child", Timeless
"Ballads",
Timeless
Lavelle "Tribute
- Nat King Cole"
Stafford James "Stafford
James", Horo
"The Stafford
James Ensemble", Red Records
"Le Gecko",
StajaMusic in co-poduction with WDR Radio, Cologne
ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS (Selection)
— Recorded
by other artists
Bertha Baptist Gary
Bartz (Fantasy)
Harvey Mason (Arista)
Lee Ritenour (MCA)
Also sampled and
re-arranged by WUZ & Alex Gopher for their Long Island French
House Music CD
Sashia-nova Woody
Shaw (Muse)
P.J. Perry (Canadian
Records)
My Gift to You Louis
Hayes (Muse)
Game Woody
Shaw (Enja)
Teotiuacan "
"
Blues in the Pocket Joan
Cartwright
— Recorded
by the Stafford James Project
| City of Dreams
Neptune's Child
Costa Bruciata
Untitled Blues
12 for 4, Del
Samba Stafford
Le Gecko
|
Stafford James (Horo)
" "
" "
" "
James (Red Records)
Staja
Records
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Including:
Cap Bénat, le Gecko, Gaia, Cristallissime, Changing World,
Good News a’ comin’, When and How, Espoir, Kisses and
Rainbows & Tongue ‘n cheek.
— A
large number of other original compositions are performed by the SJP
in live concerts and have been recorded by various radios, amongst
which are
Cimiez, Capo Tasto,
That’s What Dreams are Made of, Solitudes, Consequence,
Kaleïdoscope, Sauvez la Terre, Conspectus, Rejuvenation, Glide,
Humility, Musinta, Muguet, Nighthawk, Espoir, To say you love,
etc.
"Sonatina"
for Viola d'Amore and Double Bass,
"Spirit of
Man" for Chamber Orchestra,
"Ethiopia
Suite" for 2 Basses, String Quartet, Drums and Percussion (Premiered
with 10 dancers in New York in April 1986),
"Untitled Solo
Viola d'Amore".
RE-ORCHESTRATIONS OF
EXISTING WORKS
From Rossini, Brahms,
Boccherini, Soler & Scarlatti.
MAJOR LIVE
PERFORMANCES OF THE STAFFORD JAMES PROJECT
Festivals :
— Italy
La Spezia
Festival
Ivrea
International Festival
Catania
— Germany
Zelt Music
Festival
St Ingbert (Special
Project for 2 contrabasses, drums & percussions)
— USA
Telluride Music
Festival
Village Gate, NYC
— Monaco
Johnnie &
Jazz Masters
— The Netherlands
The North Sea Jazz
Festival
— Spain
Badajoz
Jaén
Vigo
Seville
Valladolid
Oviedo
Recitals :
— Sonatina
for Viola d'Amore and Double Bass
University of Texas in
Austin, USA &
3rd International Viola
d'Amore Congress in Stuttgart, Germany
European Premieres :
— "Sonatina
for Viola d'Amore and Doublebass" (1988)
Europaisches Musikfest
Stuttgart, Germany
— "Des
pyrénnées à la Mer" (1990)
Orchestre National de
Bordeaux
Radio shows &
recordings :
— W.D.R. Cologne, Germany 1988,
1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002
"Sunrise",
& "Abstemious" are 2 original compositions for Viola d'Amore, Guitar,
Vibraphone, Bass, Trap set Drums and Percussion which were written
especially for one of these recorded occasions.
— Radio France - 1989, 1990,
1993 & 2002
— Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich)
1993
— W.B.G.O. - New York, U.S.A.
- 1990
— NPS, The Netherlands Jan 97
- Stafford James Special Project
GRANTS
1976 - National Endowment
for the Arts
1984 - World Tour USIS (United
States Information Services - former USIA)
1985 – New York State
Council for the Arts
COMMISSIONS
1986 - Viola d'Amore
(International Viola d’Amore Society)
FELLOWSHIPS
Recipient of the 1998
Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in Umbertide, Italy and New
York, USA.
ADJUDICATION
1994 - Europeean Jazz
Competition, Leverkusen, Germany
BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
The New Grove Dictionary of
Jazz
The International Who’s
Who in Music -Vol. 2 Pop Music 2000
& Light Classical Music
2002 (Melrose Press)
Penguin Guide to Jazz (Penguin)
Dictionnaire du Jazz
(Bouquins)
Encyclopedia of Jazz in the
70’s (Horizon)
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Leroy Jenkins
March 11, 1932 - February 24, 2007
Narrative biography, February 26, 2007
Leroy Jenkins is renowned as a virtuoso violinist and for his
compositions and operas which are an extraordinary bonding of a variety
of sounds associated with the African American music tradition and
European styles.
Throughout his long career, Jenkins never stopped experimenting. At
Harvestworks Digital Art Center where he was Artist in Residence in
2005, he and Mary Griffin developed an interactive music/video
instrument which allows Jenkins, "Blue" Gene
Tyranny, and the other musicians in Coincidents to manipulate multiple
video tapes with their acoustic instruments and voices. Most recently,
he assembled a world music improvisatory group - Jin Hi Kim (Komungo)
Korea, Rmesh Misra (Sarangi) India, Yacorba Sissoko (Kora) Africa, Leroy
Jenkins (Violin) USA. A recording of the group, made at an AACM concert
will be released shortly.
In the last fifteen years, Jenkins has turned his attention to music/theater
pieces: Fresh Faust, a rap opera was presented in workshop at the
Institute of Creative Arts in Boston. The Negro Burial Ground, a cantata,
was presented in workshop at the
Kitchen Center in New York. A later work, The Three Willies, an operatic
collaboration with Homer Jackson was presented at The Painted Bride in
Philadelphia (1996), and at the Kitchen, NYC (2001). Coincidents an
opera, with librettist Mary Griffin will receive its premiere in June at
Roulette. Jenkins is developing two new operas: Bronzeville, a history
of South Side Chicago in the 20s through 50s with Mary Griffin, and
Minor Triad, a musical drama with composer/librettist, Carmen
Moore.
Leroy Jenkins was born on March 11, 1932
and began his violin training as a child, studying with Professor O. W.
Frederick at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Chicago.
He studied clarinet, saxophone and bassoon under the direction of
legendary Captain Walter Dyett at Du Sable High School in Chicago, and
received a music scholarship to study classical violin with Bruce Hayden
at Florida A&M University. He received a B.S. in Music Education in
1961. Immediately following graduation, he taught music in Alabama
schools, and then in Chicago.
Classically trained, Jenkins was also influenced by the great jazz
masters, and played saxophone and clarinet in a number of jazz
ensembles, but his passion, from the age of eight, was the violin, and
he found a way to meld his classical technique and his love of jazz when
he joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a
pivotal Chicago organization which originated a vibrant new form of
creative improvised music. Moving to Paris in 1969, Jenkins toured
Europe with his first group: The Creative Construction Company of
Chicago, with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1970, he came to
New York and formed another cooperative, The Revolutionary Ensemble, a
trio of bass, (Sirone) violin, and drums (Jerome Cooper), which toured
internationally to critical acclaim, and went on to record five albums.
He also developed his solo compositions and premiered his first works in
this format at a concert at the Washington Square Peace Church in
Greenwich Village.
In the '70s and '80s Jenkins received major support for music
composition with many grants and commissions for chamber ensemble,
orchestra, dance, and theater. During this period, in addition to
touring as a soloist and with various instrumental
groups under his leadership, his music was performed by the Brooklyn
Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the
Kronos Quartet, the Dessoff Choirs, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble,
and the New Music Consort, among others.
In 1989 Jenkins was commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for the Munich
Bienale New Music Theater Festival to write the opera/ballet, Mother Of
Three Sons, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones. It premiered in
Munich and was later staged by the New York City Opera, the Houston
Opera, and was broadcast on German television. He received a Bessie (New
York Dance and Performance Award) "for the lyrical, intricately
constructed river of jazz and opera".
In 1998, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony
performed and recorded Wonderlust, a work for chamber orchestra and two
soloists and in the last six years Jenkins has performed at numerous
festivals and venues here and in Europe including the Other Minds
Festival in San Francisco, California Institute for the Arts, the
Contemporary Museum in New Orleans, the Chicago Jazz Festival, as well
as international jazz festivals in Portugal, Sardinia, and Canada. Other
recent projects have been a commissioned piece for tenor, baritone, and
brass quartet which was performed at Merlin Hall as part of the World
Music series in New York, in San Francisco and at North Florida State
University.
His most recent touring group - Equal Interest, a trio with violin, (Jenkins),
piano, (Myra Melford), and woodwinds (Joseph Jarman) - was formed
in 1999. The British Arts Council commissioned its members to write
pieces for a group of nine
British musicians, and Equal Interest performed with these musicians on
a ten-city tour of England.
Jenkins held residencies and guest professorships at many American
universities including Oberlin, Bennington, Harvard, Brown, University
of Michigan, Williams, California Institute of the Arts, Bard College,
and Duke. He was guest composer/ master teacher/performer at the
Della Rosa of Portland, Tom Buckner's Interpretations series in New
York, the American Composers series at the Kennedy Center, the Atlantic
Center for the Arts, the Atlanta Virtuoso, and the First American Violin
Congress at the invitation of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.
He received numerous commissions and awards - from the National
Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York
State Council for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation's Multi Arts
Production Fund among others, and was awarded a 2003 composition grant
from the Fromm Foundation for Coincidents. In 2004 he received a
Guggenheim Fellowship.
Jenkins also collaborated with dancer Felicia Norton and was
commissioned by Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Series for collaborations
with choreographers Molissa Fenley and Mark Dendy.
Jenkins served on the Board of Directors
of Meet the Composer in New York and the Atlantic Center for the Arts,
and as Artistic Director and Board Member of Composers' Forum. He has
sat on many panels for music including the National
Endowment, the Herb Alpert Foundation, The Bush Foundation, The Pew
Charitable Trusts, and New York Foundation for the Arts, and the New
York State Council for the Arts. He placed numerous times in critics'
and readers' polls in Downbeat and Jazz Magazine.
In groupings from solo to chamber orchestras, Jenkins has recorded 25
albums/ CD's, nine of which have been reissued. Recent recordings
include: Solo, a suite for solo violin and viola, Lovely Music (1999),
Equal Interest, Omnitone (2000), The
Revolutionary Ensemble, Mutable Music (2004), And Now, The Revolutionary
Ensemble, Pi Recordings (2004), and The Art of Improvisation, Mutable
Music (2006).
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