I met James during the end of the 90's when he toured with one of my favourite saxophonists: Abraham Burton. I was mesmerized by his unique way of playing the piano. Very different from everything I had hard until then. We became friends and stayed in touch and when visiting New York City, James took me to some very cool jam sessions and concerts. Not only is he an multi-instrumentalist, playing all kinds of keys, percussion, drums, guitar, singing and who knows what.... but also travelling in musical styles, varying from Free Jazz to Bebop, to Hiphop to Soulful House. He introduced me to the music of Soulive, DJ Spinna, Real Live Show but also Phineas Newborn, Melvin Gibbs and Adam Rudolph. Have a look at his credits on Discogs and read abut him on Wikipedia.
James Hurt playing jazz during a reunion gig with Abraham Burton in 2014.
James Hurt sitting in at a funk gig with Eric Krasno, Nigel Hall, Nikki Glaspie and others.
These are 2 of his many faces... On Saxify he plays on "Susie Saxophone", "Tudo Bem", "Sugar Sweet", "Angeldelic" and "Elixir". He's one of the musicians I really wanted to have on my record because he's just something else. He doesn't have a website, check out his Youtube channel with his uploads and things he likes, sometimes very experimental, sometimes not :-)
This is a tune called Kalunga Dance, from my latest album Dark Horse, order it here or buy it at a concert, the next one is Brebl, Nijmegen 1 day after my birthday on 16th of April! Hope to see you there!In this performance, we featured percussionist/vocalist and world citizen Helene Jank. She lived and worked in Brazil for quite a while and I really think it's audible here. I love the way she and the band creates this moment of space within the concert and this is also why - I think - visiting concerts is important because then you get to experience the whole context of the concert. How is the program build up, how does the audience respond and what does music makes you feel. More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - I met James during the end of the 90's when he toured with one of my favourite saxophonists: Abraham Burton. I was mesmerized by his unique way of playing the piano. Very different from everything I had hard until then. We became friends and stayed in touch and when visiting New York City, James took me to some very cool jam sessions and concerts. Not only is he an multi-instrumentalist, playing all kinds of keys, percussion, drums, guitar, singing and who knows what.... but also travelling in musical styles, varying from Free Jazz to Bebop, to Hiphop to Soulful House. He introduced me to the music of Soulive, DJ Spinna, Real Live Show but also Phineas Newborn, Melvin Gibbs and Adam Rudolph. Have a look at his credits on Discogs and read abut him on Wikipedia.James Hurt playing jazz during a reunion gig with Abraham Burton in 2014.James Hurt sitting in at a funk gig with Eric Krasno, Nigel Hall, Nikki Glaspie and others.These are 2 of his many faces...On Saxify he plays on Susie Saxophone, Tudo Bem, Sugar Sweet, Angeldelic and Elixir. He's one of the musicians I really wanted to have on my record because he's just something else.He doesn't have a website, check out his Youtube channel with his uploads and things he likes, sometimes very experimental, sometimes not :-)BewarenBewarenBewaren
