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 :-)
Before we start with all adventures around the new album DARK HORSE, let's stand still for a second and look back to the events of 2025...For me it was a busy and buzzing year with lots of different & exciting stuff going on and more that I could wish for. I am truly grateful and humbled. Thank you, dear people and agencies who continue to want to work with me, thank you, dear concert audiences, music lovers, dear friends&family, new acquaintances, and also extra thanks to my own body who lets me do all this! I decided to put a reel together with some of the activities on stage to give you an impression. If your activity together with me is not there, it doesn't mean I didn't like it but maybe there was no video evidence. There were even more off stage activities, therefore multiple shoutouts to: ArtEZ in Arnhem where I am teaching with a lot of joy, and these organisations/boards I am involved with and who contribute to our arts/music/jazz eco system: De Creatieve Coalitie, Bimpro.nl, VCTN, Kunstenbond Platformacct, Concertzender, BumaStemra, Stichting Brein. I wish you a happy and healthy new year and hope to see you again soon! P.s. Let's meet on 16th of January at Bimhuis! We will play the premiere of my new album DARK HORSE and there are still some tickets left. - 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
