It’s always been about the music

Richard A. James: performer and composer

Jazz, classical, contemporary performed on:
Piano, keyboards, electric and acoustic bass and vocals.

Richard James is an innovative and talented artist who has far-ranging interests. For example, he was lead music contributor from 1996 through 2001 for the amazingly popular bluemountain.com website (over a hundred million hits a month). He was constantly called upon to create short pieces to accompany the greeting cards which were abundantly available on the site. It was challenging and exhilarating, to be sure.

Richard has a background in classical and jazz piano, studying privately in New York, beginning at age 6. He studied string bass in San Diego for several years with Bertram Turetzky and played in many local orchestras, and studied harmony with Hal Crook and Rick Helzer to open up new approaches to composition and performance.   He has performed extensively in nightclubs and worked countless private engagements, and concert situations. A few years back, Richard did a weekend of performances of classic Gershwin  favs with Michael Feinstein and the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops series downtown by the bay…  Richard has played in virtually all the major spots around San Diego, including the Civic Theatre and Symphony Hall as well as all the major hotels and casinos  throughout the greater San Diego area.

Some of the shows he has worked are Grease, Meet Me in St. Louis, Pia Zadora, South Pacific, Sugar Babies as well as numerous productions for Starlight and the Old Globe. He has played with such jazz and blues greats as Terry Gibbs, Charles McPherson, Illinois Jacquett, Big Mama Thornton. In the late seventies and early eighties he played bass with the Jimmy and Jeanie Cheatham ensemble at the Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel. “That jam session, which was every Sunday evening was definitely a “happening thing.”  Currently, he is Musical Director at the One Heart – One Mind Center for Spiritual Living in Sorrento Valley, off of Mira Mesa Blvd…

In addition to composition and performance activities, Richard has been taking on various recording projects at his studio.  In 2001 he purchased a brand-new Steinway “B”, which, “records beautifully.”  Of course, piano players love it. To sum things up he adds, “Keep it fun and creative. Follow your dream.”