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Simon James (born 13 March 1954) is an English acoustic guitarist and a founding member of Acoustic Alchemy. After leaving the band, he formed Kymaera, a Latin-style contemporary jazz band.
Acoustic Alchemy is an English smooth jazz band formed in England in the early 1980s by Nick Webb and Simon James.
Born in York, England, James was educated at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire Leeds College of Music, studying flute and guitar, and Trinity College of Music, London, where he studied guitar and composition with Hector Quine and David Newbold respectively. He joined the teaching staff at Trinity in 1977 and became guitar tutor at the Purcell School of Music in 1984. In 1981 he attended a master class in flamenco given by Paco Peña in Cordoba, Spain. Flamenco influenced his music on the early recordings by Acoustic Alchemy.
York is a city and unitary authority area in North Yorkshire, England, the population of the council area which includes nearby villages was 208,200 as of 2017 and the population of the Urban area was 153,717 at the 2011 census. Located at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss, it is the county town of the historic county of Yorkshire. The city is known for its famous historical landmarks such as York Minster and the city walls, as well as a variety of cultural and sporting activities, which makes it a popular tourist destination in England. The local authority is the City of York Council, a single tier governing body responsible for providing all local services and facilities throughout the city. The City of York local government district includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. It is about 20 miles north-east of Leeds.
Ampleforth College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey. The school is in a valley with sports pitches, wooded areas and lakes. Its affiliated preparatory school, St Martin's Ampleforth, is across the valley at Gilling Castle.
David Newbold is a comic book artist. Newbold's first work was in 2004, where he inked an issue of Marvel Comics's series Marvel Age Fantastic Four.
In 1979 James helped start the band Acoustic Alchemy. [1] In 1985, he left the band to pursue other interests. [2] He has toured solo, with Nick Webb, and with Maria Ewing, and has performed on live broadcasts for radio and television.
Nicholas Webb was an English acoustic guitarist, composer, and co-founder of contemporary jazz group Acoustic Alchemy. Webb was the brother of Alex Webb, the nephew of actress Sylvia Syms, and appeared as a child in The Punch and Judy Man, British comedian Tony Hancock's second starring program, in which Syms played his wife.
Maria Louise Ewing is an American opera singer who has sung both soprano and mezzo-soprano roles. She is noted as much for her acting as her singing.
In 1984–1985 James and Webb began a collaboration with actress Sylvia Syms on a series of shows combining poetry and music ("The Female Principle", "If This Be Love", "Mothers and Daughters", "Love Lust and We All Make Mistakes"). [3] This involved writing and arranging music for the shows and appearing in them.
Sylvia May Laura Syms, is an English actress, best known for her roles in the films Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961), and The Tamarind Seed (1974). In 2006 she portrayed the role of The Queen Mother in the Stephen Frears movie The Queen, about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the few days after that, leading up to the funeral. She remains active in films, television and theatre.
In 1987 James started the publishing company Designer Music. Commissions have included a fifteen part history of bullfighting released in Spain by Planeta/Agostini in Autumn 1994 and a thirteen part series on serial killers produced by Mainline Television in 1996 for SKY TV. Another series of commissions lead to the formation of the band Kymaera in 1998.
Kymaera's first album, Rio Moods (MCI), was a tribute to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim but also contained original compositions. The second album consisted of music by George Michael. James and guitarist Shane Hill arranged the music and produced the albums. Kymaera made its debut at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club on 21 June 1998. A third album, Careless Whispers, was released in September 1998. Into the Rainbow (2001) was a tribute to his former partner Webb, who died in February 1998, and included Ewing and Greg Carmichael from Acoustic Alchemy. In July and August 2001 Kymaera made an album for Union Square entitled California Dreamin' which was released the following year. In 2004 Kymaera recorded another album for Union Square. Some tracks were released in 2006 on Smooth Jazz with vocals by Lynieve Austin. In 2006, James formed the band Almaraya based on the rhythm section of Kymaera and the vocals of Austin. The band performed for the first time at Croydon Jazz Festival in April of that year.
George Michael was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist who rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! and later embarked on a solo career. Michael has sold over 115 million records worldwide making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He achieved seven number one songs on the UK Singles Chart and eight number one songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. He was widely known for his success in the 1980s and 1990s, including Wham! singles such as "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and "Last Christmas" and solo singles such as "Careless Whisper" and "Faith".
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a prominent jazz club which has operated in London since 1959.
Greg Carmichael is a British guitarist and member of contemporary jazz group Acoustic Alchemy. His primary instrument is the nylon-string acoustic guitar. He joined the band in 1985 as a partner with steel-string guitarist Nick Webb to work on the band's first album, Red Dust and Spanish Lace, and has been at the forefront of the band ever since.
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Stanley Clarke is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status. He is one of the few bassists in history to double on the acoustic and electric bass with equal mastery. Clarke is a 4-time Grammy winner, and one of his electric basses is permanently on display at The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
John McLaughlin, also known as "Mahavishnu John", is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. His music includes many genres of jazz, combined with elements of rock, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. He is one of the pioneering figures in fusion.
Robert Alan Krieger is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter best known as the guitarist of the rock band The Doors; as such he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Krieger wrote or co-wrote many of the Doors' songs, including the hits "Light My Fire", "Love Me Two Times", "Touch Me", and "Love Her Madly". After the Doors disbanded, Krieger continued his performing and recording career with other musicians including former Doors bandmates John Densmore and Ray Manzarek. He was listed by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
Al Laurence Di Meola is an American guitarist. Known for his works in jazz fusion and world music, he began his career as a guitarist of the group Return to Forever in 1974. Between the 1970s and 1980s, albums such as Elegant Gypsy and Friday Night in San Francisco earned him both critical and commercial success.
Francisco Gustavo Sánchez Gomes, known as Paco de Lucía, was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamenco guitarists to branch into classical and jazz. Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton, authors of Guitar: Music, History, Players, describe de Lucía as a "titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar", and Dennis Koster, author of Guitar Atlas, Flamenco, has referred to de Lucía as "one of history's greatest guitarists".
Oscar Lopez is a Chilean-Canadian guitarist, whose signature style blends Latin and jazz styles.
Miles Gilderdale is a member of smooth jazz group Acoustic Alchemy and plays the steel-string acoustic guitar and electric guitar.
Jon Dee Graham is an American musician, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas, United States. Graham was named the Austin Musician of the Year during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in 2006. He was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times: as a solo artist in 2000, again in 2008 as a member of The Skunks, and again in 2009 as a member of the True Believers.
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is an English jazz fusion guitarist known for his eclecticism and broad range of associations in jazz, classical, and contemporary music.
Muriel Anderson is an American fingerstyle guitarist and harp guitarist who plays in many genres. She is the first female to win the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship.
Wayne Johnson is an American jazz and acoustic guitarist. Johnson won a Grammy Award in 2004 for his contribution to the album Pink Guitar, which featured the songs of composer Henry Mancini.
David Becker is an American jazz guitarist. He is also a graduate of the Musicians Institute.
Federico "Freddy" Ramos is a Uruguayan guitarist, arranger, producer and composer based in Santa Monica, California.
Doug Munro is an American musician, arranger, producer, composer, author, and educator specializing in jazz, bebop, Brazilian jazz, jazz fusion, and gypsy swing. Since 1986 he has released over fifteen albums as a band leader and has appeared on over 75 recordings as a guitarist, sideman, producer, and arranger. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and was the recipient of two NAIRD Awards by the American Association of Independent Music.
Terry Robb is a Canadian fingerstyle guitarist, composer, arranger and record producer living in the United States. He plays electric and acoustic guitar, and is associated with the American Primitive Guitar genre through his collaboration with steel string guitarist John Fahey. He is a member of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame, and was honored with the eponymous "Terry Robb" Muddy Award for Best Acoustic Guitar in 2011. His original compositions draw on the Delta blues, ragtime, folk music, country music and jazz traditions.
