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James Sherlock

About Me

James began playing classical guitar at age 7. He attended the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, studying classical guitar, and graduated in 1992. He is now based in Melbourne, Australia. James was the winner of the Ike Isaacs International Jazz Guitar Award. As a bandleader, James has released six albums and appeared on many recordings for other artists. For information about a selection of these releases, please visit the 'Albums' page.

As well as his projects as bandleader, James has ongoing duo and trio projects with vocalists Hetty Kate and Kristin Berardi and with MSO bassist Ben Hanlon. Hetty and James have toured and performed throughout Australia and Europe, most recently in 2022 with performances at venues including ‘A Trane’ in Berlin, ‘Sunset Sunside’ and ‘La Gare’ in Paris, ‘Jazz Dock’ in Prague, ‘The Dresden Blue Note’ and ‘The Sounds Jazz Club’ in Brussels. Kristin and James have toured extensively throughout Australia as well as Indonesia, North and South America, Japan and a 2007 European tour culminating in a performance on the Stravinsky stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival. For this performance, the duo opened for George Benson and Al Jarreau. Their second CD, “If You Were There”, won the Bell Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2010. James and Ben have released two albums, the most recent being the critically acclaimed “Stravinsky” which Eric Meyers of The Australian Review described as “a major achievement”.

James works with a variety of Australia's finest jazz musicians and has collaborated with visiting artists including New Orleans trumpeter Leroy Jones, New York jazz vocalists Sheila Jordan and Cyrille Aimee and master drummers Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts and Jon Riley. He has also performed or recorded with artists as diverse as British guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor, Kate Ceberano, Megan Washington, Joe Camilleri and New York film composer Howard Shore and with The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and The Australian Chamber Orchestra. In 2021 James was featured soloist in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Mark- Anthony Turnage’s work “Blood on the Floor”. The James Sherlock Trio was featured in the ABC TV Jazz Series ”The Pulse”.

“Sherlock is a wonderful guitarist, and a craftsman of songs possessing beauty and depth. ‘Solo’ should make a few Top 10s of the year and help propel Sherlock onto the bigger stage he surely deserves. Definitely a name to watch out for.”