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James Shipp
In 2005 James began his musical relationship with Jo Lawry, the vocalist in Sting's touring group, Fred Hersch's 'Pocket Orchestra,' and James' own Nós Novo. Her critically acclaimed 2008 release (named one of Downbeat Magazine's 'Best CDs of the 2000s') featured a number of his arrangements and compositions, along with his vibes, marimba, and percussion playing. 2008 also saw the release of Kate McGarry’s “If Less is More, Nothing is Everything” on Palmetto Records, which received a Grammy nomination for best album by a jazz vocalist. James lent his talents as both a percussionist and arranger to this album.
In addition to his work with vocalists, James has appeared on several instrumental albums in varying styles. Recent highlights include playing percussion on organist Dr. Lonnie Smith’s latest Palmetto Release, “Rise Up!,” playing cajon on Australian/New York trumpeter Nadje Noordhius's forthcoming album, and contributing both arrangements and pandeiro playing to afro- Cuban/Brazilian percussionist Steve Kroon’s latest release, “El Mas Alla.”
Outside of the studio, James has enjoyed recent performances under the direction of up-and-coming Trinidiadian jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles, New York Voices vocalist Peter Eldridge, and tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain, with whom he performed at Carnegie Hall in April 2009.
James is the leader of an innovative quartet called Nós Novo, a band that approaches traditional Celtic musics with Afro-Brazilian grooves and the spirit of collective jazz improvisation. For more on that project, check out James' interview with AAJ contributor Jason Crane on his podcast, The Jazz Session. (www.thejazzsession.com.)
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Anat Cohen Quartetinho: Bloom
by Katchie Cartwright
Anat Cohen's Quartetinho emerged from her Tentet with a self-titled album in 2022 (Anat Cohen Quartetinho, Anzic). It is a mighty little group, enhanced by doubling: Vitor Gonçalves plays accordion and piano, Tal Mashiach is on bass and guitar, James Shipp handles vibes, marimba and percussion, Cohen on clarinets. For Bloom, the band's second album, each musician contributed new compositions, generating a harmonious program that mingles flamenco (Mashiach's “Paco") with tango (Gonçalves' “Tango Para Guillermo") and ...
Continue ReadingRemy Le Boeuf: Architecture of Storms
by Jack Bowers
It's hard to become bored or complacent when listening to Architecture of Storms, alto saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf's second album as leader of the twenty-member Assembly of Shadows orchestra. Every song is quite different from the others, and every one has its moments of shapeliness and charm. Le Boeuf arranged every number and composed all but Justin Vernon's “Minnesota, WI" and the album's nameplate, which he co-wrote with poet Sara Pirkle, he asserts, “on a brooding stormy ...
Continue ReadingMiho Hazama M_Unit: Beyond Orbits
by Angelo Leonardi
Uno degli eventi al Monterey Jazz Festival del 2021 è stato il concerto dell'M_Unit di Miho Hazama, la giovane compositrice e bandleader giapponese che s'è imposta tra le figure più innovative della sua generazione. In quell'occasione Hazama ha presentato la suite in tre movimenti “Exoplanet" che--incisa poi in studio--costituisce il fulcro del disco appena pubblicato dalla Edition Records. Chi conosce i suoi lavori di questi anni, sa quanto la scrittura della bandleader risulti coinvolgente per l'abilità di ...
Continue ReadingMiho Hazama's M_Unit: Beyond Orbits
by Chris May
Beyond Orbits is the fêted composer and conductor Miho Hazama's fourth album with M_Unit. She founded the band in 2012, two years after moving from Tokyo to New York and while she was still studying for a masters in jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Hazama released M_Unit's first album in 2013. The band's third, Dancer In Nowhere (Sunnyside, 2019), was nominated for a Grammy. Among her other achievements, Hazama was in 2019 appointed chief ...
Continue ReadingNadje Noordhuis + James Shipp: Multitudes
by Dan Bilawsky
Trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis and percussionist/synthesist James Shipp have proven to be a most compelling pair. Their Indigo (Little Mystery, 2017)--a duo album built on a shared outlook and fellow feeling--was a faithful introduction to the sound of simpatico souls in musical motion. And this eagerly awaited follow-up, while playing true to this continuing story of two, is largely about the art of expansion. Eager to take their partnership to a new place by broadening design concepts through an extended creative ...
Continue ReadingAnat Cohen: Quartetinho
by Mike Jurkovic
As it has manifested on world stages and such noteworthy releases as Luminosa and Claroscuro (Anzic Records, 2015, 2012), Grammy-nominated clarinetist, composer & bandleader Anat Cohen's deep fascination and delight with world music, especially Brazil's hot melding of South African rhythms, cajun swing, and European dance, makes Quartetinhoan irrepressible listen. Infused and bursting with a multitude of melody left, right, and center, the charismatic Cohen takes a few steps back from her masterful tentet outing Triple Helix(Anzic, 2019) ...
Continue ReadingRemy Le Boeuf's Assembly of Shadows: Architecture of Storms
by Angelo Leonardi
Remy Le Boeuf è uno dei nomi emergenti nell'ambito dell'arrangiamento e della conduzione orchestrale. Dopo il sorprendente Assembly of Shadows del 2019, il sassofonista e bandleader californiano (a New York dal 2004) torna con la sua orchestra irrobustita nel numero e nella qualità dei singoli componenti. Tra i nuovi ingressi troviamo in particolare il trombettista Mike Rodriguez e il sassofonista Dayna Stephens, che caratterizzano un paio di brani, anche se il lavoro di Le Boeuf è prettamente ...
Continue ReadingNos Novo, Featuring James Shipp and Jo Lawry, Kicks Off New Music Series "This is Irish Music"
Source:
Michael Ricci
With Strange Sweethearts in America Evening Features Acclaimed Singer-Songwriter Becca Stevens as a Special Guest New York, New York -- The Irish Arts Center is proud to launch their new music series THIS IS IRISH MUSIC with the Celtic/Brazilian/Jazz fusion band Nos Novo, featuring Jo Lawry and James Shipp. THIS IS IRISH MUSIC: NOS NOVO'S STRANGE SWEETHEARTS IN AMERICA performs on Thursday, March 11 at 8 PM at the Irish Arts Center (553 West 51st Street, between 10th and 11th ...
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—Time Out New York
“…a striking new album, ‘Strange Sweethearts in America,’ which advances a jazz-based take on traditional Celtic music,”
—Nate Chinen, the New York Times
“Strange Sweethearts in America is a refreshing blend of Irish, Brazilian music and jazz that really works wonderfully. The arrangements are unique, the playing and singing are superb, and the disc is filled with unbridled joy. A real treat all around.”
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James Shipp
Instrument: Percussion
Born: January 1, 1980
