James Hurt

James Maurice Hurt Jr is an African American jazz pianist, instrumentalist, composer, educator, researcher, producer, sound designer, and songwriter.

Hurt was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 8, 1967 in the historic Orange Mound Community. He attended Watkins Overton High School of the Creative and Performing Arts as a percussionist. Following early training as a drummer, Hurt switched to the piano after an encounter with the great Phineas Newborn Jr.

Upon moving to New York City in 1994 James immersed himself in the underground jazz music scene playing in several bands at Smalls in the West Village. Paul Carlon talks about the experience of playing with James and his unorthodox stylings in an interview. James was a member of Sherman Irby Quartet and was signed to Blue Note Records as a Group which included Eric Revis and Dana Murray.Gregory Tardy also tapped James' talents for his own Quartet later penning a song after him entitled "Mr. Hurt". He and fellow musician Tardy would play in one of Rashied Ali's last bands.

James has recorded in several genres and is a three-time grammy nominee for albums with Antonio Hart ("Here I Stand"),Abbey Lincoln ("Wholly Earth"), and Russell Gunn ("Ethnomusicology Vol. I"). The Pi Recordings Release of "Juncture", a hybrid project that paired music compositions with pulp fiction, features a composition written by James entitled "Greed".

His own first album was "Dark Grooves – Mystical Rhythms" on Blue Note Records in 1999. In a review of the album, James Lien of CMJ New Music Report called Hurt "one of the more adventurous young pianists to recently emerge on the New York scene." Calvin Wilson of The Kansas City Star described the album as "at once boldly experimental and totally accessible."

In the early 2000s James was a founding member of the New York City based hip-hop collective known as "The Real Live Show" who held residencies at Izzy Bar, Shine, and Nublu. They were also the first hip-hop band to play the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York's West Village. The single "Shop Rockin'" earned placement in MTV's video rotation and currently plays on MTV-U.

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