Jim Mayer | |
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Born | Tamil Nadu, India |
Genres | Gulf and Western, surf music, country, soft rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, children's advocate |
Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
Associated acts | Coral Reefer Band P.M. |
Website | unclejimrocks |
Jim Mayer is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur and children's advocate. He is best known as a longtime bassist for Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band, having played, toured and recorded with Buffett since 1989. Mayer is also a children's musician and performer. He has had two Number 1 hits on Sirius/XM Kids radio, is a regular guest on national children's radio shows, and has performed live shows and presented workshops for children and educators in the U.S. and Europe.
Mayer was born in Tamil Nadu, India, where his parents, James and Selma "Sammy" Mayer, worked as Lutheran Church missionaries before returning to their hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, with their eight children.
He attended Lutheran High School South. In 1978 at age 17, he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for jazz study. He received a Manhattan School of Music and New England Conservatory Scholarship in 1980. At 19, he was a faculty member of the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Clinics at Northern Illinois University, performing with international jazz artists Pat LaBarbera and Ed Thigpen. From 1981 to 1983, he attended the St. Louis Conservatory of Music.
Mayer began his musical career by performing with the Saint Louis Philharmonic and St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. He remained in St. Louis to work with jazz musicians including Mose Allison, James Moody, Herb Ellis and Eddie Harris.
In 1985, Mayer formed the pop group P.M. with brother Peter Mayer and drummer Roger Guth. In 1987, they were signed to Warner Bros. Records and produced a Top-10 hit, "Piece of Paradise." In 1988, P.M. producer and engineer Elliot Scheiner introduced Jimmy Buffett to the band. In 1989, after recording "Off To See The Lizard" for Buffett, with Scheiner producing, Mayer and his P.M. bandmates joined Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band.