Jimmy Earl

Jimmy Earl
Jimmy Earl on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Photo courtesy of Don Barris
Background information
Birth name	James Christopher Earl
Born	1957 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, producer, songwriter
Instruments	Bass
Years active	1973–present
Labels	Legato, Severn
Associated acts	The Crusaders Stanley Clarke Chick Corea Pino Daniele Robben Ford Cleto and the Cletones

Jimmy Earl (born 1957) is an American jazz musician and composer. He has released three studio albums and recorded extensively. He has toured the world with major artists. Since 2003, he has performed nightly on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

In 1957, James Christopher Earl was born in Boston, MA, to James and Sylvia Earl. He is the second of their four children. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to St. Paul, MN, and in 1965, to Hyattsville, MD, where he attended elementary school and Northwestern High School.

Earl began classical guitar lessons at age 10. In 1972, he picked up an electric bass guitar for $15 at the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena, CA, where his family was living temporarily. In 1973, along with his high school classmates Dan Hovey and Rex Wilson, he formed his first band named Cosmic Rainbow. Mark Opsasnick has described its activities in suburban Maryland.

In 1975–76, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1981, he studied briefly at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he sits on the board of visitors. He also studied with Charlie Banacos. In 1983, he joined the group Tiger's Baku, which performed in the 1984 Newport Jazz Festival. In 1985, he joined a band led by jazz drummer Bob Moses, with whom he appeared in Boston and Cambridge. Earl began his recording career in Boston, where in 1986, he backed up David Gilden on Ancestral Voices. This album featured the Kora, which is a West African 21 string harp.