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BONEY JAMES
Smooth Jazz/R&B Sax Master
Nicknamed by bandmates while on tour in Oslo, Norway, after jokingly threatening to starve himself on the threadbare pay, Boney or Bones or Boneman (though his wife calls him Jimmy) Jones has put in the proverbial 10,000 hours as a musician, performer, writer and producer.
At age 10, the New Rochelle, NY native picked up the sax after two years on the clarinet and never looked back, parlaying his love of R&B -- Motown, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Curtis Mayfield and Grover Washington, Jr. -- into a musical aesthetic. He turned pro before his 20th birthday and became an in-demand touring sax and keyboard player for Morris Day, the Isley Brothers, Teena Marie, Bobby Caldwell, Randy Crawford and many others.
Boney launched his solo career with 1992’s Trust on Spindletop Records. His subsequent 17 studio albums – including a pair of Christmas records – have been released by Warner Bros., Verve and Concord, with 1995’s Seduction, 1997’s Sweet Thing and 1999’s Body Language all RIAA certified gold. In 2015, Boney’s futuresoul spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and was the best-selling Contemporary Jazz Record of 2015.
During a 30-year career, Boney has earned four Grammy nominations, two NAACP Image Award nominations and a Soul Train Award, while a dozen of his albums have landed at #1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Album chart. His collaborators include a who’s who of R&B and soul: Raheem DeVaughn, Faith Evans, George Benson, George Duke, Dwele, Al Jarreau, Philip Bailey, Anthony Hamilton, Jaheim, Eric Benét, Dave Hollister, Stokley Williams, Kenny Lattimore and Angie Stone.
Detour, on Concord Records, is his chart-topping 18th studio album. Appropriately titled, this latest album is a subtle stylistic turn that builds on the commercial success of 2020’s Solid, his highest charting release ever on the pop charts, peaking in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200.
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