Bassist – The Jazzaar Festival Big Band

James Genus began playing guitar at the age of six and switched to bass at 13. He studied at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1983 to 1987, with Ellis Marsalis and others, and eventually moved to New York, where he made a name for himself as a session musician on the jazz scene there. In 1988/89 he played in the formation Out of the Blue, with Vincent Herring, in 1989 with Horace Silver, and in 1989/91 with Roy Haynes and Don Pullen. In 1990 he briefly replaced Walter Booker in the Nat Adderley band, then in the 1990s also worked with Greg Osby and the New York Voices, Jon Faddis, T. S. Monk, Benny Golson, Dave Kikoski, Bob Berg, Geoff Keezer, Lee Konitz, Michael Brecker, Bob James, Branford Marsalis, Chick Corea. In 1995 he participated in John McLaughlin’s album The Promise; in 1998 he began his collaboration with Dave Douglas, on whose albums In Our Lifetime, Soul on Soul, Strange Liberation, and Leap of Faith he participated. In 1998/99 he collaborated with Uri Caine on his production The Sidewalks of New York/Tin Pan Alley as well as his trio album Blue Wail; from 1998 to 2001 he was in Conrad Herwig’s band. He was a permanent member of David Sanborn’s band until 2013.