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ABOUT

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JAmes Shipp is a vibraphonist, a percussionist, a synthesist, and a songwriter. For the last decade-and-a-half he has performed, recorded, and toured the world with some of New York City's best musicians. Trained as a jazz vibraphone soloist and accompanist, James's post-conservatory interests have led him to become a sought-after Brazilian percussionist, a multi-instrumentalist in bands both mostly-improvised and tightly arranged, a composer of music for experimental theater, and a versatile producer of recordings, bringing to bear his knowledge of both acoustic and analog electronic instruments on a wide range of projects. 

As of late, James performs and records with much-lauded clarinetist and multiple Grammy Award nominee Anat Cohen’s Quartetinho, the Anat Cohen Tentet, Jean Rohe and the End of the World Show, Banda Magda, the Nadje Noordhuis Quintet, and Christina Courtin (Pilot Violet). He has recorded and performed with Paquito d’Rivera, Kurt Elling, Snarky Puppy, Bokante, Kate McGarry, Becca Stevens, Bob Lanzetti, The Kronos Quartet, and Sting. He was nominated for two Grammies in 2020 for his contributions on vibes and percussion to the Anat Cohen Tentet’s Triple Helix and Miho Hazama and M Unit’s Dancer in Nowhere. He is the percussionist for Mike LaValle’s Clube de Choro do Brooklyn every Sunday at Barbés in Park Slope.

As a leader, James has been performing his mostly satirical songs solo and with his band since 2016, and released The Virus Diaries as a weekly pandemic music and video series in 2020/21, and the album James Shipp Sings his Famous Songs in 2022; as a songwriter he is represented by TRO-Palm Valley Music. He has performed as a duo with trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis since 2012. In late 2017 they released their first album, Indigo, and their forthcoming release on Little Mystery Records in 2023 features ten new compositions and many layers of James’ mallet, percussion, and synthesizer playing. He is a member of the MakeSpeak Ensemble, a collaborative trio that composes and performs music for dance and theater. (They premiered the music for Jephta's Daughter at the Munich State Opera in 2015, and composed and performed music for A Monteverdi Project at Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden in the fall of 2018.) James’ band Nós Novo took improvisors’ ears to traditional Irish repertoire and released Strange Sweethearts in America to critical acclaim in 2009.  

James has been a bandleader, composer, producer, and workshop facilitator for Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs for the last decade, working with thousands of people of all ages in prisons, jails, hospitals, shelters, and schools throughout New York City. He has been the musical director and producer of Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project since 2019, and will be music-directing and producing its Tenth Anniversary Celebration Concert in Zankel Hall in June 2023. Two of the lullabies he co-wrote through that work were featured on the 2018 Universal Music Group release Hopes and Dreams, sung by mezzo-soprano Joyce Di Donato and soprano Pretty Yende. James was the director and producer of Carnegie Hall’s youth-driven, genre-crossing Future Music Project Ensemble from its formation in 2016 until it ended during the pandemic in 2021, and was the creative director and lead educator of the music program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility for its 2015/16 season.  James was a faculty artist at the Silk Road Ensemble's 2016 Global Musician Workshop, where he taught Brazilian, Irish, and Finnish tunes to students from all over the world.

JAmes earned both a Bachelor's and Master's of Music from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. He currently lives in Brooklyn, and is very happy there.

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shows

 

MUSIC

watch

Playing drums and synths with the new band Cloud Make Thunder

playing vibes with his band Choro Dragão, on his arrangement of the choro standard Assanhado

feat Mike LaValle on bass, Jordan Perlson on drums, JS on vibes, synths, and vox

playing vibraphone, drums, and synthesizer with MakeSpeak live @ Bimhuis in Amsterdam in 2016

Playing synths on his glitchy composition ‘Baroquen Spirit.'

playing vibraphone on his arrangement of the Irish ballad ‘As I Roved Out’ feat vocalist Becca Stevens

 

LISTEN

Nadje Noordhuis + James Shipp IndigoIndigo pairs the gorgeous, endlessly melodic trumpet and flugelhorn playing of Nadje Noordhuis with James Shipp’s expansive blending of vibraphone and analog electronic textures. Their music feels like an intimate…

Nadje Noordhuis + James Shipp
Indigo

Indigo pairs the gorgeous, endlessly melodic trumpet and flugelhorn playing of Nadje Noordhuis with James Shipp’s expansive blending of vibraphone and analog electronic textures. Their music feels like an intimate, interactive jazz-based duo that could be easily taken for a live score to a film, or to a rural night sky.

MakeSpeak Jephta's DaughterMusic written by James (with collaborators Haggai Cohen-Milo and Mateo Lugo) for a dance piece by Saar Magal which was presented by the Bavarian State Opera in August 2015. The piece involved 10 dancers, four opera singers…

MakeSpeak
Jephta's Daughter

Music written by James (with collaborators Haggai Cohen-Milo and Mateo Lugo) for a dance piece by Saar Magal which was presented by the Bavarian State Opera in August 2015. The piece involved 10 dancers, four opera singers, and the MakeSpeak trio. JAmes played vibraphone, classical percussion, drums, and synthesizers.

James Shipp + Nós Novo Strange Sweethearts in America"Vibraphonist James Shipp's Nós Novo offers a worldly mix of sea shanties, Celtic reels and airs, Brazilian soul and jazz spirit...More amazing than the boldness of the mix is the seamlessness wit…

James Shipp + Nós Novo
Strange Sweethearts in America

"Vibraphonist James Shipp's Nós Novo offers a worldly mix of sea shanties, Celtic reels and airs, Brazilian soul and jazz spirit...More amazing than the boldness of the mix is the seamlessness with which it all comes together on the band's lovely new album."

- Time Out New York

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as a sideman

WATCH

percussion with Anat Cohen’s Quartetinho

Playing vibes with Anat Cohen’s Quartetinho

percussion with Kate McGarry @ National Sawdust

 

LISTEN

Anat Cohen Tentet - Happy SongJames tours the world playing vibraphone and Brazilian percussion in Anat's large(ish) ensemble of NYC improvisors. He is featured on prepared vibraphone on Kenedougou Foly

Anat Cohen Tentet - Happy Song

James tours the world playing vibraphone and Brazilian percussion in Anat's large(ish) ensemble of NYC improvisors. He is featured on prepared vibraphone on Kenedougou Foly

Banda Magda - TigreJames plays percussion, glockenspiel, and occasional tubular bells in Banda Magda, with whom he has toured extensively since 2013. He was instrumental in arranging the percussion on Thiamandi

Banda Magda - Tigre

James plays percussion, glockenspiel, and occasional tubular bells in Banda Magda, with whom he has toured extensively since 2013. He was instrumental in arranging the percussion on Thiamandi

Kurt Elling - Passion WorldJames played congas and various percussion on Kurt's 2015 release. Below hear several layers of JAmes forming a batucada on Você Já Foi à Bahia?

Kurt Elling - Passion World

James played congas and various percussion on Kurt's 2015 release. Below hear several layers of JAmes forming a batucada on Você Já Foi à Bahia?

Jean Rohe - and the End of the World ShowJames has played in several of Jean's band since 2013. On this release he played percussion, vibraphone, marimba, and sang.

Jean Rohe - and the End of the World Show

James has played in several of Jean's band since 2013. On this release he played percussion, vibraphone, marimba, and sang.

Bob Lanzetti - Whose Feet Are These That Are WalkingJames played percussion on Bob's tune Marge, and it really ties the whole record together.

Bob Lanzetti - Whose Feet Are These That Are Walking

James played percussion on Bob's tune Marge, and it really ties the whole record together.

Pilot Violet - Nite FarmJames plays synthesizers on live Pilot Violet shows, but his studio contribution to this fantastic album was as a vibraphonist on I Could Get Used to This

Pilot Violet - Nite Farm

James plays synthesizers on live Pilot Violet shows, but his studio contribution to this fantastic album was as a vibraphonist on I Could Get Used to This

Kate McGarry - If Less is More...James played percussion on this beautiful record by one of his favorite singers, and was featured on pandeiro and tan-tan on Kate's unique version of You Don't Have to Cry

Kate McGarry - If Less is More...

James played percussion on this beautiful record by one of his favorite singers, and was featured on pandeiro and tan-tan on Kate's unique version of You Don't Have to Cry

Banda Magda - Yearkina

James first joined Banda Magda as a percussionist on this album, and provided the driving Indian-inspired beat on Karotseri

Owen Broder - HeritageJames played vibraphone and percussion on this 2018 jazz reimagining of American roots music, and was featured as a soloist on Broder's Goin' Up Home.

Owen Broder - Heritage

James played vibraphone and percussion on this 2018 jazz reimagining of American roots music, and was featured as a soloist on Broder's Goin' Up Home.

Miho Hazama - Time RiverJames has played in Miho Hazama's M Unit since its formation in 2012, and is featured as a soloist here on Dizzy Dizzy Wildflower.

Miho Hazama - Time River

James has played in Miho Hazama's M Unit since its formation in 2012, and is featured as a soloist here on Dizzy Dizzy Wildflower.

Dr Lonnie Smith - Rise Up!James played percussion and congas on the legendary hammond B3 mystic's 2009 release.

Dr Lonnie Smith - Rise Up!

James played percussion and congas on the legendary hammond B3 mystic's 2009 release.

Peter Eldridge - Mad HeavenJames played percussion on this endlessly charming 2011 release. He can be heard on congas, bell, and shaker here on Buffet Philosophy

Peter Eldridge - Mad Heaven

James played percussion on this endlessly charming 2011 release. He can be heard on congas, bell, and shaker here on Buffet Philosophy

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