James's Masters project investigated the unique arranging, compositional and production values in Ethnic Jazz music. He used contemporary production aesthetics and techniques to develop a collection of work, based on the particularly selected musical styles of Ethnic Jazz Music, Namely Ancient Māori, Afro Cuban, and Jamaican Reggae.
He is originally from Gisborne, and being of Te Aitanga-A-Mahaki and Ngati Porou descent, he was able to explore his identity as a contemporary Māori musician and incorporate the regions predominant styles of Reggae, Jazz-Funk Fusion, and ancient Māori waiata into his musical work.
One of the highlights of the project for James was working with family and friends in the recording process, "It was particularly rewarding to once again work with fretless bassist Michael Manuel whom I have known since high school in Gisborne. My wife Mihi created the beautiful album cover design."
James is currently working as music teacher at the Church College Of New Zealand and is entering his 10th year of teaching at Secondary level. He is also the conductor of a number of musical groups at CCNZ in particular "Zarahemla", the boys Barbershop Chorus recently won the Waikato/ Bay Of Plenty Regional competitions and are National finalists. James is also involved with the school's very unique Jazz Fusion ensemble "Business As Usual", that specializes in diverse musical performances. He has managed "The Eldazz" who were National finalists for the 2006 Smokefree Pacifica Beats, and "LDS Mishinariez" who won the APRA Lyrics award for the same competition this year.
On a personal level he is studying Afro Cuban techniques in all of his chosen instruments and hopes to create another, more Latin tinged Jazz album with a number of Māori and Pacific Island colleagues who specialize in this style. Later this year he will be involved with Latin and Flamenco musicians for performances with the Hamilton Spanish Society.
His main instruments of study are the piano, bass guitar, and tenor saxophone. The works of Debussy, Miles Davis, Branford Marsalis, Marcus Miller, John Coltrane and Santana heavily influence my musical directions. When not immersing himself in music, he enjoys time with his wife Mihi and three sons James, Ethan and Laitin.