James Genus

bassist15 · #1 12-25-2006, 07:16 PM

This guy really interests me. Im 16 and im honing my chops so one day I could be a sought after session player. So some of my big heros are guys Will Lee , Chuck Rainey , Jerry Jemmott , Duck Dunn .........and others. Im always watchin late night talk shows and most of the top session guys play on these shows . Ive seen Genus on SNL and I saw him on the back of a Chris Botti dvd. Other than that I have no clue about this guy. Anybody got any info on him? Google didnt help me out .

jerry · #2 12-25-2006, 07:54 PM

Try allmusic.com for credits. He's a fantastic player and doubler, another one of the great Virginia Beach bass Mafia!

jerry · #3 12-25-2006, 07:55 PM

BTW bassist15, I dig your taste in music.

bassist15 · #4 12-25-2006, 08:51 PM

thanks jerry , many kids around at my school thing im kinda strange becasue i like Miles DAvis , Coltrane ,JAco , and more of the artists that I do but thank you for the compliment . Means a bunch.

markjazzbassist · #5 12-25-2006, 09:13 PM

i saw James Genus live with Chris Botti this year. He was very groovy and tasteful. I got that Live album (Botti) and DVD and he did some nice work on there too. He's a great player. I love his Fodera too.

gruuv · #6 12-25-2006, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassist15

thanks jerry , many kids around at my school thing im kinda strange becasue i like Miles DAvis , Coltrane ,JAco , and more of the artists that I do but thank you for the compliment . Means a bunch.

Well, you like cats who can actually be called artists! Most of the music today. . . all right, I won't do that.

If you search youtube there's some footage of James playing with the Brecker Brothers. Also, Michael Brecker's album Two Blocks From the Edge has him playing DB and is great, in my opinion. It really shows his talent and tastefullness on the DB. I'd like to hear more of him though, particularly on electric.

burk48237 · #7 12-25-2006, 10:16 PM

Charlie Peacock (a Christian artist) uses him on the "Kingdom Come". Charlie is an exceptional pop (with a jazz tinge) song writer and James REALLY shines on this CD. Bela Fleck makes an appearance also. Even if your not into typical Christian rock I can assure you will find this CD exceptional.

Stifflip · #8 12-26-2006, 06:18 AM

On YouTube, most of the Brecker Brothers live stuff features James Genus, definitely worth checking out.

stevetx19 · #9 12-27-2006, 08:08 PM

yeah hes from virginia, i think i remember somethin about him growin up around the wootens...maybe...

i have tickets to see botti in ft worth in jan...he should be playing, at least i hope so

peace

gruuv · #10 12-27-2006, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevetx19

yeah hes from virginia, i think i remember somethin about him growin up around the wootens...maybe...

i have tickets to see botti in ft worth in jan...he should be playing, at least i hope so

peace

Yep. . . James, Vic, Oteil, Keith Horne, and John Billings all grew up together. All of them learned from Reggie as well.

stevetx19 · #11 12-27-2006, 09:05 PM

yeah they all learned from the teacha

regi's a cool guy man. i was lucky enough to have a conversation with him...deep stuff. he has a very unique perspective on the world. we talked about physics

peace

soholounge · #12 01-21-2007, 02:19 AM

one of my favorite albums of all time is Pat Martino's "Stone Blue" with James Genus on bass.
check it out, it's crazy good.

James... killing!
Kenwood Dennard... killing!
Pat Martino... killing!

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/stor...359152,00.html

jerry · #13 01-21-2007, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soholounge

one of my favorite albums of all time is Pat Martino's "Stone Blue" with James Genus on bass.
check it out, it's crazy good.

James... killing!
Kenwood Dennard... killing!
Pat Martino... killing!

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/stor...359152,00.html

+1, I forgot about that one, the return of the Joyous Lake band with Genus on bass, great stuff!

Audiophage · #14 01-21-2007, 09:27 AM

There is an article about him in the newest bass player.

soholounge · #15 01-21-2007, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerry

+1, I forgot about that one, the return of the Joyous Lake band with Genus on bass, great stuff!

which album is that? can't find any info on it.

on a side note:
has anyone ever noticed what kind of amp/rig he uses on SNL?
just curious...

jerry · #16 01-21-2007, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soholounge

which album is that? can't find any info on it.

The first Joyous Lake album was a fusion classic[to me anyway] that came out in about '76 with that same band, only with Mark Leonard on bass. For the CD re-release they packaged the Joyous Lake album with another mid 70's Martino album Starbright, and called it 'First Light' for some reason.

The Starbright album had Will Lee on it.
Pat Martino is and always has been just a amazing player, another one of the Philly greats!!!

p.s. Kenwood Dennard is one of the most underrated drummers out there IMHO.

JimK · #17 01-22-2007, 04:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gruuv

Yep. . . James, Vic, Oteil, Keith Horne, and John Billings all grew up together. All of them learned from Reggie as well.

Not to my knbowledge.

Oteil came to Va. Beach around '83 via D.C....he was already a killin' bassist.

Horne is from the Richmond area; played guitar & pedal steel as a kid.

Vic is from Newport News(the peninsula)

Genus is from Hampton (also on the peninsula). I don't recall hearing Genus' name pop up until the mid-'90s or so.

I recall seeing Victor play in the '70s...the '80s? I thought he had fallen off the face of the Earth; this may have been the time frame he was in Nashville. By the late '80s, the Flecktones' thing may have been in its early developement. Definitely, by the early, '90s, the Flecktones were a force to those who knew about them. VH-1 used to play the "Sinister Minister" video in their regular rotation.

At least that's to my recollection.

JimK · #18 01-22-2007, 04:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markjazzbassist

i saw James Genus live with Chris Botti this year. He was very groovy and tasteful. I got that Live album (Botti) and DVD and he did some nice work on there too. He's a great player. I love his Fodera too.

Funny...a co-worker here is really into SMOOTH Jazz. He & his wife just caught Botti last week here.
Botti's band: Genus, Billy Kilson, Mark Whitfield, + a keyboardist that I'm unfamilar with.
In short, my friend HATED this show...he & his wife were about to leave 'cause it "wasn't like the record". LMAO.

Even worse, my friend cuts out the newspaper's review...true, everything my friend complained about: long solos, Botti's "screeching" & "sounding too much like Miles Davis", etc was mentioned in the review but as a POSITIVE thing...not the negative thing my friend made it out to be.

Some people, huh?
I told him, next time just stay home pop in your Botti DVD.

Sheesh.

jerry · #19 01-22-2007, 04:55 AM

I remember catching the late George Howard at Kimbles and he played nothing like his smooth jazz records, his band flat out smoked! Of course there were some grumblers in the crowd, but not me. I wish he could have recorded a album like that before he died. Spyro Gyra is another band that is a different animal live, way better than their later CDs IMHO.

stretchcat · #20 01-22-2007, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimK

Funny...a co-worker here is really into SMOOTH Jazz. He & his wife just caught Botti last week here.
Botti's band: Genus, Billy Kilson, Mark Whitfield, + a keyboardist that I'm unfamilar with.

Was it Billy Childs on piano/keys?