Biography
Job Title: Lecturer
Courses Taught: BA (Hons) Music (Jazz)
Specialisms: Jazz Double Bass, Double Bass, Composition, Improvisation
James Banner (1991) was born in Dudley, England and is now based in Berlin, working as an improvising musician and composer.
Current projects include workshopping and recording unperformed solo pieces for double bass, researching and developing a digital publication on improvisational solo studies for bassists, a limited edition recycled tape and digital solo release, as well as TEXTS, commissioning 6 international authors to create new works for the duo of Stephanie Lamprea + James Banner plus guests from Berlin + NYC including Anna Webber, Liz Kosack, Nick Dunston and Michaël Attias. Ensemble projects as a leader include James Banner’s USINE, featured in portraits and broadcasts by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and RBB Kultur, and co-curating the monthly improvised music residency Practically Married with pianist and Leeds Conservatoire alumnus Declan Forde at Berlin’s Donau115.
In autumn/winter 2021 he is also a guest with Tempus Konnex Ensemble at IMPULS 2021 (Halle), performs in Outernational's Songs of Wounding with Mariana Sadovska/Max Andrzejewski/Marta Zapparoli at TONLAGEN Dresden and Radialsystem Berlin, Nick Dunston's The Floor Is Lava at Leipziger Jazztage, and premiere the duo with Stephanie Lamprea at soundfestival in Aberdeen.
As a performer and collaborator he has worked on projects with artists and organisations such as Podium Esslingen/Quadrature (#bebeethoven), Max Andrzejewski: HÜTTE, Berliner Ensemble (Nibelungen) + Maxim Gorki Theatre (Salome), Leipziger Jazztage (Fish and Chips with Anna-Lena Schnabel, Floria Weber, James Maddren), Musikcentrum Öst Stockholm (Jazz Alloy with Lina Nyberg, Laura Jurd, Daniel Karlsson), Making Music/Sound and Music/PRSF/BBC (Adopt A Composer), Centrala Birmingham (Art and Brexit Talk), Vanguard Manchester/The Arc Project (composition collaborations), Rachel Sermanni (So It Turns), Vilde&Inga (w/John Hollenbeck, Toby Delius, Declan Forde), Stephanie Lamprea (Tiny-works) and Cansu Tanrıkulu (duo and RBB broadcast). He performs as a sideman with Birgitta Flick (Quartet/Septet), Jörg Hochapfel (Bruchgold und Koralle) and Tilo Weber (Four Fauns and Five Fauns).
As a soloist, he has worked with Paula Doepfner on for the trees to drop, a performance/installation/destruction at St Matthäus, Berlin, with speaker at James Turrell’s light-installation at the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof, at Ideas of Noise Festival 2020 (commission and premiere of The things my parents said about childhood), as well as solo livestreams with Around The Houses Festival, 5pm Series and Deep Tones For Peace. His current Call For Pieces project has created a community of 25+ composers from around the world, providing free online composition/double bass workshops, commissioning and producing and high quality recordings for portfolios to help professional development. From 2022 this will be furthered by the granting of the GVL Scholarship and will allow James to commission and document 3 pieces from Black and non-binary composers.
As a first generation state educated student and artist/musician from a working class background, James is committed to using his current platform and privilege to widen representation in his own artistic projects, call for equity (especially in artistic development opportunities and higher education) and increase access to adventurous and original improvised music for young people. He is a workshop facilitator with Make The Paint Dance and visiting lecturer in bass, collaborative composition and improvisation at Leeds Conservatoire.
