Elana James
Elana James ( born October 21, 1970 in Kansas City, Missouri as Elana Jaime Fremerman ) is an American jazz and western swing violinist and singer.
Life
Elana James grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas, and began at the age of four years playing the violin. Her mother was a professional musician: She played violin in the Symphony Orchestra of Kansas City. Elena James studied comparative religion at Barnard College and Columbia University in New York, as well as violin and viola with Lucie Robert and Karen Ritscher at the Manhattan School of Music. She then studied improvisation and swing fiddle with Marty vices in New York City, in India she learned from a classical Indian musician singing the traditional Dhrupad. In the early 1990s, she worked as an editor for the Buddhist Review, and as a horse carer in Clark, Colorado. The highly versatile musician is also a graduate and member of the Meadowmount School of Music, the New York Youth Symphony, the Columbia University Chamber Music Program, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France.
Despite this versatility, Elana James followed her enthusiasm for Western Swing, mainly triggered by the legendary violinist Johnny Gimble. So she founded with other musicians in 1994 The Hot Club of Cowtown, a band that is one of the leading formations of modern Western Swing. In 1998 the band moved to Austin, Texas, where the first CD was recorded - and where the band until today is home. In summer 2004, Elana James played with her band opening for Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, which her extraordinary art became known to a wider audience for the first time. So she received a request from Dylan, who booked them for a tour. Elana James was in 2005 since Scarlet Rivera 's first wife in a touring band of Dylan - more than thirty years later. In the same year, she recorded her debut CD " Elana James" that came on the market in 2007. In 2006, she played with the trio Elena James and the Continental Two opening act for Dylan. The band's name was a nod to Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two and the Continental Club in Austin, where the band regularly performs.
Elana James, played primarily with the Hot Club of Cowtown, at numerous festivals, jazz and swing events, at the Grand Ole Opry, at the Glastonbury Festival in England, the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan - and in many other countries of Australia to Azerbaijan. 2004 the band was included Western Swing Hall of Fame in Texas.
In addition, Elana James works occasionally as a studio musician for Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Willie Nelson, Amos Lee and many others.
Discography
Solo
- Elana James (2007)
With The Hot Club of Cowtown
- Swingin ' Stampede (1998) Hightone
- Tall Tales (1999) Hightone
- Dev'lish Mary ( 2000) Hightone
- Hot Jazz (Japan, 2002) Buffalo
- Hot Western ( Japan, 2002) Buffalo
- Ghost Train (2003) Hightone
- Continental Stomp ( live) ( 2003) Hightone
- Four Dead Batteries Soundtrack ( 2005) Hightone
- Best of the Hot Club of Cowtown (2008) Shout! Factory
- Wishful Thinking (2009 ) Gold Strike
- What Makes Bob Holler (2010) Proper American
Other investments
- Dave Stuckey: Get a Load of This! (2000)
- Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2004)
- Willie Nelson / Ray Price / Merle Haggard: Last of The Breed (2007)