James Emery (musician)

Career

Emery's parents, Alva and Rosemary, were musicians; his father played trumpet and his mother piano. He began playing organ at age six and later took classical guitar lessons. During his senior year of high school, he taught guitar at a music store run by guitarist Bill DeArango, and the two played together in their free time. At the end of the 1960s, Emery studied composition and music theory at Cleveland State University.

He moved to New York City in 1973. In the 1970s, he toured with the Human Arts Ensemble and guests Lester Bowie, George Lewis, and Philip Wilson, and performed with Leroy Jenkins, Anthony Braxton, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Bobby Naughton, and Karl Berger. He taught at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. In 1977, Emery founded the String Trio of New York with violinist Billy Bang and bassist John Lindberg.

He has written over one hundred fifty compositions for jazz trio, solo guitar, chamber ensembles, and symphony orchestras. Emery received a Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition in 1995. His collaborators include Muhal Richard Abrams, Derek Bailey, Ed Blackwell, Jerome Cooper, Mark Feldman, Gerry Hemingway, Dave Holland, David Izenzon, Joe Lovano, Butch Morris, Sunny Murray, Dewey Redman, Steve Reich, Sam Rivers, Sirone, Wadada Leo Smith, Chris Speed, Henry Threadgill, and John Zorn.

He has led ensembles that included Pheeroan akLaff, Jay Anderson, Ray Anderson, Thurman Barker, Tony Coe, Robert Dick, Marty Ehrlich, Michael Formanek, Drew Gress, Gerry Hemingway, Franz Koglmann, J. D. Parran, Ed Schuller, Rob Schwimmer, and Judi Silvano.