James Maurice Hurt Jr is an American jazz pianist.

Early life

Hurt had early training as a drummer.^[1]

Career

Hurt was a member of Sherman Irby's quartet that played regularly at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City in the late 1990s.^[2] Gregory Tardy wrote a song after him, entitled "Mr. Hurt";^[3] the pair played with Rashied Ali in 1999.^[4]

In the 1990s, Hurt played on albums with Antonio Hart (Here I Stand),^[5] Abbey Lincoln (Wholly Earth), and Russell Gunn.^[6]

His own first album was Dark Grooves – Mystical Rhythms on Blue Note Records in 1999.^[7][8] In a review of the album, James Lien of CMJ New Music Report called Hurt "one of the more adventurous young pianists to recently emerge on the New York scene."^[9] Calvin Wilson of The Kansas City Star described the album as "at once boldly experimental and totally accessible."^[10]

James has played with Elizabeth Kontomanou,^[11] Graham Haynes,^[12] DJ Logic,^[13] and composer, percussionist, and conductor Adam Rudolph (as a percussionist),^[14]

Hurt has made guest appearances with Donald Edwards,^[15] Stacy Dillard,^[15] and Rudresh Mahanthappa.^[16]

Hurt has been a piano tutor at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.^[17]

Discography

As leader

• Dark Grooves, Mystical Rhythms (Blue Note, 1999)

As sideman

• Russell Gunn, Gunn Fu (HighNote, 1997)
• Antonio Hart, Here I Stand (Impulse!/GRP, 1997)
• Sherman Irby, Full Circle (Blue Note, 1997)
• Sherman Irby, Big Mama's Biscuits (Blue Note, 1998)
• Abbey Lincoln, Wholly Earth (Verve/Gitanes Jazz, 1998 [1999])
• Russell Gunn, Love Requiem (HighNote, 1999)
• Jeffery Smith, Down Here Below (Verve, 1999)
• DJ Spinna, Here to There (Rapster, 2002)
• DJ Spinna, Outta Time featuring the Free Radikalz (Papa, 2004)
• DJ Spinna, Intergalactic Soul (Wonderwax, 2006)

References

External links

• James at the Royal Family Ball @ Terminal 5, Jambands, October 18, 2010
• Cox, Gerard (March 8, 2004). "James Hurt and Marc Cary at The Jazz Gallery, 3/14/02". All About Jazz. Retrieved March 24, 2012.