Bass lessons and courses in Berlin
James Banner is a Berlin-based double bassist, improviser and composer from Dudley, England. His work moves between improvised music, noise, jazz and contemporary music, from solo double bass and his ensembles Borage, TARTARUGA and Presencia to composition for orchestra, ensembles and film. Read full bio →
“…a deep dive into the darkest, most unexpected possibilities of the upright bass…”
The Blair Brothers
LATEST RELEASE:
SEVER – Inlet Audio – Instrument for Kontakt 8 Player [listen/buy]
Bassists, I have noticed, seem obsessed with the idea of having a ‘sound’, like it’s a little, powerful daemon that follows each of them about. I think this might translate to an idea of Tone. James has a great ‘sound’. Full, rich, strong; Bit like the coffee he makes every time we invite ourselves round to his for brunch…
Rachel Sermanni
James Banner (1991) is a Berlin-based bassist, improviser and composer from Dudley, England. His work follows three threads:
Music as protest and as a representation of lived experience: rooted in the rock and metal of his working-class upbringing in the industrial West Midlands, and carried into his sociopolitical work on classism and his ongoing research into intergenerational class identity in the independent arts scene.
Solo practice: a ritualistic form of cleansing that begins with emptiness, pushing the first sound as far as possible and exploring extreme scordatura, the physical limits of technique and ideas of form, moving between short bagatelles and tidal long-form movements. Alongside this, he commissions and collaborates with living composers.
Original small-ensemble work: across the composed and improvised spectrum, from acoustic projects rooted in jazz and the Black American music tradition to electroacoustic compositions shaped through post-production and re-composition, including for film.
His current projects include the duo Borage with Megan Jowett, TARTARUGA with Sofía Salvo, Megan Jowett and Dae Bryant, the trio Presencia with Camila Nebbia and Max Andrzejewski, Different People with Lina Nyberg and Birgitta Flick, the Practically Married concert series at Sowieso with Declan Forde, and his solo programme.
Recently, he released SEVER with Inlet Audio, a horror-scoring instrument built from his long-form solo double bass improvisations, and scored No Party For Old Women, selected for its world premiere at PÖFF Shorts 2026 in Tallinn. In 2027, the debut album of his quartet TARTARUGA will be released on ears&eyes Records, and he will perform in Sunville in Vienna, with music by Sofia Jernberg, text by Fiston Mwanza Mujila and direction by Stephanie Thiersch.
He has performed and collaborated with a wide range of artists across jazz, improvised, contemporary and popular music, mostly in grassroots and artist-run spaces that are part of the independent music scenes across Europe, as well as at venues and festivals including Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Deutsche Oper, Berghain and MaerzMusik.
As a composer, he has written for London Chamber Orchestra, Fractal Guitar Trio (Mexico) and soprano Stephanie Lamprea. Arts Council England commissioned alien space sound propellant (2022), a piece created with toddlers through movement, storytelling, improvisation and post-production, and Leipziger Jazztage commissioned class-work (2022), an electroacoustic, text-based ensemble work for improvisers.
James studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the CNSMDP in Paris and the Jazz Institut Berlin, and was Senior Lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire from 2018 to 2023. He co-hosts B:jazz, the podcast of the IG Jazz Berlin, and teaches bass lessons in Berlin and online.
“…Banner’s bass alone sounds immensely colorful when played solo and lets tones and their sequences emerge in seemingly infinite numbers of smaller tone fragments. Everything sounds sonorous, warm and with so many unbelievably fine, tonal gradations. Banner shows again and again, without putting himself in the foreground when the band plays together, what enormous variety of sound and richness of color he can express with his instrument…”
Claus Volke
CALENDAR
202
2026
29.10. – Django Reinhardt Orchestra with Joscho Stephan – ZigZag, Berlin
7.11. – Practically Married #55 with Eldar Tsalikov – Sowieso, Berlin
10.11. World Premiere of No Party For Old Women [short-film by Helery Kuld] at PÖFF Shorts 2026 Film Festival – Hall 1, Kino Artis, Talinn, Estoni (James Banner, music and sound design)
19.11. – Inlet Audio – SEVER online community chat
26.11. – Declan Forde Trio – Orania, Berlin
29.11. – Kit Downes/Joao Gato/James Banner – Spektral Raumohr, Berlin
11.12. – Django Reinhardt Orchestra – ZigZag, Berlin
2027
Presencia UK Tour
13.2. – Birmingham
14.-17.2. TBC
18.5. – Sunville (Sofia Jernberg (Music), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Text) und Stephanie Thiersch (Regie) – Vienna
RELEASES
UPCOMING RELEASES
City of Trees (feature film by Alexandra Swarens, LA) audio restoration and post-production sound – 2027
Borage – 2027
TARTARUGA – ears&eyes Records – 2027
TEXTS (with guests Nick Dunston, Liz Kosack, Anna Webber, Michaël Attias) – 2027 [listen / preorder]
RELEASES (DISCOGRAPHY / FILM / TV / RADIO / INSTALLATIONS / BOOKS / OTHER)
SEVER (instrument for Kontakt 8 Player by Inlet Audio) – 20.10.2026 [listen/buy]
The Ocean – Epiphany (acoustic version with Enrico Tiberi) on The Dungeon Tapes – 2026 (Pelagic Records) [listen/buy]
Different People (Lina Nyberg / Birgitta Flick / James Banner) – 3.7.2026 [listen/buy]
Cherry Charm (short film by Miruna Udrea, Berlin) sound design, edit, score, mix – 2026
A City of Two Tales (proof of concept by Romain Grésillon, NYC) sound design, edit, mix – 2026
Please Don’t Smoke (short film by Alexandra Swarens, LA) sound design, edit, mix – 2026
First Anniversary (short film by Alexandra Swarens, LA) sound design, edit, mix – 2026
No Party For Old Women (short film by Helery Kuld, Berlin) sound design, edit, score, mix – 2026
Nebbia / Banner / Andrzejewski: Presencia (ears&eyes Records) – 01.12.2025 [listen/buy]
Sexy Time Soup (Comedy short-film by Gabrielle Pfeiffer) sound design, edit, score, mix, vfx – 2025 (independant) – winner Best Comedy Short Film, Berlin Kiez Film Festival 2025 // nominated No / Low Budget SHORT to the Point Film Festival // winner Best Comedy Short, Bangkok Movie Awards // Official Selection Short and Sweet Yorkshire Film Festival // Official Selection Ha Ha Harvest Comedy and Film Festival New Jersey
Funeral For A Wizard (short-film by Mariska Koruba) sound design, edit, score, mix – 2025
FASSADEN (Docufilm by Alina Cyranek / Music by Freya Arde) double bass – 2025
Practically Married with Tobias Delius and Han Bennink: Live in Berlin – 2025 [listen/buy]
Borage (Megan Jowett / James Banner) – DRESSAGE – 2024 (Robalo Music) [listen/buy]
Tilo Weber – Five Fauns – 2024 (Malletmuse) [listen/buy]
Songs of Wounding (with Mariana Sadovska, KURBASY, music by Max Andrzejewski) – 2024 (Pantopia Music) [listen]
Destination Unknown – Die Zukunft des Jazz (The Future of Jazz) – 2024 (Wolke Press) [more info/buy]
Practically Married – Practically Married – 2023 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Bruchgold und Koralle – Bruchgold und Koralle – 2023 (KLAENG Records) [listen/buy]
Rachel Sermanni – Dreamer Awake – 2023 (Navigator Records) [listen/buy]
Borage – transitory – 2023 (self-release) [listen/buy]
Il Sogno della Farfalla, L’Oceano del Qi – immersive installation by Lola Danon at Schneiberg Museum, Turin (composer: Nina Danon) – 2022
James Banner: USINE – how it will be after – 2022 (KLAENG Records) [listen / buy]
Practically Married + João Lopes Pereira – ao Vivo no Café Dias – 2022 (Robalo Music) [listen/buy]
James Banner – solo – 2022 (self-release) [listen/buy]
Max Andrzejewski – Mythos – 2022 (Backlash Music) [listen/buy]
Birgitta Flick Quartet – Miniatures and Fragments – 2022 (Doublemoon/Challenge) [listen/buy]
Meschiya Lake & The New Movement – Looking The World Over – 2022 (Sungroove Records) [listen/buy]
alien space sound propellant – 2022 (self-release, commissioned by Arts Council England) [listen]
James Banner: USINE – 2020 (RBB Kulturradio, live broadcast)
Tilo Weber Quartet: Four Fauns – Faun Renaissance – 2021 (Malletmuse) [listen / buy]
BBC Radio 3 in Concert: Concertino for Concert Band – 2020 [listen]
Alex Roth’s MultiTraction Orchestra – Emerge Entangled – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Stephanie Lamprea – Unaccompanied: Tiny-Works For Quarantine – Vol 1 – 2020 (self-release) [listen/buy]
Practically Married with Will Howard and Jordan Dinsdale – Short Step – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Practically Married – Inventions In Time Vol. 1 – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Practically Married – Inventions In Time Vol. 2 – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Cansu Tanrıkulu – 2019 (RBB Kulturradio, live broadcast)
Mark Pringle – Book Of Haikus – 2019 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Rachel Sermanni – So It Turns – 2019 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Ancient Infinity Orchestra – Cosmosaic – 2019 (Polyscope) [listen]
Indra Rios-Moore – 2018 (Deutschlandfunk Kultur, live broadcast)
James Banner’s USINE – 2018 (JazzHausMusik) [listen / buy]
Practically Married featuring João Lopes Pereira – Circus – 2018 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Stemeseder/Banner/Alunni – WOOD / GUTS – 2018 (self-release) [listen / buy – all proceeds to BLM UK]
Birgitta Flick Quartet – Color Studies – 2018 (Doublemoon/Challenge) [listen / buy]
Liebesfilm – Directed by Emma Rosa Simon und Robert Bohrer [soundtrack] – 2018 [watch preview]
Salome – Directed by Ersan Mondtag [soundtrack] – 2018 [watch preview]
Grand Loup et Petit Loup – 2016 (audiobook, Trois Petits Points) [listen]
Mark Pringle – A Moveable Feast – 2014 (Stoney Lane) [listen / buy]
BBC Introducing: Antelope – 2014
The Yamaha New Jazz Sessions – 2013 (Yamaha/Jazzwise) [listen]
PRESS (SELECTION)
“A performance of rare artistry, lingering in memory long after the final note” – Izumi Yamamoto [Archives Sonores]
“Experimental, avant-garde, and never, ever!, boring” – Claus Volke [Hören und Fühlen]
“very physical, material, palpable, which perhaps has more to do with sculpture” – Aymeric Morillon [Citizen Jazz]
“Freedom is still here but writhing and storming out of its straitjacket…. highly shaped precision soundscapes unfolding continuously, creating a vibrant haven for contrasting digressions. Extreme solos are deftly framed by intricate themes… loaded with evolving detail, finer points gleaming” – Martin Longley [DownBeat]
“…evokes a wealth of familiar and beloved things, while living intensely with its own unique force. The intricately constructed structures… form the bed with the unsettling veins of a fluid that can only overflow: the particularly felicitous combination of masterful engineering and a burning, vital expressiveness” – Aymeric Morillon [Citizen Jazz]
Portrait by Deutschlandfunk Kultur [DE]
Portrait in Der Tagesspiegel [DE]
Review of The Whitewashed Wall in Cleveland Classical
“James Banner’s USINE is 45 minutes of unobvious and unpredictable music” – Robert Ratajczak [LongPlay]
”idiosyncratic, „oblique“, intense and humorous” – Nicky Pawlow [Tagesspiegel Berlin]
“not everyone wants to pick a side… James Banner… revels in both the avant-garde and the swing… a musical balancing act” – Martin Böttcher [Deutschlandfunk Kultur]
“If you can throw past preferences overboard, USINE rewards you with a unique sound experience” – Christian Kautz [LikeHiFi Magazine]
“English composer James Banner brings a playful setting of three Thomas Hardy poems. These tunes are light, manic, virtuosic, and full of twists and turns” – John Paul Mayse
“intense and dramatic… gentle and beautiful… characteristic of today’s contemporary jazz with the mixture of structure and freedom, full of drama and strong soloing…” – Tony Dudley-Evans
“By dividing The Whitewashed Wall into three distinct movements, James Banner gives the singer multiple opportunities to show off elements of her virtuosity. “Why does she turn…?” offers leaping contours and a climactic high note, while “Well, once…” imposes a strict, swift tempo onto the melody. “My brush goes one with a rush…”, frenetic and clearly meant to push the singer to the very upper limit of her range, comes off as a controlled detonation” – Cleveland Classical
IMPRINT/IMPRESSUM/GDPR NOTICE
Responsible for the content of this website:
James Banner – info /at/ jamesbanner.com – Berlin, Germany – CONTACT
This site is maintained through the WordPress hosting service. WordPress will place cookies on your computer whilst viewing the site. James Banner is not responsible for the content of advertisements on the site or any cookies or other information that WordPress collects as they are not managed directly, but by WordPress – you are able to opt in or opt out of cookies when first visiting this website. You are entitled to receive a copy of personal data at any time, as well as limit access, correct, delete and limit processing of your personal data, and are entitled to lodge a complaint with a relevant supervisory authority in the EU (GDPR). James Banner does personally not collect, host or store any names, email addresses or IP addresses, except for where you voluntary provide your information via a contact form on the site. The information will be collected only for the purposes described in the form and will not be shared with any third parties – you can opt out from any contact from James Banner by writing an email with the subject line ‘opt out’ to info /at/ jamesbanner.com
