About

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 was born in Dudley, England and is now based in Berlin and the UK, working as an improvising musician and composer. His main project James Banner’s USINE has been described as “revelling in both avant-garde and swing”, “unobvious and unpredictable” as well as “intense and dramatic… gentle and beautiful… full of drama”, and has received support from both the Berlin State and Initiative Musik. As a composer he received the Elsa Neumann Stipendium in 2018 from the Berlin University of the Arts/HfM Hanns Eisler, supporting the improvising choir project Voices of Berlin (premiere 2021), interviewing residents of Berlin and reflecting their stories through music for improvising choir and ensemble. James has been featured in portraits and broadcasts by Der Tagesspiegel, RBB Kultur and Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and was selected to be a part of Making Music’s Adopt A Composer scheme 2018-2019, composing the collaborative piece Concertino For Concert Band broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in January 2020. He has also been commissioned by Vanguard Manchester, The Arc Project and has collaborated with New York based soprano Stephanie Lamprea on her project Unaccompanied- Tiny Works for Quarantine, which was premiered at Roulette, NYC in 2020.

James is active as a co-leader and sideman in projects in the jazz and improvised music scenes of Berlin including The Birgitta Flick Quartet and Tilo Weber: Four Fauns, also regularly being selected to take part in collaborative projects further afield such as Fish and Chips at Leipziger Jazztage and Jazz Alloy at the Vortex, London. In demand as a performer across diverse genres and art forms, he has toured and recorded with artists such as singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, worked with performance artist Paula Doepfner, Berlin-based art duo Quadrature for PODIUM Esslingen’s #BeBeethoven Festival, and as a soloist at James Turrell’s light-installation at the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof and at Ideas of Noise 2020.

James is currently working on recording unperformed solo pieces for double bass, researching and developing a publication (book and scores) on improvisational studies, a limited edition tape and digital solo release, as well as implementing a programme commissioning authors to create texts for the duo of Stephanie Lamprea/James Banner + guests from the Berlin improvised music scene. He also co-curates the monthly residency Practically Married  with pianist Declan Forde at Berlin’s Donau115, voted ‘one of Europe’s best jazz clubs’ by The Guardian, is a visiting lecturer in improvisation and collaborative composition at Leeds Conservatoire and workshop leader for Make The Paint Dance and Jazzlines at Symphony Hall Birmingham.