James was born in Dudley, England, and began playing the electric bass at age 11. Later on, after deciding on a career in music, he began to study double bass at Birmingham Conservatoire, where he graduated with a first class honours degree. He has also studied at European schools the CNSMDP (Paris) and the CvA (Amsterdam).

Performance highlights include supporting Wayne Shorter and Wynton Marsalis, playing with Danilo Perez at the UNESCO centre in Paris, and performing at the BBC Proms in 2013. James is also a sideman with many UK jazz artists, playing yearly at Cheltenham, Birmingham and Edinburgh jazz festivals, and more regularly at smaller venues around the UK and abroad. He is also a workshop co-leader for Jazzlines, Birmingham's largest promoter of jazz and community music. He also mentored alongside Conservatoire staff in 2013/14 on the Junior Jazz Program.

Aside from music, James curates a monthly interdisciplinary performance event called 'Diverge'. This is a programme combining improvised music with other art forms, creating new work and encouraging dialogue and collaboration between artists. It runs on the first Wednesday of every month at Ort Café in Birmingham, and is open to all musicians and artists. He also enjoys film photography and uploads some of the pictures on his Format site (link below).

Find out more:

www.jamesbanner.com
www.jamesbanner.format.com (Photography)
www.facebook.com/divergeart (Diverge)