James Emery, virtuoso guitarist and composer, has been active on the international jazz and contemporary music scene since 1975. He has recorded 23 CDs as a leader or co-leader and has performed his works in over 25 countries worldwide. He has received international critical acclaim for his work leading various ensemble formations, and he is also recognized for his work with the String Trio of New York, a veritable institution of jazz and creative music which he co-founded in 1977.

Emery has become known for his distinctive and highly original approach to both improvisation and composition. His sound and ideas are immediately recognizable, leading the distinguished music critic Francis Davis to observe "Absolutely nobody sounds like Emery". This singular artistic expression has resulted in many awards, grants and commissions, most notably a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995. His sensibility as a musician draws in nearly equal measures on formal notions of structure and technique and a robust willingness to improvise, experiment and follow his musical intuition.

Emery has been acclaimed as "one of the world's finest guitarists...[he] possesses an encyclopedic jazz vocabulary as a technician and composer ...staggering technical virtuosity, remarkable creative spirit..." (allaboutjazz.com). The New York Times wrote, "Emery is a fleet guitarist with a personal touch and sound...mercurial, poised and thoroughly satisfying." The German magazine Stereo lauded Emery's compositional skills, observing "the guitarist succeeds in something astonishing: shaping modernistic sound dimensions in an extraordinarily delightful way and making them accessible to a wider audience...". Downbeat magazine describes Emery's music as "...ground-breaking...unmistakable beauty...radiance at every turn." Jazz Times put it succinctly: "James Emery is special."

Emery moved to New York City in 1974 and since that time, he has performed his works in frequent international concert tours. He has toured throughout North America and Europe many times and has also performed throughout East Asia, India, the Middle East and North Africa. He has performed as a soloist in many of the world's major concert halls, from Lincoln Center in New York to the Royal Festival Hall in London, from Bunkamura Music Hall in Tokyo to Philharmonic Hall in Berlin. He has also performed at many international jazz festivals including Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Zurich, New York, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Saalfelden, Willisau, Leverkusen, Moers, Graz, Lovere, Groningen, Cracow, Wiesen, Newport, and others.

Emery leads his own trio, quartet, sextet and septet and performs solo concerts. Each project has its own distinct identity and repertoire which has been created specifically for the performers and instrumentation involved. Emery has documented these projects on 8 CDs as a leader. Luminous Cycles, a sextet release (between the lines), was selected as one of the top CDs of 2001 by Downbeat, Jazz Times, allaboutjazz.com and others. His critically acclaimed quartet CD, Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows (Enja), was selected on 1997 top ten lists in Jazziz magazine and The Tracking Angle. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD calls Emery's work "...innovative and imaginative...utterly distinctive." As a composer, he has written over 100 compositions for chamber groups, jazz ensembles, solo guitar, chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra.

His latest CD release is titled Transformations (Music for 3 Improvisers and Orchestra). The work was premiered at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria by the critically-acclaimed modern music orchestra Klangforum Wien, conducted by Emilio Pomarico. Joining Emery as soloists in this major work are Tony Coe (tenor sax and clarinet) and Franz Koglmann (flugelhorn). The work was recorded by between the lines and released in May, 2003. His previous release is titled Fourth World (between the lines, 2002) and features Joe Lovano (saxophones, alto clarinet and drums), Judi Silvano (voice and flute) and Drew Gress (acoustic bass). Emery and Lovano share compositional duties on this acclaimed release.

In 1977, Emery co-founded the chamber jazz ensemble that has been the source of some of his most popular and acclaimed work, the String Trio of New York. One of the most active and visible groups of its kind, the String Trio has performed hundreds of concerts worldwide and has recorded 15 CDs. Along with bassist and co-founder John Lindberg, the String Trio features violinist Rob Thomas. Former violinists include Regina Carter, Billy Bang, Diane Monroe and Charles Burnham.

Of the String Trio, JazzTimes raved, "No individual or ensemble has done more to demystify chamber jazz, and to realize its potential for warmth, sensuousness and beauty ...than the String Trio of New York." The New York Times observed that the Trio "...was as rhythmically alive, stylistically varied and consistently inventive as anything this listener has heard recently." The Trio has commissioned Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Davis, Dave Douglas, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Joe Lovano, Bobby Previte and Wadada Leo Smith to write for the group and they have featured Lovano, Davis, Oliver Lake, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars as guest artists.

As a sideman, he has performed and recorded with many of the leading lights of creative music, including Henry Threadgill, Joe Lovano, Anthony Braxton, Steve Reich, Leroy Jenkins, Muhal Richard Abrams, Karl Berger, the Human Arts Ensemble, Gerry Hemingway, John Zorn, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Franz Koglmann, Thurman Barker, Wadada Leo Smith and others.

Emery has received fellowships from, among others, the Guggenheim Foundation (1995), the National Endowment for the Arts (1985,'94), the New York Foundation for the Arts (1986,'90, '00) and the Cary Trust (1991,'96, '99). His compositions have been commissioned with funding from the Cary Trust, the Meet the Composer/Rockefeller/AT&T program, Meet the Composer's Commissions USA program and the MTC/Lila Wallace Jazz Program.

Emery was born in Youngstown, Ohio on Dec. 21, 1951 and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area. He began playing organ at age six and at age ten switched to the guitar. He studied classical guitar with Ann Stanley (a violinist in George Szell's Cleveland Orchestra as well as a wonderful classical guitarist and educator), David Trader, Ralph Russo and the legendary modern jazz guitarist Bill DeArango. Emery studied composition and music theory at Cleveland St. U. and City College of NY. He has also studied composition and orchestration privately with composer Robert Aldridge of Montclair, NJ.

For 20 years, James Emery lived with his wife Colleen in Greenwich Village, in New York City. After the birth of their daughter Hannah, now 10, they moved to the greener spaces of Warwick, NY, about 50 miles NW of the city. When Emery is not composing or performing, he enjoys spending time with his family, collecting art and observing nature.