Boney James
Nicknamed by bandmates while on tour in Oslo, Norway, after jokingly threatening to starve himself on a threadbare per diem, Boney or Bones or Boneman (though his wife calls him Jimmy) has put in his proverbial 10,000 hours as a musician, performer, writer, and producer. At age 10, the New Rochelle, NY native picked up the sax after 2 years on the clarinet and never looked back, parlaying his love of R&B--Motown, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Curtis Mayfield, and Grover Washington, Jr.--into a musical aesthetic. He turned pro before his 20th birthday and became an in-demand touring sax and keyboard player for Morris Day, the Isley Brothers, Teena Marie, Bobby Caldwell, Randy Crawford, and many others.
Increasingly frustrated by playing other people’s music, Boney launched his own solo career with 1992’s Trust on the indie Spindletop Records. His subsequent 17 studio albums–including a pair of Christmas records–have been released by Warner Bros., Verve, and Concord, with 1995’s Seduction, 1997’s Sweet Thing, and 1999’s Body Language all RIAA-certified gold. In 2015, Boney’s futuresoulspent 11 weeks atop the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and was the best-selling Contemporary Jazz Record of 2015.
During his 30-year career, Boney has earned four Grammy nominations (“I’m not gonna lie... I’d still love a statue,” he says), two NAACP Image Award nominations, and a Soul Train Award, while a dozen of his albums have landed at #1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Album chart. His collaborators in the past include a who’s who of R&B and soul: Raheem DeVaughn, Faith Evans, George Benson, George Duke, Dwele, Al Jarreau, Philip Bailey, Anthony Hamilton, Jaheim, Eric Benét, Dave Hollister, Stokley Williams, Kenny Lattimore, and Angie Stone.
Detour, on Concord Records, is chart-topping jazz/R&B sax player Boney James’ 18th studio album. Appropriately titled, this latest album is a subtle stylistic turn that builds on the commercial success of 2020’s Solid, his highest charting release ever on the pop charts, peaking in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200.
“The urge to write again came from the joy of being back on the road, performing in front of live audiences,” explains Boney. “I had shut down creatively when the pandemic hit. It was the disruptive and disorienting detour we all took when the world locked down, and that’s reflected in the more experimental directions some of the new music takes. The thing about a detour, you may take a different route, but you still get to your destination.”
Lalah Hathaway
Lalah Hathaway is a 5x GRAMMY award-winning singer/songwriter and producer and 10-time nominee. Undeniable music royalty and a 30-year music industry veteran, Lalah's music transcends genre-from R&B ballads to pop standards and soulful jazz-she has collaborated with today’s top hitmakers, including Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Anderson. Paak, Robert Glasper, Rapsody, Snoop Dogg, and Esperanza Spalding. Lalah has also shared the stage with music legends, from Prince to StevieWonder to Herbie Hancock, and was recently decorated with an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. Lalah’s song "Show Me Your Soul,” from the hit documentary ‘Mr. Soul!,’ was featured on the Oscars 2021 shortlist for Best Original Song, and in December 2022, the video dropped for Lalah's new single ‘This Christmas’-a duet with her late father, Donny Hathaway, made from a previously unreleased version of his classic Christmas anthem.
Wine Tastings at Cain Park: BONEY JAMES & LAYLA HATHAWAY