The Jazz Organ Scene

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James Polk James (*1940 in Yoakum, TX) was a Jazz-, Funk- and Soul musician, who playd various instruments (piano, organ, bass, sax, trombone). He grew up in Corpus Christi, TX. The child of piano-playing parents, Polk received violin lessons in elementary school and played trombone in the Coles High School band. As a 13-year-old blues pianist, he first performed at the Green Frog Lounge in Corpus. He also played bass, and so well that Lionel Hampton took him on a world tour. The tours began in 1968 at the HemisFair in San Antonio when Hampton's regular bassist didn't show up, so Hampton recruited James from the club's house band. He was also a skilled saxophone player, but the keyboard was his primary instrument.   In early 1959, James moved to Austin to attend Huston-Tillotson College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in music education in 1962. He then completed postgraduate studies at Texas A & I University in Kingsville and at the University of Texas in Austin.   James founded the Twink label to release his records. However, he withdrew from the music business again in 1973 to work full-time for IBM. He missed playing, though, and when younger musicians approached him, he began performing on weekends in 1975 and full-time the following year. James was also a member of the popular Blue Crew. James and the experimental accordionist Bob Sardo were considered the two most prolific bandleaders of the Austin jazz scene of the 1960s. His 1960s soul band, James Polk and the Brothers played weekends at the Hideaway Club on Austin's East 19th Street. He formed The Brothers in the early 1970s with Lubbock-born singer Angela Strehli, guitarist John X. Reed, and bassist Don Lupo.   From 1977 to 1986, James left Austin to play organ for Ray Charles In 1979, he received a Grammy nomination for Best Arrangement of the song "Some Enchanted Evening" on Ray Charles' album Ain't It So. In 1983, he played and arranged music for Sara Jordan Powell's gospel album, among other projects. In 1985, he received a second Grammy nomination for his arrangement of "I Wish You Were Here Tonight" for Ray Charles' Christmas album The Spirit of Christmas.   After ten years in Los Angeles, where Ray Charles lived, James returned to Austin and resumed his involvement in the club scene. Austin's jazz scene was popular in the mid- to late 1970s.   James made numerous television and film appearances and also produced an album titled You Know The Feeling. At his last club performance, James played the Hammond B-3 organ with saxophonist Elias Haslanger in the group Church on Monday at the Continental Gallery, a collaboration that lasted more than a decade.   James was a teacher and music director at Booker T. Washington High School in Elgin after graduating in 1962. In the 1990s, he was assistant director of jazz studies at Southwest Texas State College before it became Texas State University. He retired from there in 2006. He received an honorary doctorate from Houston-Tillotson University in 1995. James died in 2024.   from Wikipedia

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