Tony St James

During his early years in high school Tony St. James, known then as Tony Williams, participated in Berkeley High School’s progressive jazz study program. With three other top players of the school, he competed and won various music festivals throughout the state, such as Reno, Diablo Valley, San Diego and others, finally to compete at the Monterey Jazz Festival. After winning the competition at Monterey three consecutive years, he received special honors from the Mayor of Berkeley for outstanding musicianship. Upon moving to Los Angeles from Oakland, Tony attended Dick Groves’ audio Engineering Workshop and Los Angeles Valley College. Shortly thereafter, he got hired as a drummer with Brazilian trombonist Raul DeSouza, whom “George Duke” had produced for Capitol Records. He has also drummed for artist such as Natalie Cole, George Benson, Denice Williams, Paul Jackson Jr., Johnny Britt, Philip Bailey, Patti Austin, Chaka Kahn and Chuck Berry just to name a few. Over the years he has recorded with artist such as; Patrice Rushen, Rodney Franklin, Les McCann, Jazz Crusaders, Frankie Beverly & Maze, and more. He has written songs for artist; Ron Brown for (Warner Discovery Records), “Yvonne Williams”, aka “Phyllis St. James” for (Motown Records) and “Silk” for (King Records, Japan). He also has a self released Christmas EP entitled, “That Special Time Of Year”. He also released a single and video called, Tony St James “Compared To What.” “Compared To What” is a classic song that was originally recorded and made popular in the late 1960’s by Les McCann and Eddie Harris. Tony revamped it with a funky sound of today’s Jazz, Hip-Hop, and R&B. The video can be viewed on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/jdVYYG--DgI Currently he has released two singles out called “Sky Dance” and “Let Me Play For You” which will also be on his upcoming CD entitled, “Collage”. Tony shares his talent and music throughout the worldwide community of artists, fans and friends.