James has been photographing and writing about the San Francisco Bay Area jazz scene since 2002 after attending the Monterey Jazz Festival for his first time. His writing has been featured online on Jazz Review and Blogcritics. His photographs have been featured in the SF Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, Visiting Oakland Tourist Guide and album covers and for local and national jazz musicians. He is also a contributing photographer for Cuisine Noir Magazine and SFJAZZ.
His jazz photography has been exhibited at the San Francisco Main Public Library (2007), The Jazzschool in Berkeley (2008) , Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose (2010) for Jazz Appreciation Month, San Leandro Public Library (2010) and Berkeley Public Library (2011).
James received awards for his photo submissions in the Visiting Oakland Photo Contest in 2010 and 2011.
He credits love for jazz and photography to his parents, Ritson and Elizabeth Knox.
His work can be seen at http://www.j-notes.com and http://www.pixelbarry.com.
I had the pleasure of meeting spoken word artist Joyce Lee when she recently performed with singer Valerie Troutt at Yoshi’s San Francisco. Her performance was spectacular.
Ernestine told her band, “Play like you had the blues last night.” That is exactly what they did.
