Cecil Edwin James was a prominent English bassoonist born in London to a musical family. His father Wilfred (1878-1941) was a bassoonist in the Queen's Hall Orchestra and professor at the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

. His uncle Edwin (1861-1921), also a fine bassoonist, was a founding member of the London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

 in 1904. His uncle Frank was second trumpet with the BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...

.

Cecil studied with his father, won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. There, in 1933, he performed the Mozart Concerto with Orchestra and shortly after was appointed to the London Symphony Orchestra. It was there he met oboist Natalie Caine

Natalie Caine

Natalie Caine, was one of the first female woodwind players to establish themselves in leading British orchestras. She is frequently referred to by her married name Natalie James....

 whom he married in 1938. During the war, he played with the Royal Air Force Central Band alongside such luminaries as Gareth Morris

Gareth Morris

Gareth Charles Walter Morris was a British flautist. He was the principal flautist of a number of London orchestras including the Boyd Neel Orchestra before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was the principal flautist of this orchestra for 24 years and Professor of the Flute at the Royal...

, Leonard Brain, Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain was a British virtuoso horn player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public...

, Norman del Mar

Norman Del Mar

Norman Del Mar CBE was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialized in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He left a great legacy of recordings of British music, in particular Elgar, Vaughan Williams,...

, Harry Blech, Fred Grinke, Leonard Hirsch, Jim Merrett and James Whitehead.

When demobbed, he joined the New Symphony, then in 1951 was appointed by Walter Legge

Walter Legge

Harry Walter Legge was an influential English classical record producer, most notably for EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior...

 as principal bassoonist with the Philharmonia Orchestra

Philharmonia Orchestra

The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...

, playing under such conductors as Guido Cantelli

Guido Cantelli

Guido Cantelli was an Italian orchestral conductor.-Biography:Born in Novara, Italy, Cantelli was named Musical Director of La Scala, Milan on 16 November 1956 but his promising career was cut short only one week later by his death at the age of 36 in an aircraft crash in Paris, France.Cantelli...

, Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...

, Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...

, Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer

Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...

 and Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...

.

He also in demand for inclusion in chamber groups such as Karl Haas

Karl Haas (conductor)

Karl Wilhelm Jacob Haas , musician, musicologist and conductor, was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, where he studied at the Classical College, then at the Universities of Munich and Heidelberg....

's London Baroque Ensemble and the Dennis Brain Quintet, usually with musicians he admired, such as his wife Natalie, Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain was a British virtuoso horn player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public...

, Wilfred Parry and, especially, fellow bassoonist Paul Draper.

Cecil's instrument, a Buffet-Crampon bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

 which had been presented to his father by the makers, was made to the French 'Buffet' pattern - quite distinct from those of the more modern German 'Heckel' system which he derided as 'mumblephones', but were clearly taking over as instruments of choice. He always made his own reeds.

He never took pupils; he probably lacked the patience - his irascible temper was legendary, though he mellowed a little with age and the desire to promote use of antique instruments.

Sources

• Obituary The Independent
  The Independent
  The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
  
  
• Biography Gareth Morris for The Double Reed
• Obituary William Waterhouse for The Double Reed