Elana James
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and vocalist.
Biography
James grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas and began playing SuzukiSuzuki method
The Suzuki method is a method of teaching music that emerged in the mid-20th century.-Background:The Suzuki Method was conceived in the mid-20th century by Shin'ichi Suzuki, a Japanese violinist who desired to bring beauty to the lives of children in his country after the devastation of World War II...
violin at age four. Her mother is a professional violinist who used to play in the Kansas City Symphony
Kansas City Symphony
The Kansas City Symphony is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The current home of the Symphony is the Lyric Theatre, located in Downtown Kansas City on 11th Street between Wyandotte and Central Streets...
.
James graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Comparative Religion from Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
while studying violin and viola at the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
as a student of Lucie Robert and Karen Ritscher
Karen Ritscher
Karen Ritscher is an American musician and academic.She is currently on faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory and has taught and performed extensively throughout the United States.Ms...
. She studied improvisation and swing fiddle with Marty Laster in New York City and, in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, studied Dhrupad
Dhrupad
Dhrupad is a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition. Its name is derived from the words "dhruva" and "pada"...
, an early form of North Indian Classical music, with Pandit Vidhur Malik in Vrindavan
Vrindavan
Vrindavan also known as Vraj is a town in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India...
, India.
James is a former Managing Editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review is an independent, nonsectarian Buddhist quarterly magazine established in 1991 by Helen Tworkov. Published by The Tricycle Foundation out of New York City, most issues have interviews with Buddhist teachers, articles or essays on Buddhism and contemporary issues, book...
. In the early 1990s she worked as a horse packer and wrangler at the Home Ranch in Clark, Colorado
Clark, Colorado
Clark is an unincorporated town and U.S. Post Office in Routt County, Colorado, United States. The Clark Post Office has the ZIP Code 80428....
and played fiddle in the ranch's cowboy band. James is an alumnus of the Meadowmount School of Music
Meadowmount School of Music
The Meadowmount School of Music, founded in 1944 by Ivan Galamian, is a 7-week summer school in Westport in Upstate New York for accomplished young violinists, cellists, violists, and pianists training for professional careers in music. The students are required to practice for at least five hours...
, the New York Youth Symphony
New York Youth Symphony
The New York Youth Symphony is a tuition-free music organization for youth in New York City. Its programs include its flagship symphony orchestra, Chamber Music program, Jazz Band Classic, Apprentice Conducting, and Making Score. Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age...
, the Columbia University Chamber Music Program, the New York String Orchestra Seminar with Alexander Schneider
Alexander Schneider
Alexander Schneider was a violinist, conductor, and educator. Born in Vilna, Lithuania, he later moved to the United States as a member of the Budapest Quartet.- Biography :...
and the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Musical Career
Elana Jaime Fremerman met guitarist Whit Smith in 1994 and they played together for some years, later adding Jake Erwin, a slap bass player, and forming Hot Club of Cowtown. The group plays a mix of country swing in the style of Bob WillsBob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
and Milton Brown
Milton Brown
Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing"...
combined with gypsy inspired jazz in the style of guitarist Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
and violinist Stephane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
. The band's name refers to the Hot Club of France and either (or both) Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
or Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, both cities known as "Cowtown."
James toured with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
in 2005, the first dedicated female instrumentalist to be included in his touring band in over 30 years (James came to Dylan's attention when The Hot Club of Cowtown
The Hot Club of Cowtown
The Hot Club of Cowtown is a hot jazz/western swing trio, comprising; Elana Fremerman , Whit Smith , and slap bass player Jake Erwin, who also sing in three-part harmony...
, her Western swing trio, opened for him and Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
during a joint tour of historic baseball parks in the Summer of 2004). She briefly joined Dylan's band in 2005 on a tour with Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
, Bob Dylan, and Amos Lee
Amos Lee
Amos Lee is an American singer-songwriter whose musical style encompasses folk, rock and soul. Lee has four albums on Blue Note Records and has toured as an opening act for Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Paul Simon, Merle Haggard, Van Morrison, John Prine, Dave Matthews Band and Adele. In...
, as the first dedicated female instrumentalist to play in Dylan's touring band since Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera is an American violinist. She is best known for her work with Bob Dylan, in particular on his album Desire and as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue.-Early career:...
in the early 1970s.
The Hot Club of Cowtown separated in 2005. Around this time, Fremerman changed her name to Elana James and released her debut CD, Elana James, forming a trio called Elana James and the Continental Two, featuring Beau Sample (formerly of Cave Catt Sammy) on bass and Luke Hill, on guitar. She joined Dylan again in 2006 as his opening act on another historic ballparks tour also featuring Junior Brown
Junior Brown
Jamieson "Junior" Brown is an American country guitarist and singer. He has released nine studio albums in his career, and has charted twice on the Billboard country singles charts. Brown's signature instrument is the "guit-steel" double neck guitar, a hybrid of electric guitar and lap steel...
and Jimmie Vaughan
Jimmie Vaughan
James Lawrence "Jimmie" Vaughan is an American blues rock guitarist and singer from Dallas, Texas, United States. He is the older brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan....
.
From 2005 through 2008, James played with Cindy Cashdollar
Cindy Cashdollar
Cindy Cashdollar is a steel guitar and Dobro artist. She grew up in Woodstock, New York where she perfected her skills by playing with bluegrass musician John Herald, blues musician Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band.Cashdollar received five Grammy awards while playing...
and Redd Volkaert
Redd Volkaert
Redd Volkaert was a successor to Roy Nichols in Merle Haggard's backing band, and is "among the country’s top Telecaster guitar slingers.". Volkaert won a 2009 Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance.-External links:* *...
in a trio known as the High Flyers, appearing on A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
and in various clubs, especially in the Austin area.
During this time James also sat in with Heybale, a group including Redd Volkaert, Earl Poole Ball, Tom Lewis, Kevin Smith and Gary Claxton, with other musicians sitting in at different times, including Cindy Cashdollar and Erik Hokkanen
Erik Hokkanen
Erik Hokkanen is a fiddler, electric guitar player, and composer living in Austin, Texas.Born into a musical family, Erik began his musical training at age four on piano. Over the following years, he learned mandolin, guitar, and string bass...
.
In 2008 The Hot Club of Cowtown
The Hot Club of Cowtown
The Hot Club of Cowtown is a hot jazz/western swing trio, comprising; Elana Fremerman , Whit Smith , and slap bass player Jake Erwin, who also sing in three-part harmony...
, with James, guitarist Whit Smith and bassist Jake Erwin re-formed, and has continued touring and recording. In 2008, the band released The Best of the Hot Club of Cowtown, followed by Wishful Thinking in 2009, and in 2011, a collection of Western swing songs made popular by legendary Texas bandleader Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
, What Makes Bob Holler. James also teaches fiddle workshops from time to time, and has released a instructional video on fiddling, Elana James's Hot Fiddle: Introduction to Violin Improvisation.
She has been a featured guest on A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
, the Grand Ol’ Opry, the Women in Jazz series at Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
, and at festivals and concerts throughout the world, including the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
in England, the Fuji Rock Festival
Fuji Rock Festival
Fuji Rock Festival is an annual rock festival held in Naeba Ski Resort, in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The 3 day event, organized by Smash Japan, features more than 200 Japanese and international musicians, making it the largest outdoor music event in Japan...
in Japan, Australia’s East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival
East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival
The East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, also known as Byron Bay Bluesfest, is an annual music festival held for five days over the Easter long weekend at Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia...
, the Rochester Jazz Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, or HSB for short is an annual free music festival held the first weekend of October in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. From its outset, the festival has been subsidized by San Francisco venture capitalist Warren Hellman. The first festival was held in 2001, originally...
Festival the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage and the Cambridge Folk Festival
Cambridge Folk Festival
The Cambridge Folk Festival is an annual music festival held on the site of Cherry Hinton Hall in Cherry Hinton, one of the villages subsumed by the city of Cambridge, England. The festival is renowned for its eclectic mix of music and a wide definition of what might be considered folk. It occurs...
. In 2004 she was inducted, with her Hot Club band mates, into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame.
Solo
- Elana James CD (2007)
- "Elana James's Hot Fiddle: Introduction to Violin Improvisation"' DVD (2011)
With The Hot Club of Cowtown
- Swingin' StampedeSwingin' StampedeSwingin' Stampede is the all-cover debut album of hot jazz/western swing group The Hot Club of Cowtown.-Track listing:#"If I Had Someone Else" – 2:52#"Silver Dew on the Blue Grass Tonight" – 3:04...
(1998) Hightone - Tall Tales (1999) Hightone
- Dev'lish Mary (2000) Hightone
- Hot Jazz (Japanese release, 2002) Buffalo
- Hot Western (Japanese release, 2002) Buffalo
- Ghost Train (2003) Hightone
- Continental Stomp (live) (2003) Hightone
- Four Dead Batteries Soundtrack (2005) Hightone
- Best of the Hot Club of Cowtown (2008) Shout! Factory
- Wishful Thinking (2009) Gold Strike
- What Makes Bob Holler (2010) Proper American
Additional credits
- Dave Stuckey: Get a Load of This! (2000)
- Lullabies from the Axis of EvilLullabies from the Axis of EvilLullabies from the Axis of Evil is an album collecting traditional lullabies sung by women from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea , as well as Syria, Libya, and, Cuba , plus Afghanistan and Palestine, mixed with Western performers singing translated versions of the songs.It was conceived by Norwegian...
(2004) - Bob Dylan: Tell Ol' Bill (from North CountryNorth Country (film)North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by Niki Caro. The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, which chronicled the case of...
Soundtrack) (2005) - Willie NelsonWillie NelsonWillie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
/Ray Price/Merle HaggardMerle HaggardMerle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
: Last of The Breed (2007)