James Hurt

Hurt had early training as a drummer.[1]

Hurt was a member of Sherman Irby's quartet that played regularly at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City in the late 1990s.[2] Gregory Tardy wrote a song after him, entitled "Mr. Hurt";[3] the pair played with Rashied Ali in 1999.[4]

In the 1990s, Hurt played on albums with Antonio Hart (Here I Stand),[5] Abbey Lincoln (Wholly Earth), and Russell Gunn.[6]

His own first album was Dark Grooves – Mystical Rhythms on Blue Note Records in 1999.[7][8] In a review of the album, James Lien of CMJ New Music Report called Hurt "one of the more adventurous young pianists to recently emerge on the New York scene."[9] Calvin Wilson of The Kansas City Star described the album as "at once boldly experimental and totally accessible."[10]

James has played with Elizabeth Kontomanou,[11] Graham Haynes,[12] DJ Logic,[13] and composer, percussionist, and conductor Adam Rudolph (as a percussionist),[14]

Hurt has made guest appearances with Donald Edwards,[15] Stacy Dillard,[15] and Rudresh Mahanthappa.[16]

Hurt has been a piano tutor at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.[17]

As leader

• Dark Grooves, Mystical Rhythms (Blue Note, 1999)

As sideman

• Russell Gunn, Gunn Fu (HighNote, 1997)
• Antonio Hart, Here I Stand (Impulse!/GRP, 1997)
• Sherman Irby, Full Circle (Blue Note, 1997)
• Sherman Irby, Big Mama's Biscuits (Blue Note, 1998)
• Abbey Lincoln, Wholly Earth (Verve/Gitanes Jazz, 1998)
• Russell Gunn, Love Requiem (HighNote, 1999)
• Jeffery Smith, Down Here Below (Verve, 1999)
• DJ Spinna, Here to There (Rapster, 2002)
• DJ Spinna, Outta Time featuring the Free Radikalz (Papa, 2004)
• DJ Spinna, Intergalactic Soul (Wonderwax, 2006)

• James at the Royal Family Ball @ Terminal 5, Jambands, October 18, 2010
• Cox, Gerard (March 8, 2004). "James Hurt and Marc Cary at The Jazz Gallery, 3/14/02". All About Jazz. Retrieved March 24, 2012.