James Anthony Walker is a master at blending a wide array of influences into one cohesive whole: from the structured avant-garde to warm, unstructured new age ambiences.

The instrumental palette he uses is incredibly wide: from classical orchestral sounds, to vocal and choral textures, to totally fresh sounds of his own design.

Major influences on the way to his own unique voice have ranged from Luciano Berio and Ralph Shapey, to Frank Zappa, and have covered a lot of ground in between.

A classically-trained composer, he brings his own extremely personal, intense vision to all of his music . . . regardless of the medium. What distinguishes his sound today is its ability to touch, directly and simply.

James Anthony Walker withdrew all existing work from circulation in 1985 for personal and artistic reasons. In addition to his currently available Christmas release, his first new releases in 20 years are forthcoming within the next 12 months.

Angels Everywhere

James Anthony Walker grew up and still resides in the Chicago area. After many, many years there - he still likes the changing of the seasons - and Chicago still has most of them intact . . .

Music has always been, in some vital and very personal way, central to his life . . . even from an early age, when he first took up flute (that didn't work for very long), then trumpet, and then the beginning of what has become a lifelong fascination with the promise of electronic instruments.

Angels have been with him his entire life . . . from an early childhood when he contracted polio, and survived it unscathed (before the vaccine was available) - to this very day.

In between those times, a lot of high school influences - the beginnings of a joy in writing and arranging for choral groups, a joy in performing folk music (whatever happened to that?), singing in a barbershop quartet, listening for the first time to Bartok, and of course - the turmoil and challenge to authority that the 60's and early 70's brought, and from which there is no turning back.

Undergraduate studies at Boston University as a Music Composition major began a period of intense investigation and involvement with electronics of all sorts. It was a time of working with things that really didn't work very well at first - Moog, ARP and Buchla synthesizers - where for a while the biggest challenge was in keeping them all in tune . . .

Graduating with honors, James headed back home as a full-blown Teaching Fellow at The University of Chicago, where he acted as their first Electronic Music Studio director, while pursuing his Master's degree in Music Composition.

Throughout the entire period of his formal studies, he has been blessed by working closely with no less than four Pulitzer Prize winners. A major challenge in the intervening years has been to try to forget most of what he was taught . . . and just write what works for him.

After The U of C, a major shift into the business world, working for a number of years as Director of Marketing for Gibson Guitars.

Since the sale of that company in the 80's, James has continued his business career, focusing on how he could best make a difference, and how that could happen by taking advantage of the emergence of digital tools. His greatest strength has been his ability to build teams that can understand, develop and deliver a clear, cohesive vision.

Today, a primary focus for him in business is in developing multimedia for a variety of clients. In music, it is a joy from seeing digital technology become a tool that can finally deliver a very personal, nuanced message. Dozens of projects, highly-synchronized music to video - are a trademark of his productions. Clients have ranged from Harley-Davidson, to Precious Moments - and have covered a lot of ground in between.

On the non-technical side, one of his greatest joys has been the birth of his daughter Savannah, now 10 . . . and who seems to have inherited a huge amount of character and attitude . . . from somewhere. Go figure . . .

Another has been the undying faith, support and love of his partner Linda. Without that, the beginnings of a personal re-birth, and a re-focus on composing . . . may never have happened.

Indeed . . . angels everywhere.