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James Slater
is a piano-playing bilingual singer-songwriter of
Bolivian-American descent. |
| Born in Durham, North
Carolina to a mandolin loving psychiatrist and a Spanish
speaking mother, they raised their son in the tropics of
the Panama Canal Zone in Central America. After circling
the globe his music has him residing in music-city
U.S.A., Nashville, Tennessee. After high school in
Panama James returned to America and was accepted to and
graduated from Florida's distinguished University of
Miami school of music which includes such notable alumni
as Bruce Hornsby and Pat Metheny. Fresh out of college
James hit the road with his band and after a memorable
trip to Hot Lanta, Georgia he penned the hit single "All
I Want From Santa, Is A Girl From Atlanta". This taste
of success found him packing his bags and his piano and
heading for the bright lights of Hollywood. "I always
wanted to see the world, and music takes you here,
there, and everywhere." |
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James with Carroll O'Connor (L) |
"I'm just glad my mother
made me take those piano lessons; I may have moaned back
then but now I thank her every day," says James. He
quickly met and befriended Carroll O'Connor, (Archie
Bunker) and became the house pianist at the Ginger Man
in Beverly Hills, entertaining Tinseltowns elite at
night and by day writing and recording his own
compositions, one of which caught the attention of
European promoters. James then found himself living in
Zurich, Switzerland where he wrote Don't Break My
Heart for BMG's supergroup Vaya Con Dios. This top ten
single enabled him to tour Europe and South Africa with
the band as composer, pianist, and vocalist. James says,
"I felt like a modern day Hemingway, walking the streets
of Paris, Rome, Berlin, it was a magical time."
After scoring several songs for
different European acts James signed a solo deal with
BMG-Switzerland and wrote the sensuous ballad
Poco A
Poco. Its timeless sentiment became instantly popular
and he found himself touring England, Germany,
Switzerland, and Spain. He performed in Dublin, Ireland
with Celtic Harmony and in Havana, Cuba with the
historic Bridges Over Troubled Water alongside Burt
Bacharach, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers and many other
luminaries. James says Cuba was an awesome experience,
vibrant, sensuous, inspiring and totally captivating.
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James and his grand
piano now live in the songwriting mecca known as
Nashville, Tennessee. "I've come full circle, back to
the South where I was born, and I love it!" He is signed
to Byron Gallimore's Song Garden/Cal IV publishing
company and has had songs recorded by Martina McBride,
Tim McGraw, Lorrie Morgan, Mark Wills, Jessica Andrews,
Billy Gilman, Marcel and many others. His song
In My
Daughters Eyes has become a crossover classic and even
resulted in a Grammy nomination.
James will be debuting his new CD Key West Address at
the 2007 Key West Songwriting Festival May 2 through the
6th in Key West, Florida.
James continues to perform in Nashville and around the
world, practices the piano everyday, loves Cuban food,
salsa dances, plays tennis and still finds time to call
his parents regularly and thank them for piano lessons. |
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