James Windsor-Wells

Eclectic drummer with extensive tour experience lays the foundation for countless bands and commercials.

James Windsor-Wells

James was born in Palo Alto California in 1982. When he was 18, he moved to Southern California, where he studied with Jeff Hamilton and Kei Akagi as a music major at UCI. While he was deeply influenced by his teachers, James was restless and felt confined by the small music scene of Southern California. After two years at UCI, he transferred to NYU in New York City. At NYU, he studied with Tony Moreno, Dave Pietro, Adam Nussbaum, Billy Hart, Ari Hoenig, Memo Acevedo, Ron McClure, and Mike Richmond and played and performed with George Garzone, Ralph Alessi, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, John Scoffield, Lenny Pickett, the Heath Brothers and Teo Macero. Since graduating from NYU, James has been playing extensively. He can be seen in the groups Sadred, Hans Blix, Nook, the Suite Unraveling, and other jazz and rock groups. With these groups he has toured the East Coast, California and Costa Rica. For Hans Blix's recent album, James wrote a blog entry for Modern Drummer explaining the recording process. He has also begun to write music, and writes for his jazz groups and has composed music for some short films. He has extensive experience recording drum tracks for comercials and movies. He is an experienced teacher of music (both privately and in the classroom), and has participated in teaching classes at Lincoln Center.