James Emery is an American jazz guitarist and composer born on December 21, 1951, in Youngstown, Ohio. Raised in Willoughby, he began playing organ at age six and took classical guitar lessons at eleven. During high school, Emery taught guitar at Bill DeArango’s music store. He studied at Cleveland State University in the late 1960s before moving to New York City in 1973. Emery performed with the Human Arts Ensemble and worked with musicians including Lester Bowie, George Lewis, and Leroy Jenkins. In 1977, he co-founded the String Trio of New York with Billy Bang and John Lindberg. Emery released the leader albums Artlife (1982) and Turbulence (1991). He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition in 1995. Emery subsequently released Fourth World (2001) and the 2023 album The Whisperers with Ivo Perelman. He collaborated with Muhal Richard Abrams and John Zorn.
