"A virtuoso of acoustic upright double bass, Whiton slaps, bows, maneuvers, and manipulates his instrument with orchestral precision and street-corner desperation." -Silke Tudor, SF Weekly




photo by Cody Molica


James endorses the Yamaha SVB-200 Silent Bass, D'Addario Strings and
Gallien Kruger Amplification and Speaker Systems.

September 2011: I'm pleased to announce that the new Tom Waits album Bad As Me will be released on October 25th, presumably with my bass notes gracing several tracks...I've already ordered my advance copy (and you should, too).  

I also put some of my bass notes on Eric McFadden's new cd Bluebird on Fire, featuring Dave Schools and Paulo Baldi, among many others.   

New Clips posted: I have been asked a few times to post some of my solo material: it is bass loops with sparing vocals and is, according to one reviewer, "beautiful, unexpected and mesmerizing."  I finally posted a couple of mp3 clips here and here... 
below is a video filmed by John Sawyer at Cafe Van Kleef in Oakland of a short but piquant bass solo during an EMT show.

The Eric McFadden Trio's most recent release Delicate Thing  is available at our website, on itunes, Amazon, CDBaby and at shows. 
Selected tracks are also available for free download at http://www.ericmcfadden.com  
"EMT [has] forever altered expectations of what live bands have the potential to sound like." --Nathan Anderson, The Orion (Chico, CA)

James Whiton and the Downtown Apostles

The Downtown Apostles are best described by contradiction; they paint dark and colorful sonic landscapes with sophisticated and neanderthal music. Their sound is heavy and delicate, sultry and refined, hypnotic and jarring: soundscapes and thoughtful solos with sparing spoken word vocals.  I've been comparing the band to Tom Waits, Black Sabbath, Miles Davis, early Pink Floyd and Soul Coughing. 
See the Downtown Apostles page for more details
Here are some streaming Mp3's from the Downtown Apostles CD The Way Your Mouth Moves:

Bb Sunset                

Higher                      



You're the Only One


Some clips from my album Rhythm & Motion:
Billy's Bass A funky, wah-pedal bowed double bass solo (1.4 megs)
Marvin Part of an R&B tune starring Mr. John Oliver on vocals (1.5 megs)
Autumn Raine A Flugelhorn solo by Dave Carter from a delicate jazz ballad (1.5 megs)
Gospel acc. to James A sighting of the rare and elusive double bass head (946 Kb)
Bus Driver Bill Jones takes a kick-ass clean trumpet solo over the funky funky band (1.4 megs)
If you want to hear more of my music, there is an Outtakes page: 13 additional tracks from the sessions that resulted in "Rhythm & Motion"