"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

James uses the Yamaha SVB-200 Silent Bass and
Gallien Kruger Amplification and Speaker systems exclusively.

If you are looking for free music downloads,
there are mp3 clips at the bottom of this page
and scattered throughout the site.

November 2008

Well, it finally happened, I got mugged in Oakland.  The guys got away with $37 and a debit card for a bank account that was overdrawn, but managed to break my jaw in two places in the process.  My doctors expect a full recovery, but for the time being, my jaw is wired shut and I am figuring out new and inventive ways to liquify my meals. 

However, I'm not letting a little thing like a broken jaw get in the way of the premiere of my new project, Rev. Jimmy and the Heavenly Knockers.  We will be playing a couple of Bay Area Shows:

Friday November 22nd - SF, CA - The Connecticut Yankee - 10 pm - sliding scale donation

Thursday December 4th - San Rafael, CA - 4th St Tavern - 10 pm - sliding scale donation

In addition, I am playing a few solo shows: I perform with bass loops and sparing vocals.  You can hear a couple of clips of this music right here and here. 

The Eric McFadden Trio has finally released our new CD, Delicate Thing.  Copies are available at our shows for the next couple of months until we can work out a distribution deal, but selected tracks and mp3's are available for download at our website.  Check out the upcoming shows page to see when we are coming near you.  "EMT [has] forever altered expectations of what live bands have the potential to sound like." --Nathan Anderson, The Orion (Chico, CA).

EMT is taking a little time off the road, but we will be heading out to the Southwest in December and will be playing New Year's Eve in Denver. 

James Whiton and the Downtown Apostles
R.I.P.

Unfortunately, the end has come for the Apostles.  Our extraordinary drummer, Jay Jaskot, has officially moved to New York City.  And congrats to Trumpet Player "Papa John" Fricke, the brand new father of a huge young four-week-old Mr. Brennan Fricke.  Bill Patton, our electric Gee-Tar player, continues to make delicate and beautiful music all around the Puget Sound.    

In case you didn't get to hear the band during their five year tenure, 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. It is soundscapes and thoughtful solos with 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. 

You can buy any of my available recordings through this website or email me for more info.

If you are in booking or promotion, my biography and press information is here.

You can listen to some mp3 clips from Rhythm & Motion right here:

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, which has full-length mp3's of 13 additional tracks from the studio sessions that resulted in "Rhythm & Motion," my solo album.  It's like your very own virtual album. Check it out!
Buy a Record through this website!