Anthony James Baker Looking Ahead CD

' I try to do that when I write," James said. "I try to write songs with tons of ambiguity and other songs that are completely straight forward. But they're always honest and almost always stemming from a personal event." Born in southeast Iowa, and currently based out of the state's cultural hub, Iowa City, James is doing everything in his power to make certain his music develops into a lifestyle rather than just a passion. James graduated from the University of Iowa last May with a degree in finance, which he hopes to never use. The degree hangs from his wall in his apartment, partly as a symbol of pride, but mostly as a reminder that he'd rather be sitting down at his keyboard than a desk. James began his music career as a classically trained opera singer. In the summer of 2002, James toured for a month through seven countries in Europe with the University of Nebraska Choir .. a school he chose not to attend despite a music scholarship offer. James has since developed ...

' And she may very well be right. Growing up in Miami, hearing her mother sing at the Eden Roc and Fountainebleau, and listening as her musician father played the canon of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in jazz clubs across the country, the road map of her musical tastes began to come almost imperceptibly together. And you can hear it all in this collection of songs, on a route that stretches from a palm-lined causeway connecting Miami to South Beach and its famed Latin Quarter nightclub, to its terminus in New York's Harlem at the legendary Cotton Club. From the bold proclamation of "When ...