Jimbo James harnessed the funk at an early age growing up in Chicago. The son of a badass bass player, young James was raised on groovy rock ‘n’ roll of the 80’s; bands like Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Little River Band, The Doobie Brothers, and Pablo Cruise shaped his taste. Jimbo studied classical music starting when he was 10 years old playing trumpet for the school band; which he continued to do up until he graduated high school. As a teenager, Jimbo also played drums for a handful of rock bands during the grunge heydays of the 90’s. Maturing into a young adult, Jimbo travelled west to San Diego in 1999; once in Cali he began producing hip hop beats and writing rhymes. He was influenced by the smooth rap music of OutKast; Goodie Mob; Hieroglyphics; Gang Starr; Living Legends; Twista; and of course California’s finest, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. During Jimbo’s early-twenties, 2002 or so, he lived with a DJ from Chicago who owned a wall-to-wall record collection of deep house music. The suave, melodic beats reminded him of the hip hop music he had grown to love; he spent hours in the kitchen fiddling on the turntables.

Fast-forward to 2011, the resurgence of underground house music strikes! Jimbo, along with friend DADON, throw a small, at the time, one-off party called Lovelife–booking Life and Death duo Thugfucker as their guests. The first event was a smash! That led to the second party, and then the third; five years later, it’s 2016 and Jimbo James and DADON are working on their 68th Lovelife party! Notable guests over the years include Art Department, Tale Of Us, Lee Burridge, Lee Foss, Damian Lazarus, Blond:ish, tINI, DJ Tennis, Audiofly, andhim, Catz ‘n Dogz, and the list goes on.

As Lovelife was taking off, DADON enlisted Jimbo James to assist in building his recently founded blog, Music is 4 Lovers. Jimbo thought contributing to MI4L was a great way to dig deeper into the tunes he was captivated by, and also educate party-goers in San Diego what house music was all about; he selected the pen name “jams” and got to work. Currently Jimbo is the Managing Editor of MI4L, spearheading the blog’s podcast programming and leading multiple contributors simultaneously. He’s booked artists like Claptone, Till Von Sein, Alex Niggemann, Matt Tolfrey, Animal Trainer, Doctor Dru, John Tejada, Digitaria, Phil Weeks, Russ Yallop, and Hanne & Lore for the ever-growing Lovecast series.

Jimbo James’ DJ career picked up speed after spending the summer of 2013 in Ibiza living and working with Miguel Campbell. There he honed in on his mixing skills by playing back-to-back with Miguel for hours on end at their private seaside villa. On the White Isle Jimbo also befriended Defected’s star producer Sonny Fodera. The two played together every Thursday night in a small club tucked away in San Antonio’s notorious maze of pub-filled alleyways, The West End. Jimbo James returned to Cali a new man after his four-month retreat in Ibiza. He hit the ground running; not only getting back to producing events but now DJing parties all around San Diego, Los Angeles, and México. Since then, Jimbo has warmed up the crowd for Laura Jones, Noir, Jimpster, Maxxi Soundsystem, Fur Coat, Mr.C, MANIK, Martin Roth, Francesca Lombardo, Kolombo, Droog, and Yousef; he’s also played a handful of popular festivals: Lightning in a Bottle, Woogie Weekend, Desert Hearts, and BPM.

Jimbo keeps his head down, grinding away day in and day out–doing his part to contribute to the flourishing music industry and his band of Lovers around the world. Now living in Los Angeles, the horizon is wide open and the opportunities are abundant for Jimbo James.

Jimbo mixes the 19th edition of the WCP. He keeps it minimal, melodic, and groovy–continuously building to the climatic final track. Enjoy!

West Coast Podcast 019: Jimbo James

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>> DOWNLOAD MIX HERE <<

Track List:
01) Bolumar – Es Vedra Sunset (Original Mix) [Act Natural Records]
02) Paul2Paul – The Test Tones (Original Mix) [Lowplay Sound]
03) Swoy – Nature (Original Mix) [M-Music]
04) Markus Homm – Open End (Original Mix) [Bondage Music]
05) J.Nandez – Paradise (Original Mix) [HOF Deep Mind]
06) Skai – Ready (Mihai Popoviciu Remix) [Re:Fresh Your Mind]
07) Cab Drivers – Taxi Funk (Original Mix) [Cabinet Records]
08) Samariter – Black Loops (Original Mix) [Neovinyl Recordings]
09) Subdued Kamel – Huspus Kamel (Original Mix) [Trunkfunk]
10) Nick Araguay – Murked Off (Original Mix) [Peur Bleue Records]

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jams
Jimbo James
Managing Editor

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