jim roberts’ diverse background has lead him to a lifetime of ethnic and multi-cultural musical explorations. major stylistic influences include west africa, cuba, brazil, americana, and pop cultures. his passion has been to cross different combinations of ethnic percussion with different genres of music. in the summer of 2006, jim was on the faculty of the american dance festival in durham, nc and has accompanied dance starting in 1986. presently serves on the percussion faculty for elon university where he teaches applied percussion and a world percussion ensemble. in the fall of 2007, jim's work, “paparazzi”, was choreographed by lauren kearns, in her work, catching. she is the department coordinator for elon university.
highlights in his career include recording and/or performing with flecktones bassist, victor wooten (on what did he say, yin yang,bass extremes, taylor guitar sounds of wood and steel 2), royél (a.k.a. futureman) and indigenous planet (the seamless script). jim has also toured with the chuck davis african-american dance ensemble performing west african djembe music and has performed with the dc based cuban-american group, havana select. jim performed with billy dean on the 1996 reba mcentire tour and on the grand ol’ opry. in 1991, jim studied in senegal and the gambia, west africa.
for the past 6 years, jim has produced and performed on 6 albums, including three projects of his own. these include cape town, waka waka, with south african singer, paul petersen, two traditions, a live studio recording with the horse flies and ancient hand, tranze is the dance current projects include producing, the new footloose cd, trip to the moon. beth nielsen chapman released yemaya (ancient hand) on her cd, “prism”.
jim holds bm and mm degrees in percussion performance/education from east carolina university and northern illinois university and an audio engineering degree from sae, institute of technology.
