From college onward, James amassed an incredibly broad range of musical experience. He was musical director for shows, performed in nightclubs, concerts and contributed to more than fifty albums.
Moving to Chicago he began a career as a piano teacher and he taught at Paul Renard’s Music Dynamics, a program learning approach to keyboard sight-reading. He continued to arrange and accompany singers, including Denise Tomasello and eventually added a solo act to his repertoire.
All of this led to job as pianist at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago that lasted nearly sixteen years. In that venue he performed for countless celebrities and famous politicians, sports figures, film stars and business giants. During that time he recorded four albums of solo piano music.