James Pasco Gourley, Jr. (June 9, 1926 – December 7, 2008) was an American jazz guitarist who spent most of his life in Paris.
Gourley was born in St. Louis in 1926. He met saxophonist Lee Konitz in Chicago when both were members of the same high school band. He credits Konitz with encouraging him to become a serious musician. Gourley's father started the Monarch Conservatory of Music in Hammond, Indiana, though he didn't teach, and he bought Gourley his first guitar.
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| Sacha Distel, Gourley & Henri Reymond |
Gourley took his first guitar classes at the school. He became interested in jazz while listening to the radio, enjoying in particular Nat King Cole. For his first professional experience as a performer, he dropped out of high school to play with a jazz band in Oklahoma City.
From 1944–1946, Gourley served in the U.S. Navy. After he returned to Chicago, he met guitarist Jimmy Raney and wanted to play like him. He worked in bars and clubs with Jackie Cain & Roy Kral, Anita O'Day, Sonny Stitt, and Gene Ammons. Through the G.I. Bill, he received tuition for three years to any college in the world.
Here's "North American Samba" from above album.
In April 1951, Gourley headed to Paris and enrolled in a music school. The event that likely convinced Gourley to remain in Paris was that in the jazz community in America, drugs were everywhere. "It was happening all around me. Guys dying or getting busted" said Gourley, a non-user. He was especially affected by the suicide of his good friend Ronnie Singer. In 1956, shortly back in the US, he worked with Anita O'Day.
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| Nathan Davis, Jimmy Gourley & Kenny Clarke |
By 1957, he relocated to Paris for the remainder of his life, working with Henri Renaud, Lou Bennett, Kenny Clarke, Richard Galliano, Stéphane Grappelli, Bobby Jaspar, Eddy Louiss, Martial Solal, and Barney Wilen. He played with American musicians who were passing through, including Bob Brookmeyer, Clifford Brown, Stan Getz, Gigi Gryce, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Bud Powell, Zoot Sims, Lucky Thompson, and Lester Young.
Gouley was a prolific recording artist as leader or sideman throughout the 60’s in Paris, Holland, Switzerland, London and Italy, up to the early 2000’s. In the early 1970s he ran his own club in the Canary Islands and in the 80’s Gourley returned to the U.S. to show his new bride New York City, and visit old friends in Los Angeles.
He appeared for a week at Bradley's, a piano club in the Village, and then went out to the West Coast where he appeared with Mundell Lowe at Donte's in North Hollywood. He visited the US to record in 1994 which was the year he eventually took French citizenship. In 1996 he toured the UK with guitarist Trefor Owen.
His last guitar recordings were in Paris 2004. He died on December 7, 2008 in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Val-de-Marne, France at the age of 82.
(Edited mainly from Wikipedia)