About JamesColah
James Colah is an experienced, professional Keyboard player/producer/arranger/composer with a credible and impressive history of achievement in the music industry.
James has worked for small production companies in the media, and larger national corporations including the BBC. Alongside this he worked with a range of high profile international professionals including: Edwin Starr, Ballet Rambert Dance Company, Virgin Recording, Sheena Easton, Haysi Fantaysi, Pendragon and EMI.
James has continued to develop as both a musician and musical producer.
The Early Years: He joined forces with his identical triplet brothers to form the band: The Colah’s, aged only 12 years old. The young talent was instantly appreciated by music moguls as the Colah’s were performing on a regular basis for charity and local gigs. By the age of 17, the Colah’s, with a track record of consistently impeccable and highly rated gigs and a firm fan base, began their first tour in Europe - while still at school but having time off allowed by their very understanding headmaster! Following on from this, the Colah’s wrote and produced the Rock Ballet ‘Fire Sermon’ which was subsequently performed by the Ballet Rambert Dance Company with excerpts being filmed for Thames Television Studios.
Upon leaving school, James and his identical triplet brothers turned professional and reached the semi finals of the Young Jazz Musicians of the Year competition, along with an accolade of other competitions which included: Vitavox Live Sound Award and EMI. James then decided to take a year out of working with his brothers and joined the classic soul group, 'The Foundations' touring throughout Europe and UK.
Next the Colah’s were signed up by SONY /CBS Records with a two year contract. The band released the record ‘Hesitation’ which entered the UK top 100 charts. With the band becoming increasingly interested in the production side of music, they co-wrote the hit single ‘It’s Not Fair’ with Edwin Starr. After the Colah’s disbanded, James came into his own, utilizing his experience he decided to set out as a freelance session musician. This resulted in a constant stream of gigs and recording sessions flooding in.
James spent 6 months working with Chrysalis Recording Artistes: ‘The Adventures’ and toured the USA and Canada supporting internationally acclaimed band: ‘Tears for Fears’. He then joined the progressive rock band: ‘Pendragon’ for a UK national tour. This was followed up by a further 6 months work with Virgin Recording Artistes ‘Frazier Chorus’ where he completed two UK tours.
The time was right to start up his own recording studio where he composed, programmed and produced songwriters and musicians from beginners to successful artists. He is known particularly for his arrangement and composition skills and building songwriters tracks up from just a melody line. He produces to a professional standard and many of his productions have been professionally released. He also published some of his studio work through his contract with Zomba. His philosophy for his collaborators is ‘ As long as you have a tune you can hum, I can make something great happen!”
James co-wrote and performed the title music for the BBC's, 'Terry Wogan's Friday Night Show' and was featured in the prestigious, 'Keyboard Player' magazine.
Since starting up his own studio, James has co-written, arranged, performed, produced and recorded songs for over 300 Artists. This has included a significant number of professional liaisons, including: writing, arranging, producing and performing songs for Touchwood (Chrysalis) recording artist - Kay Samuels. Singles released on Seal Records and songs with Dee Majek, released on PWT records. Further to this sessions have been completed for top producers including Gus Dudgeon who produced Elton John and Nicky Graham who produced Bros and the Colah's. Recordings have also been done with David and Carrie Grant of Fame Academy.
Over the years he has developed a vast library of compositions suitable for theme tunes, jingles and film/incidental music, specializing in soul/pop/dance music.
James has also done a large number of residency gigs which include: Empire Ballroom Leicester Square, Club de Luxe Dean Street, Toppers Hostess Club Soho, II Carretto Restaurant Streatham. He was the Musical Director of the band, 'Station to Station' performing throughout the UK.
Videos, TV and Media:
'The Colah's' for Sony records. Sheena Easton, Haysi Fantaysi, The Rhona Cameron show, for BBC 2 The Consumer Magazine Advert, for Sky and Channel 5. The Colah Triplets have done many photo shoots, including: Handspring Treo mobile phones.
'The life of the Colah Triplets' will be acknowledged in a feature article in the 'Daily Mail' newspaper!
James continues to maintain his standard of excellence by developing as a musician/composer/producer and has recently steered his talents into the genre of ' Smooth Jazz '.
He’s currently working on his first solo smooth jazz album release under the name of ‘The James Colah Project’ and to date has released ten highly successful singles:
Take Me Higher – The James Colah Project
Come with me – The James Colah Project
To be with you – The James Colah Project
Touched by the light – The James Colah Project
Better Days – The James Colah Project
Cha Cha Chiwawa – The Parlett-Colah project
Ocean Tide – The Parlett-Colah Project
Moment in Time – The Parlett-Colah Project
Blissful – The Parlett-Colah Project
Luna Stars – The Bobi-Colah Project
His smooth jazz and Soul music has enjoyed rave reviews and is on the playlists of hundreds of International radio stations around the world including the BBC, Jazz FM, Jimi King’s Sky.fm , smoothjazz.com and JazzNet247.com, to name a few. He has been a featured artist on many radio stations and websites around the world resulting in him doing radio interviews jingle production and voice-over id’s.
In April 2012, James was invited to perform as a special guest at Spaghettini’s, Seal Beach, CA, USA.
James was honored by winning the 2011 Coffee Talk Jazz Radio – International Songwriter Award.
‘Could It Be’ from ‘The James Colah Project has been voted one of the top three Soul tracks of the year by the legendary soul DJ Mike Shaft (BBC Manchester)
Cha Cha Chiwawa – The Parlett-Colah Project, reached #1 in the KjazzRadio UK chart - #1 in the 96.9 The Oasis radio chart - #1 in the cdbaby Latin Chart - #1 in the Smooth Jazz Chart - #1 in the Instrumental Chart - #1 in the Latin-Cha Cha Chart and #4 in the Jazz Chart .
Touched By The Light - The James Colah project reached #1 in the Kjazz Radio UK Chart.
Take Me Higher – The James Colah Project reached #1 in the cdbaby Smooth Jazz Chart - #1 in the Jazz Funk Chart - #1 in the Jazz Chart- #1 in the Kjazz Radio UK Chart.
Luna Stars – The Bobi-Colah Project, reached #1 in the cdbaby Contemporary Jazz Chart and #1 in the cdbaby Ambient Chart
Come with me – The James Colah Project, reached #1 in the cdbaby Lounge Chart - #2 in the cdbaby Smooth Jazz Chart - #4 in the cdbaby Instrumental Chart and #7 in the cdbaby Jazz Chart
Ocean Tide from The Parlett-Colah Project has made history for being the only song on the KJAZZ Radio UK ‘Top 10’ to have remained on the listener voted chart for over 6 months of which 6 weeks were at #1. Ocean Tide is a global hit as voted by the KJAZZ Radio UK global audience.
James has also recently teamed up again with Dee Majek to create a jazz funk project called KEJAM with huge success. Four highly successful singles have been released to date:’ Dystopia’ ‘Entropy’ ‘Gravity’ and ‘Radian’ with Dystopia reaching #1 in the cdbaby Jazz Funk chart and #7 in the Jazz-Jazz Piano Chart and Radian reaching #7 in the cdbaby Jazz Funk chart. ‘Radian’ is also on the #1 hit compilation album, ‘In Soul We trust 2’ and ‘Entropy’ is on the, ‘Sweet Summer Soul 2014’ compilation album.
James Colah reached #1 in the world and #1 in the National chart ranking on Reverbnation for his category of music, and #6 in the world chart ranking for all genres of music!
Email: jammy.c@hotmail.co.uk
Website: http://www.jamescolahproductions.com
http://www.facebook.com/jamescolahproductionsgb
http://twitter.com/JamesColah
YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesColah/videos