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Who they are

• Jimbo James

  San Diego · 6 bookings since May 2024

  “Jimbo James harnessed the funk at an early age growing up in Chicago.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  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 lyrics. 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, a resurgence of underground dance music strikes California! Jimbo, along with his good friend Jon Dadon, throw a small, one-off party called Lovelife--booking Life and Death duo Thugfucker as their guests. The first event was a smash! That led to a second party, and then the third; nearly 10 years later, Jimbo James and Dadon are over 100 Lovelife parties deep! Notable guests over the years include Tale Of Us, Lee Burridge, Art Department, Visionquest, Lee Foss, Damian Lazarus, Skream, Blond:ish, tINI, DJ Tennis, Audiofly, andhim, Catz 'n Dogz, and the list goes on. Lovelife parties are known for their wild themes--from masquerades to pirate themed boat parties--each event is booked, curated, and promoted by Jimbo. 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 music he was so 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 Editor-in-Chief of MI4L, spearheading the blog's music programming and leading multiple contributors simultaneously, who write features and manage podcasts. He's booked artists like Claptone, Super Flu, Danny Daze, Amine Edge & DANCE, Riva Starr, Tiefschwarz, Till Von Sein, Matt Tolfrey, John Tejada, Chaim, and My Favorite Robot for the ever-growing Lovecast series, which recently surpassed 200 episodes; while Music is 4 Lovers SoundCloud page has surpassed 12,000,000 plays and counting. 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 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 over California and México. Since then, Jimbo has warmed up the dance floor for Visionquest, Riva Starr, Denney, Santé, German Brigante, Kenny Glasgow, De La Swing, Carlo Lio, Jonas Rathsman, Oliver Koletzki, Doorly, Noir, Jimpster, Russ Yallop, DJ T., Maxxi Soundsystem, Fur Coat, &ME, Tim Green, Francesca Lombardo, Kolombo, Yousef, and many more; he's also played a handful of popular festivals: Lightning in a Bottle x 5, The BPM Festival x 4, and Desert Hearts. After eight years of evert production and blog work, 2018 was a special year in the Jimbo James saga, as it marked the birth of Music is 4 Lovers record label. Jimbo spent the majority of 2017 planning the launch which features tunes from Supernova, Timo Mass, Mihai Popoviciu, Brett Johnson, Lee Curtiss, Fred Everything, The Revenge, My Favorite Robot, option4, Maxxi Soundsystem, Mad Villains, and Barbuto in MI4L's first six releases. Jimbo keeps his head down, grinding day in and day out, doing his part to contribute to the flourishing underground dance music industry and his band of Lovers around the world.
  SoundCloud ↗

  Recently at Laissez Faire, Public Roof, Outer Heaven · often with Gian-Paul, Haley's Kitchen, Ryan Crosson, none of them here that night

• SUN.NY

• Stello

  12 bookings since Aug 2023

  Recently at Superior Ingredients, The William Vale, Now & Then NYC · often with Belladonna, Kenzii Scott, Rebuke, none of them here that night

• Coastlines

  8 bookings since Nov 2023

  Recently at SILO, Superior Ingredients, Now & Then NYC · often with Oliver Smith, Michael Anthony, Nicolas Rada, none of them here that night