James "Hutch" Hutchinson (born January 24, 1953) is an American session bassist best known for his work with Bonnie Raitt. Though his work takes him nearly everywhere he primarily resides in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, and Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii.
Hutchinson has worked on hundreds of recordings, films and television shows and with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Bryan Adams, Ryan Adams, Jackson Browne, Ruth Brown, Charles Brown, Al Green, B. B. King, Earl King, The Neville Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Ringo Starr, Ziggy Marley, Ozzy Osbourne and many more.
Contents
Career
Early years
Hutchinson attended some classes at Berklee College of Music in the late 1960s. He always had an affinity for music and practiced various instruments as a child. After seeing Wilson Pickett's band, at age 12, he focused on the bass. His talent and drive allowed him the opportunity to play in a variety of New England bands throughout high school.
With his mother's blessing, he moved to San Francisco after completing high school. He eventually met John Cipollina (of Quicksilver Messenger Service) and Mickey Hart (of the Grateful Dead). Hutchinson joined Cipollina's band, Copperhead in 1972. He recorded an album with them in 1973 on Columbia Records. The band broke up in 1974. Later, he played in Link Wray's band with Copperhead drummer, David Weber, and performed with in a short lived project with both Wray and Cipollina.
Breakthrough
While living in Guatemala, Hutchinson worked in a multitude of Central American studios. He and violinist Sid Page formed a Latin jazz fusion group called The Point. After he brought the band to Austin, Texas, they would win Jazz Group of the year at the Austin Music Awards in 1977.
Meanwhile, in Austin in 1975, he was introduced to The Meters by a mutual friend. He later got a call from Charles and Art Neville about playing with their new band. He then moved to New Orleans and joined The Neville Brothers Band. While playing with the Neville Brothers on the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You tour (1981), he started a friendship with former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan (who was then playing with The Rolling Stones) who shortly thereafter introduced him to Bonnie Raitt in New Orleans in 1982. He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and joined her band after her previous bassist left days before a tour. He has been playing and recording with her ever since, contributing to every recording of hers since Nine Lives.
In 1992, while working in the studio with Bryan Adams in Paris, Hutchinson was invited by producer Don Was and Mick Jagger to head to Ron Wood's farm and studio in County Kildare, Ireland, to play and work on demos for the Voodoo Lounge record which he did as reported in the New York Post.
Later years
In 2006, Hutchinson was featured along with drummer Jim Keltner on the Jerry Lee Lewis recording Last Man Standing. Later that year he played shows with Bonnie Raitt opening for the Rolling Stones in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia.
On February 2, 2009, he performed as bassist and co-music director (along with Chuck Leavell) at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, with an all-star band featuring Leavell, Stones sax man Bobby Keys, drummer Kenny Aronoff and Buddy Holly/Bob Wills guitarist Tommy Allsup at the Rock and Roll hall Of Fame's "50 Winters Later" concert in tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.
During the summer of 2009, Hutchinson joined BK3, a band led by Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and completed a tour with them. During the summer and fall of 2009, he toured with Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal playing with both artists on The BonTaj Roulet tour.
In 2010, he completed a North American tour with the Hawaiian band Hapa, starting with them at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on St. Patrick's Day 2010 and finishing on April 17 that year at The Maui Arts and Cultural Center.
On April 10, 2011, he, Willie Nelson, Mick Fleetwood, Michael McDonald, and Patrick Simmons performed together, along with Hawaiian artists Jack Johnson, Jake Shimabukuro, Cecilio & Kapono, and many others on The Great Lawn of the Hawaiian Gardens in Honolulu at the benefit, Kokua For Japan, raising $1.6 million for the American Red Cross and survivors of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster in Japan.
On August 13, 2013, Hutchinson, along with drummer Steve Gadd
was featured at the Paia Jam in Paia, Maui. In late October 2013, once again between legs of Raitt's Slipstream tour, Hutchinson along with Ricky Fataar returned to Hawaii for a pair of Halloween-themed shows with Allen Toussaint.
In July 2014, after finishing Raitt's summer tour, Hutchinson appeared on a number of west and east coast dates with Pegi Young and her band the Survivors (featuring Muscle Shoals writer and keyboard man Spooner Oldham) culminating with an appearance at the 2014 Newport Folk Festival. On October 25/26, 2014, he appeared again with Pegi Young and the Survivors at the Bridge School Benefit concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre. The same year, he also featured on Neil Diamond's Melody Road, Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne (w/David Lindley and Bonnie Raitt), Jerry Lee Lewis's Rock and Roll Time, and the Grouch & Eligh's The Tortoise and the Crow.
Influences
Some of Hutchinson's main influences are Percy Heath, Paul Chambers, Chuck Rainey, Carl Radle, Klaus Voormann, Tommy Cogbill, Rick Danko, George Porter Jr., John Entwistle, Carol Kaye, and Jack Casady.