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, CA and Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii.
Hutchinson has worked on hundreds of recordings, films and TV shows and with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Ryan Adams, Bryan Adams, Jackson Browne, Ruth Brown, Charles Brown, Al Green, B.B. King, Earl King, The Neville Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Ringo Starr, Ziggy Marley, Ozzie Osbourne and many more.
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.[1][2]
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.[4]
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.[1][2][5]
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.[citation needed]
During the summer of 2009, Hutchinson joined BK3, a band led by Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and completed a tour with them.[8][9] During the summer and fall of 2009, he toured with Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal playing with both artists on The BonTaj Roulet tour.[10]
In 2010, he completed a North American tour with the Hawaiian band Hapa, starting with them at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on St. Partick's Day 2010 and finishing on April 17 that year at The Maui Arts and Cultural Center.
On August 13, 2013, Hutchinson 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 2015, Hutchinson again toured with Raitt and on August 6, 2015, performed at Fenway Park in Boston with Raitt and James Taylor. The same year he played bass on Karen Lovely's album, Ten Miles of Bad Road.[11]
In 2016, he played bass on Raitt's Dig In Deep and toured extensively in support the album. He also appeared on This Mountain, an EP by Pat Simmons Jr. which was produced by Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers.
Hutchinson toured in 2017 with Raitt in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and throughout North America, including July–August with James Taylor. He also appeared on recordings by Curtis Salgado, Deb Ryder, Johnny Ray Jones, and others. In November he conducted a clinic at Bass Player Live, produced by Bass Player magazine and held annually at Studio Instrument Rentals in Hollywood. On New Year's Eve 2017 he performed again at Shep Gordon and Alice Cooper's Maui Food Bank Benefit in Wailea, Hawaii, playing with Steve Cropper, Dave Mason, Michael McDonald, Patrick Simmons, Ray Benson, Glen Sobel, and others.
During 2018, Hutchinson toured the USA extensively with Raitt, and in Europe with Raitt and Taylor. On July 15 they performed along with Paul Simon in Hyde Park, London, for a crowd in excess of 70,000 before heading off to Italy where they performed in the ancient amphitheater in Pompeii.
In 2019, Taylor and Raitt once more hit the road early in the year. Raitt and her band were featured performers for the third year in a row at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as well as doing a series of their own dates including The Willie Nelson Outlaw Tour which culminated at Farm Aid held that year at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. Hutchinson was a featured Artist in the Playing for Change video "The Weight" along with Ringo Starr, Robbie Robertson, and others. Hutchinson finished the year performing at Shep's Maui Food Bank Benefit.
While working in the studio in early 2020 with Bonnie Raitt, Hutchinson appeared at Phil Lesh's Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California, with the band Doobie Decimal System fronted by Roger McNamee and featuring multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby. 2020 also saw the creation of Hokolele Studios in Haiku, Maui and collaborations with a number of artists in the US and overseas.
In 2021, he released a joint single and video entitled "Mighty Big Sur" with UK folk-rock singer Holly Lerski (formerly of the band Angelou) on which he wrote the music and played all of the instruments aside from the keyboards (performed by Glenn Patscha). He also recorded another record with Bonnie Raitt, (their 11th together) entitled Just Like That....
He also played both upright and electric bass on David Knopfler's Shooting for the Moon LP and electric bass on LP Fresh Bear Tracks by Richard T. Bear.
In 2022, Hutchinson toured the US with Raitt in support of the album Just Like That... which debuted at number one on six different Billboard charts and sat atop the Americana charts for months after its release in April 2022. They continue to tour the US and in 2023 have also headed to Ireland, The UK, Canada, Hawaii and Australia. "Just Like That..." on February 5, 2023, won three 2022 Grammy Awards for Song of The Year. Americana Performance and Americana Song of The Year.
