Nicknamed by bandmates while on tour in Oslo, Norway, after jokingly threatening to starve himself on a threadbare per diem, Boney or Bones or Boneman (though his wife calls him Jimmy) has put in his proverbial 10,000 hours as a musician, performer, writer and producer. At age 10, the New Rochelle, NY native picked up the sax after 2 years on the clarinet and never looked back, parlaying his love of R&B –Motown, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Curtis Mayfield and Grover Washington, Jr. — into a musical aesthetic. He turned pro before his 20th birthday and became an in-demand touring sax and keyboard player for Morris Day, the Isley Brothers, Teena Marie, Bobby Caldwell, Randy Crawford and many others.

During his 30-year career, Boney has earned four Grammy nominations (“I’m not gonna lie… I’d still love a statue,” he says), two NAACP Image Award nominations and a Soul Train Award, while a dozen of his albums have landed at #1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Album chart.  His collaborators in the past include a who’s who of R&B and soul: Raheem DeVaughn, Faith Evans, George Benson, George Duke, Dwele, Al Jarreau, Philip Bailey, Anthony Hamilton, Jaheim, Eric Benét, Dave Hollister, Stokley Williams, Kenny Lattimore and Angie Stone.