BONEY JAMES

You'd never know it from the effortlessly soulful melodies and silky grooves of his records, but Boney James becomes a mad scientist in the studio while working to create sounds that feel as soothing as a tropical breeze. "I was a nut making this record," the acclaimed saxophonist/songwriter/producer admits with a laugh while discussing Shine, his 10th solo album and first for Concord Records. "My wife calls me Mr. Einstein. I'll come in from the studio with crazy hair and this wild look in my eyes. I get obsessed - so much so that I actually have a song on this record called Let It Go."

"But when I pick up the sax," he adds, "I get out of that producer headspace and become the performer who just wants to take the audience on a journey." Boney produced the disc and played tenor, soprano and alto saxes, keyboards and flute. He wrote or co-wrote nine of Shine 's 12 tracks.

Born in Massachusetts and raised in New Rochelle, N.Y., James Oppenheim began playing music at the tender age of eight. "I started on clarinet," he remembers. "I wanted to play trumpet - the instrument of choice for boys - but the music store was out of them and I didn't want to wait. I was impulsive." By the ripe old age of ten, he was urged to take up the saxophone by his music teacher, who faced a glut of clarinetists; though he resisted at first, young James was persuaded when he saw a performance by a local junior high school's stage band. "If I played sax, I could get into stage band, so I switched - and right away I loved it," he recollects. "Mostly it was the sound. But it also opened up a world of pop songs I could suddenly play." Soon he was fronting a small combo at school assemblies. "I began to define myself as a musician," he says.

Energized by a new release on a new label, Boney reaffirms his excitement about returning to the road. "The communal experience of playing live - that's why I became a musician in the first place," he insists. "It's exciting and liberating. It never gets old for me." It also allows him a temporary escape from the mad scientist, who will most certainly have fresh challenges for him next time.