Born, James Manning Cerezo,[James Mann] in Brisbane of Spanish descent on the 26th November 1946.

                            James started his musical career after watching and listening to the many great artists  and performers of all sorts that his father worked with in his many stage appearances. Since then James has gained a huge amount of respect from the various artists and musicians that he has worked and performed with, as well as becoming one of the countries leading musical directors.

    With 50 years  experience, James has virtually been through the mill. And being musical director to some of Australia’s finest talents has given him an understanding of arranging and production that you just can’t buy.

    In more recent years James has been very successful in record production and has provided many an artist with an end product far more worthy of a bigger budget. Always looking to the future, he is ready to help younger players and writers with encouragement and support services at any time. Many people now find that it’s a wise move to consult James before beginning any

recording project, because he takes so much of the hassle out of the process and injects a certain something that does really make a difference.

    From shows and commercials to sound tracks for videos and film and backing tracks for artists, James can supply your every musical need, and add a lot of class to your product along the way. With an injection of “life” and a few notes here and there, this talented man can do wonders with the final mix, the crucial part of any recording. With far too many credits to mention in their entirety, James has such a huge body of work that it’s hard to put him in a “bag”.

    Some of the things he has done are  -

  Guitarist  -  bassist  -  vocalist  -  session player  -  tour manager  -  songwriter and editor  -  project producer and co-coordinator  -  commercial and jingle writer  -  musical director  -  recording consultant  -  record producer  -  talent co-coordinator   -  arranger.

    Has been Musical Director to   -

Allison Durbin  [ 12 years ]  Marty Rhone [ 4 years ]  Issi Dye [ 2 years ]  Johnny O’Keefe [ 2years ]

The Platters  [ 4 years ]  And many more one night performances and shows.

  James has also run many bands over the years. Having semi-retired some five years ago, James is now been asked by many people to “Put the old band back together” , and he just might do it  too!