The Bone Man's Page

How can we best describe the explosive personality and the sexy, energizing, dancing, singing and trombone blowing at the core of the whirlwind experience of The Bone Man who is also a passionate supporter of Artists For A Better World?

He’s a wildly original multi-media force, with music videos, a CD, a musical and a movie in the pipeline. But he’s cool about defining his persona via a hybrid of pop culture comparisons: beginning with a voice that’s part Joe Cocker, part Steven Tyler and a comedic persona that’s as crazy and unpredictable as Jim Carey’s.

When he calls himself the “Austin Powers of Music,” he’s not just talking hype, baby - he worked with Carrie Ann Inaba and Ayesha Orange, dancers who appeared in all three Powers films, on his video “The Bone Man Seduction.” Famed pop choreographer Fatima (Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys) taught the Bone Man to move and groove, and he’s fun to watch in his videos alongside Madonna’s dance troupe. And the "bone" which he plays with the monster-like virtuosity that Santana brings to the guitar is more than just his shtick or a cool visual prop.

He’s been playing jazz trombone since age eight and has performed with Henry Mancini, Frank Sinatra and jazz sax legend Grover Washington, Jr. At one time, he was also the principal trombonist with the Crystal Cathedral Orchestra in Orange County. Then there’s his CD, JAMES MOSELEY with ROGER WILLIAMS and members of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by JOHNNIE CARL: that unforgettable disc of standards he recorded with popular saxophonists Eric Marienthal and Gerald Albright.

He’s legit as a jazz cat. He simply combined this background with all these other emerging performing talents to create an irresistible pop phenomenon. He’s sexy, hip and charismatic as a singer, dancer and entertainer, and the hipster glasses and cropped blond Billy Idol hair flash, “I’m in the room!”

When The Bone Man, aka Jim Moseley, who picked up all that was jazzy, funky and cool growing up in Kansas City states, “I love just going out into the world and having fun, creating an experience that is all about not taking life too seriously.” We best believe it! For The Bone Man, this fun begins with his dynamic stage show, which he’s performed at the House of Blues. But a full-scale multi-media blitz is also currently in the works.

First on the docket is Storybook Life, the six-track mini-album that rolls like an all-out party disc, combining The Bone Man’s passionate singing style with playful grooves, hooks high on the instant hummability meter and that sassy "bone" style. The title track is a bouncy, witty ode to resisting the charms of pop icons like Britney, Mariah and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and being true to his lover. The sexy video of this song was executive produced by Eric Enriquez, who produced the video “Irresistible” for Jessica Simpson, and directed by veteran Larry Garcia. Other original tracks include “Tequila” (no, not the one you’re thinking of!), “Shakey Bone Man,””Bad Woman” and “If you see Kay.” After winning over several Tower Records store managers in Los Angeles with his colorful video, their locations began to stock his CD even as he was shopping it for a label deal.

The Bone Man musical should be a hoot, too. As a kid, Moseley loved the Piped Piper tale, but always found the ending depressing, “because he takes the kids to Koppelberg Hill in Hamlin to live.” The Pied Piper Meets the Bone Man, written by Moseley, fashions our protagonist as superhero type who goes on this fascinating odyssey to bring the kids home!

The Bone Man Movie, screenplay by “guess who” currently being shopped, is a tongue in cheek, autobiographical romantic comedy in which The Bone Man wins a girl’s love but must convince her father that he’s worthy. Just playing the trombone doesn’t convince him, but when he goes on a quest to learn how to dance and play the instrument at the same time, the father warms up. "It’s kind of like Singing in the Rain meets Get Shorty" says Moseley.

In a previous lifetime, before his musical pursuits turned toward a professional career, Moseley was an entrepreneurial genius in the insurance industry. That era imparted great business sense to him, but hardly explains the advent of The Bone Man as the new and fascinating phase in his life. He thinks for a minute and then says, straightforwardly, "Maybe I should have stuck to the piano because I could only go so far in jazz as a solo trombone player," he says. "That bugged me because 50 or 60 years ago, the coolest musicians in the world, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, were trombonists! Sinatra opened for Dorsey when he was starting out. But by itself, it wasn’t fashionable anymore, so I combined it with my lifelong dream to be a pop star."

He adds, "I really got serious, taking vocal lessons from (legendary coach) Seth Riggs and dance instruction from Fatima, who thought I was nuts at first. In the movie, there’s a scene where I’m learning to play the trombone and dance at the same time, and that’s just what happened in real life. I just figured out a way to put it all together. I’ve got a dancer’s perspective on the music now, and the way I move onstage, combining these funky steps with humor, helps create the way I want to pop out at people."