Dr. James Polk was born into a musical family and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. He excelled in all music classes in elementary, junior and senior high school. James moved to Austin, Texas to attend Huston-Tillotson College where he graduated in 1962 with a B.A. Degree in music education. He taught band in Elgin, Texas and later moved to Massachusetts to work at the Rodman Job Corp as entertainment director. He returned to Austin to work at IBM as a buyer in production purchasing where he stayed for ten years. He left IBM to join the Ray Charles Orchestra in 1978 as organist, pianist and later writer, arranger and conductor. James moved back to Austin in 1988 and has since become the Associate Director of Jazz Studies at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas where he is currently employed.