About

Jayme Stone is an instigator. He loves to make creative work work. He’s a musician, composer, producer, writer and career coach. He has made seven albums and produced over 500 songs—from Gullah spirituals to Indie-pop songs, Trinidadian calypsos to Indian rāgas. “A consummate team player” (Downbeat), Stone has developed a process of trawling for understudied sounds in the more arcane corners of the world. His cross-continental collaborators have included Margaret Glaspy, Julian Lage, Tim O’Brien, Bassekou Kouyate, Yacouba Sissoko, Dom Flemons, Ranky Tanky, Trio Brasiliero, and many more.

Stone is an integrator. He loves a through line. Whether it’s quilting together verses from an anthology of time-worn ballads, identifying the next bright constellation in the career of an artist he’s coaching, or weaving a unifying thread through a collection of songs he’s producing—Stone loves to look closely enough at things to see their intrinsic beauty and interconnectedness. Stone is a searchlight. He has made albums like the Lomax Project, which re-imagines songs collected by American folklorist Alan Lomax; Room of Wonders, a collection of folk dances from around the globe; Folklife, which plants the seeds of folk songs in modern soil; and AWake, a stargazing indie-pop album exploring the white-hot core of love and loss. Stone is known for sharing stories of the people and places behind the songs—a 13th century Bambara queen, the rutted roads of eastern Kentucky, a symphony inside a lightbulb, the Sea Island coastline. These narratives help situate the songs in their wider cultural, spiritual and ecological contexts. Stone is a field worker. With support from a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, he spent three months in Mali, West Africa studying with kora and n’goni players, making field recordings, and investigating the banjo’s African roots. He sat in with Toumani Diabate’s famed Symmetric Orchestra and played with griots, buskers and elders—under baobab trees, at the confluence of the Niger and Bani Rivers, and as part of an all-night ceremony in the Dogon’s sandstone cliffs. He returned home to make the Juno award-winning album, Africa to Appalachia, a polyrhythmic tale of two continents in collaboration with Mansa Sissoko. Stone has done folk song research at the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Folkways and the Folkways Alive Center. Stone is a synthesizer. He has long balanced his commitment to music with complementary practices. His study of yoga, zen, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais and Pilates are integral to both his own work and the way he holds space for the artists he coaches and produces. As a producer, his curiosity, inquisitiveness and capacity for deep listening are matched by a strong aesthetic sense, wide-ranging studio skills and love of collaboration. He regularly co-writes with other songwriters, always looking to create a new lexicon and harmonic language. Stone is an educator. He has been on faculty at the Silk Road Global Musician Workshop, Rockygrass Academy, Rocky Mountain Song School, Sierra Fiddle Camp, Banjo Summit and more. Fellow musicians frequently seek Stone’s advice, keen to discover how he crafts a career that hews closely to his creative vision while finding success in the world. He mentors artists through organizations like WOMEX, APAP and OneBeat and led the Artist Accelerator program at Folk Alliance. He coaches artists 1-on-1 and co-founded an online course that teaches “businesscraft to musicmakers” called Compose Your Career. Stone is a galvanizer. He produced 400 songs for the Facebook Sound Collection; curated a concert series at the Colorado Chautauqua; directed a folk music symposium at the University of Colorado; co-produced an episode of the Afropop Worldwide podcast; directed the branding for Folkalist Records, a 21st century label centering music from the global south; and co-facilitates a traveling global music retreat called Sonora Expeditions. Other career highlights include winning two Juno Awards, three Canadian Folk Music Awards; being featured on NPR, BBC, and CBC; and performing thousands of concerts including venues like the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers, Library of Congress, Rockygrass, Celtic Connections, Vancouver Folk Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Montréal Jazz Festival, and more.

What folks are saying

What folks are saying
About

AWake

“Entirely unique and glorious.”

American Songwriter

“Experimental pop that is eminently engaging. Full of nuance and surprise.”

Ghettoblaster

“Deft storytelling and disarmingly honest lyrics.”

Tinnitist
About

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project

“A groundbreaking piece of work”

Songlines

“A truly inventive spin on some very old tunes.”

Georgia Straight

“A transatlantic session with blood, guts and grit.”

The Herald

“They’ve put a fresh contemporary sound on musical treasures found in Lomax's deep and rich archives.”

NPR

“A beautiful, intriguing, thoughtful album that rewards our attention as much as it captures it.”

SING OUT!

“Nothing short of miraculous. They made these ancient songs sound so fresh.”

No Depression
About

The Other Side of the Air

“Delicate, imaginative and unusual music.”

TIME OUT NEW YORK

“This music sounds like nothing else on earth.”

TORONTO STAR

“A fantastic new album, carrying the banjo far from the bluegrass context.”

DOWNBEAT

“Refreshingly unclichéd.”

NOW MAGAZINE

“A creative breakthrough for Stone, who's second only to Béla Fleck in finding new paths for the five-string banjo.”

GEORGIA STRAIGHT
About

Room of Wonders

“The Yo-Yo Ma of the banjo.”

GLOBE AND MAIL

“This is what the future of the banjo sounds like.”

SONGLINES

“I take back what I said about Jayme Stone.”

STEVE MARTIN

“Stone's banjo playing is a source of limitless creative expression.”

NO DEPRESSION

“Sounds like a whole new instrument.”

WASHINGTON POST

“One of the most adventurous banjo players out there.”

EDMONTON JOURNAL

“The music is as spirited as its creator.”

GEORGIA STRAIGHT
About

Africa to Appalachia

“That rare example of a musical exploration going perfectly, a cultural summit that sounds vibrant and seamless for all the right reasons.”

EXCLAIM!

“Stone is back with Africa To Appalachia, an album of West African-inspired gems that highlights his ear for winning melodies and curiosity about under-studied sounds.”

NOW MAGAZINE

“There's something utterly enchanting about this collaboration.”

SONGLINES

“Stone combines a jazz musician's sense of timing and sureness of touch with a pop musician's brevity and directness.”

THE GUARDIAN

“It's a triumph.”

THE OBSERVER

“A brilliant synthesis of music from two different cultures.”

BBC RADIO

“A beautifully polished recording that floats effortlessly through a landscape simultaneously West African and North American.”

GLOBE AND MAIL

“Their new collaborative album brings shared history to light in deft arrangements of Stones banjo and Sissokos kora playing.”

LA TIMES
About

The Utmost

“Stone is the consummate team player... always right in the middle with his polished, inventive banjo playing.”

DOWNBEAT

“Bridging jazz, bluegrass and everything in between with smart compositions, playful jams, and a great sense of purpose. It's music that's difficult to describe, but easy to love.”

CBC RADIO

“What roots/jazz banjo virtuoso Jayme Stone doesn't know about his instrument probably isn't worth knowing.”

TORONTO STAR

“Inquisitive urban banjo ace launches The Utmost, a graceful collection of jazz-affected bluegrass.”

GLOBE AND MAIL

“One of the most open-minded banjoists around.”

BANJO NEWS

“Stone has jam band fans doing cartwheels in the street and hardcore jazz fans re-examining their priorities.”

NOW MAGAZINE

“Stone is a banjoist who has learned well the lessons of Trischka and Fleck, and has come up with a distinctive approach to newgrass.”

CHICAGO TRIBUNE