Bio

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 for 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 after living in Los Angeles for ten years. He went back to college and received his Master of Music Degree at Southwest Texas State University ’91. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Huston-Tillotson College ‘95. He retired from teaching in 2006 and he received his Professor Emeritus status of Jazz Studies in the School of Music at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Dr. James Polk arranged two songs for Ray Charles that were nominated for Grammy Awards (Ain't It So - 1979, and I Wish You Were Here Tonight - 1983). He also arranged the Ray Charles Christmas CD.

Twink Records was founded in 1969 by Dr. James Polk as the result of a recording project collaboration initiated by Polk and long time friend James R. Hurst. “Twink” was the nickname of the proprietor of the Hide-A-Way Lounge, a popular night club in East Austin during the 1960’s. Twink gave Polk permission to use the name for his label. Dr. James Polk recently acquired Kevin Scott as a partner and the label is currently under reconstruction with new goals in sight for the coming years.