page_title: James P. Nichols
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: James P. Nichols / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: James P. Nichols with students at Parks, NY.
context_page_description: James P. Nichols is a recording industry executive producer and master engineer.
context_section_description: Because of his experience with the Lynx, RCA Recording Studios hired him in 1984.  The studios, whose history was in Broadway cast recordings, wanted to become a presence in large-scale orchestra film scoring in New York.  RCA Recording soon became the major scoring stage on the east coast and there he was promoted to Master Engineer which led to his working as Scoring Engineer, Recording Engineer, and Mastering Engineer for Jazz, Broadway, and Classical products.  One of his pinnacle works with RCA/BMG Studios was the recording, mixing, and mastering of the audio for the Motion Picture Malcolm X (1992 film), by film director Spike Lee in 1992.
  
  In 1996, after a previous three nominations, he won a Grammy Award for “Best Historical Recording” of “The Jascha Heifetz Collection”. Also in 1996 he moved on to Manhattan Center Studios, New York, as a producer/engineer. He completed several projects, including Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp, and The Butcher Boy, featuring the music of critically acclaimed composer Elliot Goldenthal, as well as The Pat McGuire Band for Inverin Records.
  Again in 1997 he received a Producer Grammy nomination for the Broadway hit “Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk” for RCA Victor.
  In 2000, he traveled the world creating live sound environments with the Nicholas Payton Quintet and Big Band Orchestra.  He also heads an organization founded by himself, entitled “Commercial Free Jazz”  whose function as an institution is to support and provide a platform for experimentation in recording and helping artists worldwide realize the potential of their work.
  In 2005, Nichols began the next phase of his career by expanding the bounds of his sonic expertise as a Film Applications Engineer for Dolby Laboratories.
  In 2008, Nichols became an off Broadway producer of the performance art piece "Madwoman: A Contemporary Opera" written & performed by Mem Nahadr.
caption: James P. Nichols - teaching next generation sound and broadcast for New York Parks
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