Jazz Pianist
Ragtime, Honky-Tonk, Stride...

James Waltich has played many festivals, concerts and jazz clubs in New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. He is a member of the house orchestra at the prestigious Pocono resort, Skytop Lodge.

He has worked with Grammy Award-winning bassist Steve Gilmore, drummers Glen Davis and Marko Marcinko, George Young of NBC TV’s Saturday Night Live Band, and saxophone player Billy Smith, who has composed for Freddie Hubbard and Coleman Hawkins.

Currently he is working on his own CD and has a full teaching schedule at his studio in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He has conducted a number of workshops throughout northeastern PA’s public school system, as well as colleges and universities.

Jim is an expert on the ragtime, honky-tonk and stride piano styles from the turn of the twentieth century. He leads his own jazz group, Straight Out Jazz Quartet, and is a member of Doug Smith’s Dixieland All-Stars.

Jim is an avid amateur astronomer and a member of the Lackawanna Astronomical Society.

He resides with his wife, Tsukasa, a classical pianist and teacher in Wilkes-Barre, PA.