Part of an article from Santa Cruz Patch

http://santacruz.patch.com/articles/santa-cruz-fans-try-to-reach-out-to-american-idol-contender-james-durbin

Santa Cruz Fans Try to Reach Out to American Idol Contender James Durbin

by Brad Kava

...

In a late-night Facebook interview, his former teacher, Ockerman, had this to say:

"I love James; he's a great cat, and one of my favorite singers.

"I've worked with Mike McDonald, Bill Champlin, Steve Marriott, Richard Bryant—some of the best of the best, and he's up there with those musicians, a unique soulful powerful voice; he seems to not have any limits.

"James was the first scholarship recipient at my Musicscool. He was sponsored by Kids on Broadway and the Lundbergs, bless their hearts. He picked up keyboards, guitar, songwriting, all with such a healthy appetite and intense concentration, it was a joy to be around. Last time I saw him, we were doing blues harp stuff, and within 30 seconds, he was bending, isolating notes, not an easy thing to do.

"I don't think it's easy. I just think he works really hard, really fast, and he has a pulse on what sounds good to an audience, or to a group of musicians.

"Every performance he's done singing with the White Album Ensemble, he gets standing ovations, people who saw Guitarmy—our Zeppelin band with 10 student guitarists, Dave Tucker on drums and Tiran Porter on bass—said it sounded scarily like a Zeppelin record, on stage.

"I was a big fan of his late dad, the virtuoso bassist Willie Durbin. We had some very funky jams, back in the day."

end of article