Jim Black – American drummer, band leader, composer & teacher, born 1967 in Daily City, California – was part of Thomas Agergaard's Octet at the JAZZPAR 2002 Event.

Jim Black remembers being four years old, jamming for days on a rubber band stringed guitar made by his father out of a cardboard toilet seat cover box. He also had a drumkit consisting of discarded plastic buckets, more cardboard boxes, and kitchen utensil cymbals. At ten, Jim Black got his first real snare drum playing in the school band – the next year a complete drumkit appeared under the X-mas tree.
   His father played Gene Krupa with Benny Goodman on the stereo at home. In his teens, Jim Black played music ranging from garage rock to big band swing. When he was 18, he moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music. Shortly after he recorded albums, performed in Europe, and taught summer classes at Berklee. In 1991 he moved to Brooklyn, NY, soon to become one of the most in demand drummers.
   In addition to his quartet AlasNoAxis Jim Black co-leads the groups Pachora and Human Feel. He records and tours extensively with diverse groups including musicians such as Chris Speed, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas (JAZZPAR 2000 Nominee), Uri Caine and Laurie Anderson.
   Jim Black is a complete musician and prolific composer. He is one of the foremost full-kit, crashing and thrashing jazz players with solid experimentalist credentials. His playing is wickedly inventive and contrasting. The beat-master’s rhythm may be eerie out of kilter or it may be a violent post-rock groove or it may be the subtlest of jazz brushes.    Black’s energy easily propels any stellar jazz unit moving into rambunctious territory. He keeps things fresh with percussion and by massaging odd sounds out of the drums. He creates echoes and nuances out of drum thwacks and cymbal smacks that lend the overall music tremendous passion. He can do quick changes and multiple starts and stops – or he can create subtle atmospheric textures.
   Jim Black appears on scores of recordings and his Pachora project combines a jazz improviser’s aesthetics with the folk styles of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.