Jim McNeely was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978, he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. He spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra).

In 1981, he began a four-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet. From 1990 until 1995, he was the pianist in the Phil Woods Quintet. In 1996, he re-joined the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist. He is still associated with the Vanguard Orchestra as composer-in-residence.

From 1998 to 2002, McNeely was chief conductor of the DR Big Band in Copenhagen, Denmark.[1] As of 2011, he was chief conductor of the HR (Hessischer Rundfunk) Big Band in Frankfurt, Germany. He is currently their Composer-in-Residence. He has appeared as guest with many of Europe's leading jazz orchestras such as the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (the Netherlands), the WDR Big Band (Cologne, Germany), the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra (Sweden) and the Swiss Jazz Orchestra. McNeely also leads his own tentet, his own trio, and appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide. He has recorded more than 20 albums as leader, receiving twelve Grammy nominations between 1997 and 2019.

As part of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, he received a Grammy Award for the album Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard in 2008.[2][3]

McNeely is professor emeritus at Manhattan School of Music,[4] and is former musical director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop.

A former resident of Montclair, New Jersey,[5] and Maplewood, New Jersey he now resides in Owls Head, Maine .
source: Wikipedia