James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 26, 1925 and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He took up the alto saxophone, a gift from his uncle, at age 16, but after hearing Buddy Tate and Don Byas in the Count Basie Orchestra, he switched to the tenor saxophone. Following his discharge from the U.S. Air Force in 1947, he joined the influential bebop big band of Dizzy Gillespie. Immediately thereafter, he recorded with trumpeter Howard McGhee and vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and one year later made his recording debut as a leader with James Moody and His Bop Men, using members of the Gillespie band. In 1949, Mr. Moody moved to Europe, where he cut his masterpiece, "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation on the chord changes of "I'm in the Mood for Love."  He returned to the U.S. in 1951 and worked frequently with Dinah Washington and Eddie Jefferson.

In 1963, he reconnected with Gillespie, performing in the trumpeter's quintet for the remainder of the decade. Mr. Moody moved to Las Vegas in 1970, but returned East several years later. In 1985, he received a Grammy Award nomination for his performance on Manhattan Transfer's Vocalese album, in addition to several popular recordings in the 1980s. In 1995, numerous musicians and guests including Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, and Bill Cosby joined Mr. Moody in a surprise 70th birthday party at the Blue Note in New York City. In 1997, he made a cameo appearance as "Mr. Glover" in the Clint Eastwood film, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," and in 1998 attended a White House reception hosted by President Clinton honoring the 1998 Jazz Masters. Today, Mr. Moody continues to perform concerts worldwide to delighted audiences and garnering rave reviews, including one from The Chicago Tribune that states, "this listener has been tempted to divide jazz instrumentalists into two categories: James Moody and everyone else."