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Back in the mid-’80s, James Sifuentes began writing and recording some pretty good
pop rock. He and Bill, his brother and bandmate, dreamed of getting the songs re-
recorded professionally, but life, other interests and careers intervened.
Then came more life: age 50, cancer, Hodgkins’s lymphoma. He beat that. Ten years
later, July 2023, turmoil at the hospital where he had been an executive for 19 years
resulted in his firing. A few months after that, January 2024, he suffered a heart attack
while interviewing for his current regional manager position with the Chicago Park
District.
He didn’t know about the heart attack until he went to urgent care after the interview.
At this point, he tells himself that if he’s going to put out his music, he ought to do it, and
by March, he persuades himself to get it done.
Then, January 2025, disaster for the second January in a row. He is diagnosed with
stage 4 pancreatic cancer, but now he is seriously committed to putting out his music.
And the result, a year later, is “Summertime,” the single, a jazzy pop-rock anthem to the
season, and Summertime, a 12-track album of some pretty good pop rock transformed
into seriously good pop rock.
It’s all under the name Sifuentes. It features Jim, his brother Bill on guitar, and Matt
Riggen, a multi-talented colleague from the park district, on drums, brass and piano.
“Overall, it’s pop rock, but there’s some stuff that fits in different genres.”
The single features the rocking guitar and beat you would expect from someone
influenced by the Beatles, especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney, funkadelic,
(Parliament) and R&;B.
And it also has some swinging brass work too.
“The ’60s, I was only a little kid,” said Sifuentes. “My dad actually bought Beatles
albums, and we were just listening to them and, yeah, they became it.”
Growing up, living and working in Chicago, “Summertime,” to him, means the end of the
ice, snow and cold of winter and the “beauty, the energy when people get to go out,
wear shorts, barbecue, head to the beach and enjoy a different feeling.”
“It’s just trying to capture that feeling and make people feel good when they listen to the
song.”
He has been writing, composing, playing and recording music ever since he and his
brother were teens. At one time, he wanted to do that full time.
“We just didn’t pull the trigger, my brother and I. We wanted to get into the studio to
record these songs. We wanted to hear what they would have sounded like
professionally.”
After the heart attack last year, “I said, ‘I’m gonna get these songs done.’ In March of
last year, I said I’m gonna put out an album, so I set the goal.”
But doubts set in: already 60, health not good, and though the music he had written and
recorded was good, he hadn’t been playing much, or singing.
Somewhere in here, his daughter Amanda says to him about “Summertime,” which he
wrote in his 40s, “I love that song, Dad. You should finish it.”
“And I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do this album. I will release it around
summertime, so, I want that to be the title.”
He began work, getting back into musical shape, working over his songs, and by
November, he was back in the studio.
Then January, and this time it’s pancreatic cancer. But, “I’m always one to finish a goal.”
Now it’s June, and the album is out.
“And I celebrated yesterday,” he said. “My staff here at the park district, we held a
listening, they called it a listening event, and they played the album. My brother, Matt
and I did some of the songs, five of them, just acoustic versions, but it was really nice.”
And that’s the story, he said. The love of music, the talent, the gift, has always been
there, waiting to be unveiled.
That’s what he calls it, an unveiling.
“People know I play guitar, kind of, but didn’t know this other part of me, that I could
sing, or I can record, and I compose songs. It’s an unveiling of another part of Jim that
people might not know.”
He wrote most of the songs when he was 18-25. “The Memory” is about where he grew
up, “walking around the park, going to school.” “Searching for Another Day” he wrote
when he was 18.
“Life,” coming more than 30 years later, after the first bout with cancer, “kind of
complements that song, saying, like, ‘After your search, this is where you’re at.’”
“Will You Be Mine” is R&B, “kind of a stepper.” “Loving You Dear,” “a catchy little club
song.” The last song, “Yes, It’s Me,” started out as a love song to a woman named
Orquídea, orchid in English. It features a Latin flavor and Sifuentes on guitar.
“But it became in many ways more about me, showing everyone that it’s me singing,
recording, unveiling parts of me that were hidden, and still living fully.”
He wrote other songs for people like him and his brother, people who grew up during
the same period and listened to The Beatles, Elton John, The Who and others.
“I’m hoping as they’ve grown and listened to music, it fits right into their lives.”
One song, “Rumors,” a fast-moving rocker, is in its original recording of the Sifuentes
brothers from the late ’80s, early ’90s.
“I just threw it in because I wanted to get 12 songs done, and it fits the mood of the
album perfectly.”
“Life,” a soft, lovely ballad, has special meaning.
“It’s the question every kid gets: What do you want to be in life? I just wanted to be
famous and write songs, but you got to live your life for real.”
The last lines are:
Now that I’m older, I’ve come to be
All the gifts life has given me
Still life comes asking one more thing
Is this really what it means to be
“I have this gift, and I wanted to share it, what I think my brother and I wanted to do
back when. When you get that opportunity, like now, go ahead and make that happen.”
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