Saxophonist Boney James will bring his rhythm and blues-based brand of contemporary jazz to the City of Lights Jazz and R&B Festival this weekend. Mindi Abair will join the lineup at Hills Park in Summerlin.

When an artist attains huge success in the music business, he can pretty much call on any heavy-hitters in the jazz world and get them to play on his latest CD.

Saxophonist Boney James, who headlines the jazz portion of promoter Michael Schivo's City of Lights Jazz and R&B Festival this weekend at Hills Park in Summerlin, did just that for his upcoming, as-yet-untitled CD. He enticed guitar legend George Benson to come in for a track, and keyboardist George Duke was available, too.

"I always had chutzpah," James said in a recent phone interview. "Now I get some respect."

James took on producing with 2004's "Pure" CD, after eight years of working with hitmaker Paul Brown, an accomplished guitarist who is also part of the City of Lights lineup.

Brown and James co-produced four straight gold records and the sax player credits Brown with giving him the skills to produce his own records.

"It's about transmitting the music to a CD," he said of producing. "It's the nuts and bolts. You have to have the sound right and make a CD that people will want to hear over and over."

"Paul had his sensibility and I had mine and that was great," James said. Producing his own work in his own studio gives him "a real sense of immediacy. It's a lot of work. At first you get caught up in it, but you have to stay relaxed. I love having the control."

He's now working without Brown as a sounding board, but that doesn't seem to faze him. "All I can do is make sure I like it, I can't second-guess."

James also has switched record companies to Concord Records after Warner Bros. closed out its jazz department. "It changed too much for me," James said. "I was disappointed with the way it worked without a jazz department. Record companies are losing confidence in themselves, because of a lot of issues, like (Internet) downloading."

Unlike Rick Braun, his co-performer on the hit CD "Shake It Up," James didn't want to create his own label. "I chose to go a different route," he said. "The idea of running a label was not attractive," explaining that he'd rather concentrate on making music and putting it down on CD rather than get into the business side, too.

Other than James and Brown, artists performing Saturday include vocalist Phil Perry, sax player Mindi Abair, keyboardist Joe McBride, and sax player Mike Phillips and the Unwrapped All Stars.

Today's R&B Festival features Cameo, Ohio Players and Mint Condition.