James Lawrence Buffington (born May 15, 1922, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania; died July 20, 1981, Englewood, New Jersey) was an American jazz, studio, and classical hornist.
Buffington was a busy studio and jazz player on the French horn. He was an autodidact as a child, though his father played piano and trumpet. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music and began playing in New York City in the 1950s, with Oscar Pettiford among others. He played with Mel Powell in 1954 and Teddy Charles in 1956.
He is perhaps best known for his work with Miles Davis on some of his Gil Evans sessions for Columbia Records. He has done extensive work as a session musician, and has recorded with Moondog, Carly Simon, James Brown, Urbie Green, Jimmy Cleveland, Ernie Royal, Britt Woodman, Don Butterfield, Donald Byrd, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, J. J. Johnson, Quincy Jones, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Michel Legrand, Lee Morgan, Paul Desmond, Eddie Sauter, Oliver Nelson, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, the Modern Jazz Quartet and Grover Washington, Jr.. Late in the 1970s he played with Freddie Hubbard, Gato Barbieri and George Benson; in 1980 he played on a Helen Merrill album.
Buffington released some solo work but it is far less well known.