Bob James (musician)

Discovery by Quincy Jones

While in college at Michigan, James played free jazz with musicians in Ann Arbor and Detroit. In 1962, his band entered the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, where the judges included Henry Mancini and Quincy Jones. After James's band won the competition, Jones signed James to an album deal with Mercury Records. Mercury released James's first album, Bold Conceptions (1963), a free jazz exploration that was produced by Quincy Jones and that differed from the smooth jazz for which he would later become known.^[3][4][2]

In New York City, James worked as an arranger and was hired as piano accompanist for jazz singer Sarah Vaughn. He reunited with Quincy Jones when Jones asked him to do some arranging for studio sessions. Creed Taylor, producer and founder of CTI Records, was at the sessions and hired James to work for CTI as a producer, arranger, and studio musician. In the 1970s, James worked on albums by Gabor Szabo, Milt Jackson, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington, Jr., and Maynard Ferguson.^[3]

Solo albums and collaborations

Bob James 2004

Creed Taylor invited James to record a solo album. The result, One (CTI, 1974), contained the song "Feel Like Making Love", which Roberta Flack already had as a hit. James had been hired to play piano for the song on Roberta Flack's album two weeks before recording a version of his own, using the same band. Radio stations played both and contributed to the commercial success of One.^[3] The album was notable for adapting classical music to a modern-day scene, e.g. "In The Garden" was based on Pachelbel's Canon in D and "Night On Bald Mountain" was a cover of Modest Mussorgsky's composition of the same name.

After three solo albums, James founded his own record label, Tappan Zee. Immediately thereafter, he cut a disco version of the Theme to Star Trek: The Motion Picture a 45 of which was included with the soundtrack LP and recorded the album Touchdown (Tappan Zee, 1978).^[5] Among the songs on the album was "Angela", the theme song for the TV show Taxi. James provided all the music for Taxi and collected some of its music, including "Angela", on The Genie: Themes & Variations from the TV Series Taxi (1983).^[6] When he toured in 1979, he was supported by a marketing campaign that included posters of him at the wheel of a New York yellow cab. The performances were documented on the album All Around the Town (Tappan Zee, 1980), with a cover of James at the wheel.

James turned from smooth jazz to classical music to record Rameau (1984), his interpretations of Baroque-period composer Jean-Philippe Rameau.^[7] In later albums, he interpreted the work of two more Baroque composers, J. S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti.

A year after Rameau, he collaborated with David Sanborn on Double Vision (Warner Bros, 1986). The album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.^[8] His collaboration with Earl Klugh, One on One, won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1980 and has sold over one million copies. Another collaboration with Klugh, Cool, (Warner Bros., 1992) was nominated for a Grammy, as was Joined at the Hip (Warner Bros., 1996) with Kirk Whalum, recorded Flesh and Bone in 1995 and another solo album, Joyride (Warner Bros., 1999).

Fourplay

James was looking for a bass player while recording the album Grand Piano Canyon (Warner Bros., 1990) with drummer Harvey Mason and guitarist Lee Ritenour. Mason and Ritenour suggested Nathan East. After working with them for a while, James suggested they form a band, which resulted in the contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay. The band has recorded over ten albums and has seen a couple of personnel changes, with guitarist Larry Carlton replacing Ritenour and then Chuck Loeb replacing Carlton.^[3] Fourplay celebrated its 25th anniversary with the album Silver (Heads Up, 2015).^[9]

Influence in hip hop

James's music, especially his early albums, has been sampled often, with his songs "Nautilus" and "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" leading the field.^[5]

"Nautilus" has been sampled by Eric B. & Rakim in "Let the Rhythm Hit 'em", Run-D.M.C.'s "Beats to the Rhyme", Ghostface Killah's "Daytona 500", DJ Jazzy Jeff's "Jazzie's Groove", Jeru the Damaja's "My Mind Spray", Freddie Gibbs's "Extradite", and "Farandole (L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2)". It appears on the Funcrusher Plus LP from Company Flow and Nangdo's "Nikes". The bassline from "Nautilus" appears in "Children's Story" by Slick Rick.

"Take Me to the Mardi Gras" incorporates in its first four measures a bell-and-drum pattern that is one of hip hop's basic breakbeats. Crash Crew's "Breaking Bells (Take Me to the Mardi Gras)", Run-D.M.C.'s "Peter Piper", LL Cool J's "Rock the Bells", the Beastie Boys' "Hold it Now, Hit it", Missy Elliott's "Work It", will.i.am's "I Got it from My Mama", "This Is Me (Urban Remix)" by Dream, "I Want You" by Common, and "Take It Back" by Wu-Tang Clan.

James's 1981 song "Sign of the Times" was sampled by Warren G and Nate Dogg in their 1994 single "Regulate".

Solo

• Bold Conceptions (1963)
• Explosions (1964)
• One (1974)
• Two (1975)
• Three (1976)
• BJ4 (1977)
• Heads (1977)
• Touchdown (1978)
• Lucky Seven (1979)
• H (1980)
• Sign of the Times (1981)
• Hands Down (1982)
• Foxie (1983)
• The Genie (1983)
• Rameau (1984)
• 12 (1984)
• The Swan (1984, reissued 1995)
• Obsession (1986)
• The Scarlatti Dialogues (1988)
• Ivory Coast (1988)
• J. S. Bach: Concertos for 2 & 3 Keyboards (1989)
• Grand Piano Canyon (1990)
• Restless (1994)
• Straight Up (1996)
• Playin' Hooky (1997)
• Joy Ride (1999)
• Dancing on the Water (2001)
• Morning, Noon & Night (2002)
• Take It from the Top (2004)
• Urban Flamingo (2005)
• Alone: Kaleidoscope By Solo Piano (2013)
• Espresso (2018)

Solo Compilations

• Anthology (2001)
• Restoration: The Best of Bob James (2001)
• The Essential Jazz Collection (2002)
• Bob James in Hi Fi (2003)
• The Very Best of Bob James (2009)

Live albums

• All Around The Town (1980)

Collaborations

• One on One (with Earl Klugh) (1979)
• Two of a Kind (with Earl Klugh) (1981)
• Double Vision (with David Sanborn) (1986)
• Cool (with Earl Klugh) (1992)
• Flesh and Blood (with Hilary James) (1995)
• Joined at the Hip (with Kirk Whalum) (1996)
• Angels of Shanghai (with Jack Lee) (2005)
• Ataraxis (With Deeyah) (2007)
• Christmas Eyes (with Hilary James) (2008)
• Botero (with Jack Lee) (2009)
• Altair & Vega (with Keiko Matsui) (2011)
• Just Friends: The Hamilton Hall Sessions (with Howard Paul) (2011)
• Quartette Humaine (with David Sanborn) (2013)
• The New Cool (with Nathan East) (2015)
• In the Chapel In the Moonlight (with Nancy Stagnitta) (2017)

Fourplay

• Fourplay (1991)
• Between the Sheets (1993)
• Elixir (1995)
• The Best of Fourplay (1997)
• 4 (1998)
• Snowbound (1999)
• Yes, Please! (2000)
• Heartfelt (2002)
• Journey (2004)
• X (2006)
• Energy (2008)
• Let's Touch the Sky (2010)
• Esprit De Four (2012)
• Silver (2015)

As arranger

With Hank Crawford

• We Got a Good Thing Going (Kudu, 1972)
• Wildflower (Kudu, 1973)

With Johnny Hammond

• Wild Horses Rock Steady (Kudu, 1971)
• Higher Ground (Kudu, 1973)

As sideman

With Chet Baker

• Baby Breeze (Limelight, 1965)
• I/We Had a Ball (Limelight, 1965) - 1 track
• She Was Too Good to Me (CTI, 1974)
• Carnegie Hall Concert (CTI, 1974) with Gerry Mulligan

With Ron Carter

• Blues Farm (CTI, 1973)
• Empire Jazz (RSO, 1980)

With Paul Desmond

• Skylark (CTI, 1973)

With Jackie and Roy

• Time & Love (CTI, 1972)

With J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding

• Stonebone (A&M/CTI (Japan), 1969)

With Hubert Laws

• Crying Song (CTI, 1969)
• Afro-Classic (CTI, 1970)
• The Rite of Spring (CTI, 1971)
• Morning Star (CTI, 1972)
• Carnegie Hall (CTI, 1973)
• In the Beginning (CTI, 1974)
• The Chicago Theme (CTI, 1974)
• The San Francisco Concert (CTI, 1975)

With Don Sebesky

• Giant Box (CTI, 1973)

With Gábor Szabó

• Mizrab (CTI, 1972)
• Macho (Salvation, 1975)

With Gary Burton

• Cool Nights (GRP, 1991)