Bob James

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Bob James

Robert McElhiney James (born December 25, 1939 in Marshall , Missouri ) is an American pianist , keyboardist and arranger . He was twice awarded the Grammy Award and was a representative of crossover jazz in the early 1970s , later also of smooth jazz .

Live and act

James received his Masters in Composition from the University of Michigan in 1962 , then worked for Maynard Ferguson for three months and from 1963 to 1968 as a pianist and arranger for Sarah Vaughan . In 1962 he won the competition at the Collegiate Jazz Festival ; The prize was his debut album Bold Conceptions for the Mercury label , with Quincy Jones as producer , with interpretations of Miles Davis '"Nardis" and two of James' own compositions, "Quest" and "Trilogy". In 1965, he took in a trio with Barre Phillips and Robert F. Pozar an album for ESP-Disk on (explosion) , in which he recorded previously produced electronic bands. Then he worked as a studio musician a. a with Quincy Jones, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack .

In 1973 he became arranger for Creed Taylor's CTI ; For many albums of the CTI label he has contributed arrangements for winds and strings, such as for Eric Gale , Hank Crawford and Stanley Turrentine , but also z. B. for some of Grover Washington Jr.'s most successful productions. 1974 to 1977 he delivered four genre-defining records under his own name (titled One , Two , Three , BJ4) , which today enjoy legendary status after a general appreciation of fusion music in the 1970s and have been sampled many times . The lavishly produced music skilfully fuses jazz components with elements from classical and pop and especially disco .

From the late 1970s onwards, Bob James increasingly changed his style, switched to Columbia and increasingly turned to contemporary jazz and smooth jazz. His albums - often accompanied by strings or big bands - became more melodic, but were still strongly influenced by jazz. This development is particularly evident in his work as a member of the Fourplay group , but also in his collaboration with other musicians of this genre such as Earl Klugh , Kirk Whalum or Dave McMurray .

James has and occasionally appears in authentic jazz groups and as a solo pianist.

Discographic notes

  • 1962 Bold Conceptions (Mercury)
  • 1965 Explosions (ESP disk)
  • 1974 One (CTI) [* # 1]
  • 1975 Two (CTI) [* # 2]
  • 1976 Three (CTI) [* # 3]
  • 1977 BJ4 (CTI) [* # 4]
  • 1977 Heads (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 5, 5-cent piece on the cover]
  • 1978 Touchdown (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 6, a touchdown in American football scores 6 points]
  • 1979 Lucky Seven (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 7, ladybug with 7 dots on the cover]
  • 1979 One On One (with Earl Klugh ) (Tappan Zee / Columbia)
  • 1980 All Around The Town (Live) (Tappan Zee / Columbia)
  • 1980 H (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 8, "H" is the 8th letter in the alphabet]
  • 1981 Two Of A Kind (with Earl Klugh ) (Capitol)
  • 1981 Sign Of The Times (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 9, a 9 on a traffic sign on the cover]
  • 1982 Hands Down (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 10, two hands with a total of 10 fingers on the cover]
  • 1983 The Genie (Original Soundtrack)
  • 1983 Foxie (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 11, Roman character for "11" in the title: Fo XI e]
  • 1984 12 (Tappan Zee / Columbia) [* # 12]
  • 1984 The Swan (Warner Bros.)
  • 1986 Double Vision (with David Sanborn ) (Warner Bros.)
  • 1987 Obsession (Warner Bros.)
  • 1988 The Scarlatti Dialogues
  • 1988 Ivory Coast (Warner Bros.)
  • 1990 Grand Piano Canyon (Warner Bros.)
  • 1992 Cool (with Earl Klugh ) (Warner Bros.)
  • 1994 Restless (Warner Bros.)
  • 1995 Flesh and Blood (with daughter Hilary James)
  • 1996 Straight Up (Warner Bros.)
  • 1996 Joined At The Hip (with Kirk Whalum ) (Warner Bros.)
  • 1997 Playin 'Hooky (Warner Bros.)
  • 1999 Joy Ride (Warner Bros.)
  • 2001 Dancing On The Water (Warner Bros.)
  • 2002 Morning, Noon and Night
  • 2003 Take It From the Top
  • 2003 Hi-Fi (compilation)
  • 2005 Essential Collection: 24 Smooth Jazz Classics
  • 2006 Urban Flamingo
  • 2007 Angels of Shanghai
  • 2008 Christmas Eyes (with daughter Hilary James)
  • 2011 Altair & Vega (with Keiko Matsui )
  • 2012 Alone - Kaleidoscope by Solo Piano
  • 2013 Quartets Humaine (with David Sanborn and Steve Gadd )
  • 2015 The New Cool (with Nathan East )
  • 2018 espresso

(* The first 12 Fusion Solo Studio albums are numbered - partly encrypted. )

Web links

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