Jazz Articles about Bob James

Bob James & David Sanborn: Quartette Humaine

by Dan Bilawsky
June 20, 2013

It's much easier to take Quartette Humaine at face value as an organic-and-acoustic outing between two high profile figures known for blurring the pop-jazz line than it is to take it under its marketed premise: a tribute to the famed partnership between pianist Dave Brubeck and saxophonist Paul Desmond. While pianist Bob James and saxophonist David Sanborn recorded this album a mere week after Brubeck's passing in December of 2012, the album isn't haunted by that legend's musical ghost(s); James, ...

Bob James / Keiko Matsui: Altair & Vega

by Jeff Winbush
March 8, 2012

In a culture inundated with movies that go unseen, books that go unread and music that goes unheard, it's easy for worthy art to slip through the cracks. That was the sad and undeserved fate of the 2011 Bob James and Keiko Matsui four-hand piano collaboration, Altair & Vega. Solo recordings are a standard for jazz pianists, and James' and Matsui's training and love of classical music are familiar to their fans, but two musicians playing one piano at the ...

Bob James Trio: Explosions

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 12, 2009

Digitando il nome di Bob James in un motore di ricerca, i primi due esiti sono il sito del musicista e la voce di Wikipedia: aprendo entrambe il massimo risalto va alla premiata e redditizia attività di tastierista fusion e smooth-jazz, oltre che a quella di arrangiatore, mentre poche parole sono spese per Explosions, disco che invece è sempre stato una sorta di oggetto inclassificabile, guardato con cupidigia e un po' di diffidenza dagli appassionati dell'avanguardia. Lo stesso James nella ...

Bob James: Angels of Shanghai

by Jeff Winbush
September 26, 2007

Albums by Bob James come in two flavors. One is polished, professional and predominantly safe smooth jazz featured on most of solo output and all of his collaborations with the “supergroup," Fourplay. This is where James has established his reputation as one of the more reliably radio-friendly musicians in the business.The other side which is consistently more interesting, is his more creative outings which he demonstrates through his straight-ahead trios, Straight Up (Warner Bros., 1995) and ...

Bob James: Following His Heart

by Woodrow Wilkins
May 18, 2006

If you've listened to contemporary jazz and its relatives over the last 30-plus years, chances are you've come across pianist Bob James. In fact, you don't have to be a jazz fan to have heard his music. He scored the soundtrack to the television series Taxi, including the hit theme song, “Angela. His career has placed him in the studio and on stage, as both a sideman and bandleader, alongside a virtual Who's Who of modern music. His companions have ...

Bob James: Urban Flamingo

by Tracey Nolan
May 1, 2006

Bob James has never decided whether he's a jazz musician or an R&B musician. He doesn't have to--he can be both, simultaneously, playing funky, infectious tunes that are melodic and groove hard. Urban Flamingo, his most recent effort, could be written off simply as “lifestyle music," or smooth jazz doomed to become background ambience at wine tastings and on weekend boat trips. But pay more attention to James' compositions and soloing and you'll find there is much more at work ...

Bob James Trio: Take It From the Top

by Michael P. Gladstone
March 23, 2004

Bob James, one of the most popular jazz artists of all time, has over the course of the past 35 years elected to treat his older fans with an album of all acoustic songs from the Great American Songbook, tunes that are associated with jazz pianists who influenced him over the years. It seems that this happens about once every decade, or whenever Halley's Comet is expected.

The last occurence was in 1995 on Straight Up, with ...