The career of Bob James is long, varied and continues to evolve at every turn. Discovered by Quincy Jones at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival in 1963, James recorded his first solo album, Bold Conceptions. 58 albums and innumerable awards would follow through five decades. During this time, James set the standard for the smooth jazz sound in the late 1970s. He honed his skills working with Creed Taylor, Hank Crawford, and Grover Washington, Jr. He also found popular success overseeing significant ... view more »
The career of Bob James is long, varied and continues to evolve at every turn. Discovered by Quincy Jones at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival in 1963, James recorded his first solo album, Bold Conceptions. 58 albums and innumerable awards would follow through five decades. During this time, James set the standard for the smooth jazz sound in the late 1970s. He honed his skills working with Creed Taylor, Hank Crawford, and Grover Washington, Jr. He also found popular success overseeing significant hits for Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Maynard Ferguson, and Kenny Loggins. James’ composition, “Angela,” the instrumental theme song for the sitcom Taxi, is possibly his best known work and he composed all of the original music used in that television series for its entire run. One On One, the first in three collaborations with Earl Klugh, was awarded a GRAMMY Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and sold over a million copies. Double Vision, his collaboration with David Sanborn was another GRAMMY winner, selling over a million albums. Since then, James has gone on to work with, record or perform with Keiko Matsui, Lee Ritenour, Nathan East, Fourplay, Larry Carlton, Joe Sample, Esperanza Spalding, and Chuck Loeb. He has gone on to earn four more GRAMMY nominations, and along with Fourplay, won Best Group of the Year at the American Smooth Jazz Awards.
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