Bob James appeared on todays NPR Tiny Desk concert. It’s well worth a few minutes, if you don’t have time now, I( recorded it and have a download link.
Bob James Live!
I missed attending the Biamp Portland Jazz Festival but was updated by Kim Paris with a review, photos, and a clip of Bob James’s performance. Kim also shared a 1985 live recording of a Bob James concert at Montreux, available for streaming and download.
Bob James – Birthday and Numbers
Happy Birthday to Bob James, born On December 25th, 1939 – Bob is 84-years old today and still producing great music!For Bob’s birthday this year I thought we’d have a little quiz to celebrate his first albums. Everyone knows that Bob recorded “One”, “Two”, “Three” and “BJ4” for CTI. What you might not know is that Bob named many of […]
“Follow Bob James All Around The Town”
Bob James was born on December 25th, 1939. On December 22nd, 1979, at the peak of his career, James had the last of a series of concerts in New York City to celebrate New York City and to show off the different styles he could work in. Three different venues, three different configurations, quartet, trio and big band. This post […]
Podcast Time Machine – Bob James
Today isn’t just Christmas Day, it’s Robert McElhiney James aka Bob James 83rd birthday, he was born on Christmas Day 1939. Bob has always been very generous with his time when it comes to interviews. I loved the practice sessions Bob did during the pandemic where you could hear the espresso machine, followed by a short physical warm-up and then […]
Farewell, But Not Goodbye, Doc Gibbs
The last few weeks have bought sad news of the passing of more people from the jazz world. Of course all the major websites and even traditional news outlets covered the death of legendary jazz elder, George Wein. Many also covered the loss of George Mraz, double bass, and occasional sax player. I’ll have my personal favorite pieces on both […]
#Nowplaying: Nautilus
While “Mardi Gras” is probably Bob James most sampled, track, “Nautilus” is right up there with it. This post looks at a Record Store Day, 2020, re-issue of the classic track. If you missed, or were not lucky enough to win one of the test pressing that Evo gave away in social media competitions, it’s unlikely you’ll see one of […]
Record Store Day 2020 – dot.next
Record Store Day 2020 turned into three days due to Covid-19, and a fourth day is coming. Black Friday 2020 is November 27th. Currently there are some 133 releases scheduled for that day, including a few of interest. The releases are the usual spread of old tracks never released, tracks remixed, and live performances, and a few compilations. Many are […]
Stonebone – Finally!
If you don’t have a copy, press play and read on, it’s a 1:52 sampler of the album tracks I’m delighted to have an exclusive long form review from CTI and Jazz Historian Doug Payne. I’m lucky to have been able to rip a copy of this album from a loaner a couple of years ago. It’s amazing. I’m heading […]
For The Record
Let’s Talk Laserdiscs I’ve been working through the process of curating, archiving, converting, call it what you will, laserdiscs. Between 1978 and the late 1990’s, laserdiscs, or MCA Discovision were digital media. [See my first effort, Ron Carter Live / Double Bass] While the video was almost always only the same quality as VHS tape, effectively analog rather than 4k, […]
Bob James – Birthday mix
Bob James/Don’t Mess With Mister Bob. To celebrate Bobs birthday on December 25th, I put together this 3-track mix of some great tracks he bought us, among many. I have more than one hundred albums in my collection that Bob has worked on. I’ve seen him live three times, once in the early 1980’s and twice recently. Bob is still […]
Bob James meets Robert Elms on BBC Radio London
I’ve been a listener to the Robert Elms BBC Radio London show from at least the late 90’s, possibly earlier. I’ve been on the show in three listener segments, I was a London Weekender, and have done two Funk Friday cocurrator segments with Robert, most recently the CTI Special, August 16th this year. I’d always wanted to get Bob James […]