Browsing September, 2020
“Long Goodbyes” by Dave Koz, feat. Bob James
Take a listen to “Long Goodbyes”, a song from the upcoming album ‘Colors of a New Day’ by Dave Koz, which features Bob James. The new album will be released on October 9th, and features a plethora of musicians and special guests who came together to provide a sense of hope, comfort and good feeling to all of those whose lives have been so transformed by this pandemic. Hopefully, “Long Goodbyes” does just that for you.
JPC Reviews ‘ON VACATION’ by Bob James & Till Brönner
Together with jazz legend and Grammy award winner Bob James, trumpeter Till Brönner – Germany’s most successful jazz musician – has transformed holiday moods into a multi-layered sound painting. Close your eyes and dream: “‘On Vacation’ is first and foremost a feeling for me and we have transformed this feeling into music,” explains Brönner
Virtuosic, full of creative love for refined details and at the same time of the greatest possible nonchalance, Brönner and James create an imaginative and sonorous music for inspiration, reflection and daydreaming.
Post Genre Reviews Bob James’ ‘Once Upon A Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions’
Artists often produce some of their best work when given increased freedom over the creative process. In so doing, their other sonic influences frequently seep into their output, generating something which is not just truer to its craftsman but also expressive of a fuller range of ideas. With fewer confines placed on them by record companies, producers, or other musicians, they commonly develop and examine areas not well-tread.
In 1965, James was a young musician trying to forge his own path. This largely took the form of exploring the reaches of sound with music many would comfortably place within the avant-garde. Once Upon A Time provides a rare glimpse into this facet of this generally uncaptured past. The title track first hints at these outward voyages with Robert Pozar’s slightly off-kilter drumbeats and some piano phrases unconfined by chordal structure, even as the rest of the piece seems mostly straight ahead. Any pretense is lost, however, by the trio’s version of Joe Zawinul’s “Lateef Minor 7th.” A catchy piano melody evolves into experimentation on the entirety of the instrument, with strumming and pounding on the strings. This approach is somewhat mirrored by Pozar and bassist Larry Rockwell as they test various less established ways to produce sound out of their own. They add indecipherable vocalizations, giving a somewhat unsettling aura. When the head returns, one senses it is not as peaceful as once perceived. “Variations” continues the concept, but James plays more conventionally to allow his bandmates additional room to push their limits.
Jazz Times Reviews ‘Once Upon a Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions’
Before he became one of the biggest stars of smooth jazz, pianist Bob James was finding his voice. His first two albums might stun many of his present-day fans. His debut, 1963’s Bold Conceptions, is daring bebop with free-jazz fringes, and 1965’s Explosions is an avant-garde adventure, one of the first jazz records to incorporate electronics. Now, 55 years after its parts were recorded, comes Once Upon a Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions, and it continues the explorations James undertook before he went mainstream.
Continue Reading at JazzTimes.com…
Bob James Provides Soundtrack for Short Film “Interrupted”
Interrupted: Prologue to a Mem-noir is a memoir short about anti-Blackness in America by multi-award-winning avant-garde filmmaker Pamela Woolford.
NPR Best Book author Marita Golden calls it “a very powerful testimony.”
The film has a soundtrack by the legendary Bob James and the late jazz-great Eric Dolphy, who died as a result of anti-Blackness only months after recording the once long-lost, 1964 avant-garde composition featured in Interrupted. Entitled “A Personal Statement,” the 15-minute song was written by Bob James and centers on the operatic vocal line, “Jim Crow might one day be gone.”
Bob James calls Interrupted a “brave and powerful (and necessary) work of art.”
For more information or to attend the online launch event with the filmmaker, Bob James, Marita Golden, and more, visit mem-noir.com.