With a career and discography as lengthy as Bob James’, you wouldn’t blame him for forgetting about a session of two. For close to 60 years, the jazz pianist and keyboardist has written, produced and arranged for other artists as well as his own bandleader efforts, which includes groundbreaking, influential and Billboard 200 charting fusion records including BJ4 and Touchdown. But back in 1965, well before he became one of the biggest names in what came to be called smooth jazz, the Fourplay bandleader was just another musician trying to find his way in New York City.
“I didn’t didn’t have a label deal of any of any kind—and no plans,” he says over the phone. It was during this period that he found himself playing two studio dates in trios recorded by a young man named George Klabin. 55 years later, this long-forgotten music sees the light of day with the Resonance Records release of Once Upon A Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions.
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