Bob James (b. 1939) has always credited Quincy Jones for all the good things in his musical life. It was Jones who discovered James in a college jazz competition (James’ group won). It was Jones who signed James to Mercury for his 1962 solo debut, Bold Conceptions. It was Jones who recommended James as Sarah Vaughan’s musical director, a position he held throughout the sixties. On Walking in Space, the musical empresario introduces Creed Taylor to Bob James for the first time – and history was made.
Along with Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter and Airto Moreira, Bob James became one of the original “CTI All Stars,” recording dozens of albums and touring with the aggregate for several of its most important years. Along with Don Sebesky, James was also the in-house arranger for CTI during its most formative years, arranging hits for Grover Washington, Jr., Hubert Laws, Stanley Turrentine and Idris Muhammad, among many others.
Taylor produced the pianist/arranger’s 1974 CTI debut, Bob James One, even though it was James’ third record under his own name. One proved to be an immediate hit and yielded the classic and hugely-sampled “Nautilus.” The CTI-era tracks “Night on Bald Mountain” (from One) and “Westchester Lady” (from Three) were even Grammy nominated. Bob James recorded three more records for CTI through 1977, even though he left to accept an A&R position with Columbia Records in 1975.
The success he had at Columbia, with such artists as Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Kenny Loggins and Maynard Ferguson, allowed James to form his own Tappan Zee Records in 1977, where he used the model Creed Taylor developed at CTI to issue his own productions and those of Richard Tee, Wilbert Longmire, Mark Colby, JoAnne Brackeen and Mongo Santamaria.
Throughout the seventies and eighties, nearly all of James’ Tappan Zee records were hits – most notably his “Angela (Theme from ‘Taxi’).” But Bob James probably found his most widespread success as co-founder of the smooth-jazz group Fourplay in 1990. Never a critics’ darling, James has, however, made a significant contribution to what makes CTI and Kudu Records the formidable catalog that it is today.