Bob James

The career of Bob James is long, varied and continues to evolve at every turn. From his first days in Marshall, Missouri, the music of Bob James has captivated audiences throughout the world.Discovered by Quincy Jones at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival in 1963, James recorded his first solo album, Bold Conceptions, that year for Mercury Records. 58 albums and innumerable awards would follow through five decades. He honed his skills working with Creed Taylor, working on albums for artists like Hank Crawford, Grover Washington, Jr, among others. While with CTI, James found great popular success overseeing significant hits for Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Maynard Ferguson, and Kenny Loggins.....James is recognized as one of the progenitors of smooth jazz, however, his music has also had a profound effect on the history of hip hop music, having been sampled often. Two of James songs Nautilus from 1974s One and Take Me to the Mardi Gras from 1975s Two are among the most sampled in hip hop history. According to whosampled.com, Nautilus and Take Me to Mardi Gras have been sampled in thirty-two and forty-three hip-hop recordings, respectively. The title track from his 1981 album Sign of the Times was sampled in De La Souls Keepin the Faith, and Warren Gs Regulate. His Angela was sampled in the track Cab Fare by Souls of Mischief. The track El Verano from the 1977 album BJ4 is used as a sample in the song Blown Away by the Cocoa Brovaz and also in the Masta Ace Track NY Confidential. N.W.As Alwayz into Somethin uses a sample of Storm King from the album Three. Cant Wait by Redman features a sample of Caribbean Nights from the album Touchdown. English Drum Westchester Lady on his 1995 breakthrough release Circles. Ryksopp sampled his version of Youre as Right as Rain for their instrumental track Eple. In addition, James is mentioned in a verse by Andr 3000 on Black Ice from Goodie Mobs second album Still Standing.