Bob James: One for the Road: On the Eve of His Benefit Concert, TC‘s Superstar Offers Some Thoughts on the State of Jazz

May 26, 2004

When multi-Grammy jazz pianist Bob James isn’t relaxing at his lakefront home near Traverse City, he lives on the road. A musician’s life on the road means performing at a new home each night. That home is known as the venue and when you find a good one it is worth going back to. That might be why James has lent his name to the restoration project of the City Opera House in Traverse City. He has yet to perform there, but that day is coming, and soon.
The $8.5 million restoration project on the on the 115 year-old community landmark is nearing completion. Last June, James brought in good friend Earl Klugh for an unforgettable night of music with all proceeds going to the restoration fund. On June 11, Restoration Recherché II will take place once again at Corson Auditorium on the campus of Interlochen Center for the Arts. The evening will feature renowned jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum and Detroiter Regina Carter on jazz violin.

GETTING IT TOGETHER
“I am excited about the evening, I have collaborated with Kirk before and I have heard wonderful things about Regina but have yet to work with her,” said James. “For me its a selfish opportunity because this lineup is an ideal performance scenario. I have the nucleus of the rhythm section from my current Bob James Trio album (Take It From The Top). It is rare for me to perform live with these guys because they are so good and in such demand, so I was excited that both Billy Kilson and James Genus were available and agreed to do it.”
In addition James feels that Kirk Whalum “is the number one saxophone player in his genre of music.”
As for Regina Carter, it was Opera House board member Karen Smith who suggested Carter to James. Smith is also responsible for James becoming involved in the Opera House project.
“Karen and her husband Lou are longtime friends and Karen has been a major part of this project and she started talking to Judy (wife) and me about doing this two years ago,” said James. “It seemed like to me a good opportunity to do something for the community. We love it here. I am usually an absentee person more than being a part of the local scene because of my work.”

RESTORATION
James sees the restoration of the City Opera House as important to keeping a focus on the downtown area.
“The idea of something closely related to the arts in an overall sense being done in downtown made this very intriguing to me,” said James. “We see too many communities spread out into anonymous suburbia. I felt it was important to be supportive of counter attacking that phenomenon.”
James is taking time out of a busy schedule to make this Restoration Recherché II happen. He is a member of the popular group Fourplay, in addition to having his own projects. He also maintains a hectic touring and recording schedule. It is hard to imagine James taking a break or sitting still for long, in fact one wonders how he is able to keep up with the multitude of projects he immerses himself in.
“It is hard to keep up. I struggle with it all the time. My wife and I talk about it. I have reached the age level where I know a lot of people in other businesses are thinking about retiring or are already retired. I have no desire to retire, music in not only my occupation it is my passion in life. I find it hard to separate myself from music. I have had the good fortune of a career where opportunities expand out into different directions that I would have never anticipated 20 years ago,” said James.  “I have eclectic tastes and when I see these opportunities come along I have a very difficult time saying no.”

40 YEARS TOGETHER
The wife he is referring to is Judy James. They have been married for 40 years and her support and encouragement has been more important to him then any Steinway he has played or inspiration received from any jazz great. James publicly recognized the importance of his relationship with Judy during the Tapawingo Garden Party last September. He performed a 40-song medley of their favorites in honor and celebration of their 40th wedding anniversary.
It has been a rewarding musical career that has spanned those same 40 years. Highlighted by many accomplishments including several Grammy Awards. His song “Angela” (from the TV show Taxi) is easily one of the most popular and recognizable theme songs of all time.
The legendary Quincy Jones discovered James in the early ‘60s and brought him to New York. A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music, with a Masters in composition, James had a successful career as composer and session musician while living in New York.  By the end of the 1960s he would become Sarah Vaughan’s musical director.
In the mid 1970s he became the director of progressive A&R for CBS Records working with Paul Simon, Neil Diamond and Kenny Loggins. He would eventually leave CBS to pursue a fulltime recording and touring career.

300 RECORDINGS
Since his first album in 1963 “The Bob James Trio,” James has released or appeared on over 300 recordings. Appearing on albums of such artists as Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, The Carpenters, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Maynard Ferguson, Grover Washington Jr., Natalie Cole and Chet Baker James has earned the respect from musicians in several genres for his playing and composing abilities.
Recently it is has been his work with Fourplay that has kept James in the musical spotlight. The group made up of jazz legends Nathan East, Larry Carlton and Harvey Mason all enjoy successful careers outside the band but take pleasure in the creative collaborative aspect of working together. In August the group will release their ninth album titled “Journey.”
James likes the expressive, improvisational nature of Fourplay and the fact that each night songs are expanded on versus being played verbatim. However that freestyle approach doesn’t always transfer easily into the studio.
“Recording is the tough part. The nature of the way we have made our albums is finding ourselves in the studio for 14 hours a day for five weeks. The challenge is that we are extremely demanding and while we want each song to sound natural and spontaneous there is the aspect of it being permanent which presents a different mindset from the live performance which is a one shot thing and everyone expects it to be different and mistakes are sometimes made but you move on. Well, when recording there is always this thought that you can make it better and by the time we reach the point where all four of us are happy about each tune a long time has transpired in the studio. Usually what happens is that we run out of time and we have to stop because of schedule conflicts otherwise we would probably be in the studio forever.”

MOVING NORTH
So how does a jazz legend end up living in Traverse City?
“Traverse City wasn’t a place we would have picked randomly but Judy’s sister Linda has lived here since graduating from college and we came to visit her during the summertime,” said James. “But even then we weren’t considering moving here. Then our daughter starting attending summer camp at Interlochen, so we chose that time to take our vacation and rented a place on the lake. We really liked it here and found it to be a much-needed solace from our place in New York City so we decided to buy a place here and split our time between New York City and here. Now we live here full time.”
Well sort of; there is still all that time on the road and they have a southern hideaway during the winter months. And, somehow, despite a busy schedule, James has found another professional passion as a visual artist.
“I dabbled with photography and when the computer art field reach this interesting point of combining photographic skills and painting in the non-traditional sense by using a drawing tablet and looking at the screen and choosing colors, textures and patterns I became very intrigued,” said James. “I had a laptop with me on the road and there were moments of boredom that led me to this. I started six or seven years ago and saw it as only a hobby. However I had always preached to younger musicians that they should go public with their work and so I have done the same with my art.”
His work can be seen on album covers and via his website www.bobjames.com and last year he even created a piece specifically for the Opera House that concert attendees were given. He has become a staunch defender of this style of art and doesn’t like how “computer generated,” has been interpreted.
“An awful lot of the art in this area has been machine like and a little cold,” said James. “If I have a mission or stylistic goal in this area it is to breakdown that calculated cold machine like feel and breakdown that prejudice people have towards thinking that the computer is a robot and that if you do art that is all computer that the craftsmanship is taken out of it. I don’t believe that and I feel that it is a hands on experience and the computer is just another tool, the same way a paint brush is.”

STATE OF JAZZ
He also has sharp opinions on the current state of the music industry and how jazz music has become divided.
“I feel we are in a very pivotal place on a threshold of a completely new era in the arts,” said James. “I have this feeling we are at the end of professional music as we knew it in the last century. Everything from copyrights to recordings being sold in stores is changing. The power of the Internet has affected our industry as much if not more than any other industry and we are hurting big time economically right now.”
James points to sluggish CD sales and the fact that major labels are cutting way back, including his label that recently eliminated their whole jazz department.  He sees the music industry going back to the drawing board but feels this change is actually creating more opportunities for unsigned artists to have their music heard.
“This scenario has created prospects for those that might have been passed over by major labels whose budgets have tightened,” said James. “Today’s musicians are finding unique and entrepreneurial ways to get their music out to their audiences. We are in a real renaissance time for the arts in general.”
How about the health of jazz music today?
“It has been very frustrating in recent years because the jazz community has become very polarized. What has become the smooth jazz phenomenon being on one side of the fence and what has been called the straight ahead side or more serious pure side on the other. I have never felt that this has been particularly healthy,” said James. “In the true jazz tradition the players that have been most revered were considered both to be both artists and entertainers. Going back to the Louie Armstrong era many artists were deep into the popular music trenches. Now that is almost a curse in some circles and with some critics today. What I wish or my obsession is to work to try and bring both of these factions together. I tend to admire the musicians who operate on both sides and Kirk Whalum is a wonderful example of that. His playing style grew out of the combination of the many great jazz saxophonist of the past and yet he is deeply entrenched in the present and is very comfortable going back and forth.”
What about today’s popular musical styles?
“Both my wife and I said that we were not going to be as they say: ‘like our parents.’ We consider ourselves to be idealistic and we felt would be able to stay connected with the music of our kids generation,” said James. “The bottom line is you develop a musical taste at a very key time in your life and that become your aesthetic, with some variations to it these are your musical guidelines and that forms you and influences you every time you listen to a piece of music.”

Tickets are limited for the June 11 Bob James concert with Kirk Whalum and Regina Carter and may be obtained online at www.cityoperahouse.org or by calling the office at (231) 941-8082. VIP tickets remain that include commemorative artwork and a post performance reception with the artists.

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(please find photo of turntable)

Bob James’ hip-hop connection
Hundreds of rappers have sampled jazz ikon

As an example of how music is changing these days, Bob James points to the hip-hop field, where he has become a surprise participant:
“I can get very excited about some of the off wall stuff they do that people from my era would consider to be absolutely ludicrous,” said James. “These hip-hop artists, they don’t give a shit what we think. They use static and feedback you name it and they use it. There isn’t any rule in their heads telling them that it is wrong or that there is a better way to do it. For them it is a new and fresh way to create music.”
So does James like hip-hop and rap music?
“Ultimately a lot of it is very annoying to my ears, but I have to be careful not to be hypocritical here,” said James. “As fate would have it in this strange world of music and for reasons I will never understand my music from the 1970s became almost a bible of samples for the rap and hip-hop generation. Early on these rap producers got their hands on my albums and would grab little chunks of my music. First illegitimately because they just stole it and would rap over it. Little by little I started licensing the recordings for their use.”
James a rapper? Well not exactly. But his music is some of the most sampled in the hip-hop/rap mix tape world. He has reached legendary status among the hip-hop community. Artists such as Run/DMC, rapper Rob Swift and literally several hundred others have sampled James music into their work.
“Bob James has been such an influence in hip-hop. I have been sampling him for years,” said legendary DJ Rob Swift. “I got to work with him a few years ago and it was an incredible experience. He’s a real nice guy too.”
In his animated video “La Da Da,” Rapper Biz Markie is seen pulling out albums and tossing them over his shoulder until he comes to one from Bob James.
“What I like about Mr. James is that he made his music accessible to the Hip-hop community,” said Biz Markie. “A lot of guys were holding us over the barrel and ripping us off on what they wanted for licensing agreements, he was fair about it, he is very respected among us.”
For James “the props,” continue from world of hip-hop:
“Bob James is from the world above the radar and he is definitely in the top five most important musical influences for those who pioneered Rap and Hip-hop,” said Rapper Jay-Z. “Shit, Bob James is the man and those of us from the streets know that. There ain’t a hip-hop kid around who don’t know Bob James.”
James chuckles in disbelief over it all.
“For me it has become this incredible cottage industry and to this day I still I have people sampling my stuff,” said James. “It has become a major source of income for me. In a bizarre way it is extremely flattering that I somehow have a piece of this. I have young kids come up to me surprised that I am alive. They see it as if they were grabbing my music as if it were coming from the Stone Age. They think it is hip that music they feel has become obsolete has been given new life from their fresh approach.”
So does James see rap and hip-hop shows coming to the newly renovated City Opera House? Well maybe not.
“I just toured the Opera House and it makes me all the more inspired to do this event in June,” said James. “It looks wonderful and as I was touring I was fantasizing of playing there someday. I have several ideas.”
Hmm, just maybe one of those ideas will be James collaborating with Rob Swift.