As lists go, it's pretty short. As lists go, it's also very niche; in fact, as lists go it probably can't even be described as a list. Let me explain. The list to which I refer is headed up "Smooth Jazz Keyboard Players I Need to See Live Before I/They Die". The 'list' used to have two names on it: Joe Sample. And Bob James. But as Joe Sample bowed out in September 2014, the list (hell, it doesn't even warrant a scrap of notepaper in my wallet) now bears but one name.
So imagine my delight when I saw that Robert McElhiney James was playing a two night residency at London's Pizza Express on December 1st & 2nd (a couple of weeks before the maestro's 80th birthday - on Christmas Day). So far so smooth. However, such is the interest in the man who's best known for this, it's SOLD OUT! Bloody lists.
I don't know what tunes he'll be playing to the Soho pizza eating fraternity next month, but if I was in the room I'd be baying for these two, that much I do know.
Bob James - Touchdown (1978)
Bob James - Take Me There (1999)
Oh my - Until I clicked on the link the name Bob James was out of context. Not any more - What a sublime musician. Will the pizza eating fraternity truly appreciate him? I do hope so.
ReplyDeleteSublime, indeed; I seem to remember you featured him a while ago (albeit fleetingly) in a "Taxi" themed blog? But, and I should really do a proper feature on him some day, he is *so* much more than that.
DeleteWell remembered - Yes I featured "Angela (Theme From Taxi)" when I wrote about songs relating to the Bridges of NYC as on the TV Show they filmed that yellow taxi crossing the Queensboro or 59th Street Bridge. It should have made us Feel Groovy (as per Simon & Garfunkel) but with Bob James music I always thought it had a melancholy to it.
Delete