Bob James

Bob James and Keiko Matsui's Altair & Vega is a solo piano album performed by a duo, and for the most part, that means what it sounds like, two jazz pianists seated together at one keyboard playing four-handed parts. On the James-composed title track (which refers to two stars that pass each other only once a year), previously recorded and released on the 2001 James album Dancing on the Water, Matsui takes the upper part of the piano and James the lower part in a piece that sounds more new age than jazz.

Bold Conceptions is the debut trio album by Bob James made on August 13, 1962. Quincy Jones rushed to record the little-known Bob James Trio when it won the 1962 Collegiate Jazz Festival competition. For the record date, James chose to strike a balance between jazz and pop standards and experimentation with unusual forms of improvisation. The result of James's maiden studio effort augured a dazzlingly successful, multitalented career for him as pianist, arranger, producer and film composer.

Bob James' first recording for his Tappan Zee label is typically lightweight. Although Grover Washington, Jr. has two spots on soprano, and trumpeter Jon Faddis is in the brass section, James' dated Fender Rhodes keyboard is the lead voice throughout the six pieces, which include two adaptations of classical works…

This is a big departure for Bob James, who interrupted his stream of smooth jazz projects to produce a lovely album of electronic transcriptions of pieces by the French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. As such, they fall squarely in the tradition of Wendy Carlos' realizations of Bach – and in their own way, they approach Carlos' achievements in their imaginative, tasteful selection of timbres.

Hot on the heels of his commercial breakthrough Touchdown, which contained the monster hit "Angela (Theme from Taxi)," Bob James teamed up with acoustic guitarist Earl Klugh for the first of two hit duet albums. One on One is not strictly a duet side, however. The pair is accompanied by a band of crack studio types that includes James' former CTI mates acoustic bassist Ron Carter and drummer Harvey Mason and a host of others as well as string and woodwinds sections. The fare is light, breezy, and barely there in places. Out of these sessions came "The Afterglow," which lit up the charts right after "Angela" did, making James the hottest jazz commodity on the scene.

12 is of historic value because it introduced saxophonist Kirk Whalum, who was still a year away from debuting as a leader with 1985's Floppy Disk. One of the more noteworthy albums that Bob James came out with in the '80s, 12 finds him featuring the up-and-coming Whalum on three selections: the funky "No Pay, No Play," the pensive "Midnight" and Whalum's own "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby" (a slightly Spyro Gyra-ish number). While those selections are enjoyable, the strongest tune on the CD is James' haunting, Chick Corea-influenced "Legacy."