Tickets still available! Follow link for more info…. Winemaker’s Dinner and Concert
Browsing January, 2012
SOLD OUT!!! Feb. 3-4 @ the Jazz Corner
Fourplay’s European Tour, 2011
Jazz for Japan & Bob James
A catastrophic earthquake and resulting tsunami rendered nearly 20,000 either dead or missing in northern Japan. It is the largest natural disaster to hit the country in post-war history.
6 months have passed. World-renowned pianist Bob James came to Iwate to participate in the 3rd Iwate Jazz Festival. Right after the disaster, he participated in the charity project, “Jazz for Japan” in the US.
Three, Two, One… A Final Say with Bob James
“I’m flattered to be a part of hip-hop’s history,” says Bob James nonchalantly. “But I believe we’re still at the beginning of understanding how young people make music.”
Bob James’s career developed during a time when radio ruled, records sold, and Roberta Flack had the country’s number one song. Things were different then. Popular music was changing, and over in New York, kids were priming themselves for a burgeoning hip-hop scene. James was thirty-five by 1974 and had just released his first solo album on CTI Records. His subsequent projects for the label were both commercially successful LPs and unsung flops. Regardless of units sold, it was those very records that would lay the foundational sound for some of hip-hop’s most coveted records. It was those kids in New York who initially took James’s music and adapted it for themselves to use and the world to see.
James’s first three CTI releases—One, Two, and Three—are amongst the most sampled records ever. And if we’re truly beginning to grasp how younger generations make music, it’s safe to assume that James’s catalogue is a resource that’ll be continually sifted through and sampled from.
In this three-part interview, he talks in-depth regarding details of his career: The first part of the interview touches on colorful names that are intermingled with his history, its development and legacy. Next, he reflects back on his first three CTI releases, breaking down the most sampled songs on each album. In the interview’s final component, Bob James explains the process of sample requests throughout the years, its affect on him, and why he’s “flattered to be a part of hip-hop’s history.”
I. Quincy, Creed, and the Biz:
What role did Quincy Jones have in developing your career? … Continue reading
“The Dream Team”
‘Altair & Vega’ Rises Up in Downbeat Magazine
Altair & Vega is an ambitious, unique and well-executed album that’s the product of a 12-year collaboration between Bob James and Keiko Matsui. The CD, which includes a DVD, finds the pair expoloring the four-hand piano tradition of the 19th century. James and Matsui, who play together so well they sound like one person, blur the line between jazz and classical. Eighth-notes are often straight, most of the music is written, and the fair amount of rubato and sustain pedal gives the music a slight Romantic period feel, especially on Matsui’s “Invisible Wing.” James’ “Divertimento” is a variation of a piano duet piece by Haydn on which James and Matsui converse in various jazz and classical dialects. James’ arrangement of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring” stays relatively close to the original melody, although the several reharmonized sections are quite dissonant. The more jazz-inspired pieces, such as the title track, are quiet, introspective and frequently quite gorgeous.