Urban Flamingo

Performer: Bob James
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Personnel: David McMurray, Hilary James , Nathan East, Ron Otis, Wayne Gerard. After revisiting his straight-ahead jazz roots on 2004's Take It from the Top, legendary keyboardist/composer Bob James returns to his bread and butter smooth jazz sound on Urban Flamingo. This time around James digs into his synthesizer chops for a set of relatively tepid and pop-oriented tracks that have more to do with contemporary soft rock and R&B than actual jazz. To these ends, James' daughter Hilary James takes a pleasant vocal turn on "Lay Down with You," while the funky "Niles Ahead" does reveal James' more organic bent and harks back to his classic '70s albums. However, the majority of the journeyman artist's compositions here will do little to expand his audience beyond die-hard pop-jazz aficionados. ~ Matt Collar On most of these selections, pianist Bob James is in the spotlight, playing with a rhythm section and occasionally a guitar or a sax. The opener, "Choose Me," has James jamming over the chord changes of the blues and gives one hope that this will be one of his more substantial jazz dates. But no such luck. Most of the selections rarely rise above the level of lightly funky background music. Guitarist Earl Klugh drops by for "Fresh Start" and there is a pop vocal feature apiece for Hilary James and Nathan East. Overall, this is easy-listening pop/jazz, pleasant but forgettable. ~ Scott Yanow

JazzTimes (p.149) - "[T]here are plenty of James' Fourplay-like soft, acoustic piano interludes, which are supremely displayed on the sublime 'Niles Ahead.'"

Keyboardist Bob James is a man who has worn many musical hats. He began as a progressive-jazz pianist in the early 1960s (he even recorded for famed underground avant-garde label ESP). By the '70s, however, he'd incorporated electric keyboards and become a star in the burgeoning fusion genre, making records which would later be sampled by countless hip-hop artists. Along the way, he was also involved in the soundtracks for everything from SERPICO to the TV show TAXI, and worked as arranger and producer for Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack, and others. In the '90s, James became even more popular as a member of the smooth-jazz supergroup Fourplay.

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