BOB JAMES — Two (review)

Album · 1975 · Pop/Art Song/Folk

4/5 · 2025-02-24
FunkFreak75

This one was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studios in New Jersey during December of 1974 and January of 1975. Bob seeks to solidify his place within the Jazz-Rock Fusion tidal wave.

A1. "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" (5:50) a remake of the Paul Simon song, it is a nice smooth jazz arrangement but Eric Gale's sliding bass notes become rather irritating over the course of six minutes. I never before realized how this song provided the main melody for big hit by (8.75/10)

A2. "I Feel A Song (In My Heart)" (5:26) a Mary Sawyer and Tony Camillo composition that is here sung by Patti Austin. It was originally recorded by Sandra Richardson in 1971 and made a minor hit by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1974. Here its jazzier rendering was intended to make waves on the jazz and pop charts. A nice rendition. (8.875/10)

A3. "The Golden Apple" (7:20) one of Bob's compositions that is very symphonic and theatric--like an intro to a Broadway musical or a Bond film--with strings and full orchestra playing a very significant role over the opening two minutes. After that it smooths out into a jazz-rock tune with a hypnotic bass line supporting syncopated drumming, a dynamic electric guitar solo form Rickie Resnicoff, a (poorly recorded) piano solo, Arp Odyssey solo, all glued together by wonderfully-arranged symphonic bridges. It ends kind of strangely--faded out just as a synth solo is beginning, but I have to give a shout out to drummer Andrew Smith for his superlatively unusual and creative work. (13.5/15)

B1. "Farandole" (8:24) a jazzy rendering of a classical piece by George Bizet drenched with lots of horn blasts from the brass section and a fair amount of symphony support despite the jazz combo's funky rhythm track and Bob's soon-to-be-signatory Fender Rhodes play. Nice flute play from Hubert Laws. A little bombastic but still a pretty great composition rendered well. (17.75/20)

B2. "You're As Right As Rain" (5:29) a rendition of a Linda Creed and Thom Bell tune that was first recorded by The Stylistics in 1972. The strummed acoustic guitar sound used here would also become one of Bob's signature elements of his songs as would the background strings teases and smooth/laid back Fender Rhodes. How he pulls off those delicate, "muted wind"-like wind/horn sounds I've never been able to figure out but, again, it is a sound that I only know from Bob James-involved albums. Very pleasant and definitely smooth: all that will become the core and essence of the Smooth Jazz movement of which Bob is a founder, mainstay, and prime example. (9/10)

B3. "Dream Journey" (5:57) Bob's second and only other composition (two per album seems to be the pattern he's setting). The music is a pretty, cinematic/theatric blend of the funk-lite jazz-rock instruments with all that orchestral inputs can provide. In fact, I would use this song to cite how a master arranger of Elevator Music does it--on a par with the great Burt Bacharach! (9/10)

Total Time: 38:26

While the musical arrangements here are more sophisticated than many of those that will follow on his successive album output, there are more similarities to the jazzier works of the great orchestra arrangers of the era such as Burt Bacharach, David Axelrod, Eumir Deodato, Neil Yardley, Claus Ogerman, Michael Gibbs, and George Martin.

B+/four stars; an excellent album of orchestra-supported jazz-rock verging on the Smooth Jazz idiom. Definitely one of the few of Bob's albums that steers pretty close to the Third Wave of Jazz-Rock Fusion without having totally given in to the Smooth Jazz wave.