Bob James (musician)

For other people named Bob James, see Bob James (disambiguation).

Bob James
James in Heydar Aliyev Palace, Baku Jazz Festival, 2015
James in Heydar Aliyev Palace, Baku Jazz Festival, 2015
Background information
Birth nameRobert McElhiney James
Born (1939-12-25) December 25, 1939 (age 84)
Marshall, Missouri, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • composer
  • arranger
  • record producer
Instrument
  • Keyboards
Years active1962–present
Labels
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Robert McElhiney James (born December 25, 1939)[1] is an American jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer. He founded the band Fourplay and wrote "Angela", the theme song for the TV show Taxi.[2] According to VICE, music from his first seven albums has often been sampled and believed to have contributed to the formation of hip hop.[3][4] Among his most well known recordings are "Nautilus", "Westchester Lady", "Tappan Zee", and his version of "Take Me to the Mardi Gras".

  1. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 1259. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  2. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Bob James". AllMusic. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  3. ^ Ma, David (July 10, 2014). "Bob James talks about his first three albums (namely Nautilus and Take Me To The Mardi Gras) on CTI". Wax Poetics. Archived from the original on November 1, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
  4. ^ Pablo, J. (October 30, 2013). "We Interviewed Bob James, Hip-Hop's Unlikely Godfather". Vice. Retrieved July 3, 2019.