Bob James - Touchdown
Bob James
Touchdown
Tappan Zee/Warner Bros. 1979
Produced by Bob James
Personnel:
Hiram Bullock, Earl Klugh, Eric Gale - guitars
David Sanborn, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, Hubert Laws - brass
Bob James - various keyboards
Idris Muhammad, Steve Gadd - drums
Ron Carter - bass
Bob James is a master of fluffy pop jazz, and may in fact be a direct ancestor to Kenny G, which would make him a pawn of the anti-Christ for all we know. He has on very rare occasions stepped out of that mode to make something accessible but -if only in spots- challenging. This album is largely not one of those occasions, made all the more annoying by the waste of great talent on it (most notably the impeccable Ron Carter).
This late 70s snoozer of a recording actually starts on a somewhat amusing note, with Angela (Theme From "Taxi") which actually survives well due to its status as a rather popular piece of TV music nostalgia. And truth be told I like the Fender Rhodes work in it (even Bob can manage a decent melody on the Rhodes, which can do a lot to cover your faults due to the sonic qualities of the Rhodes itself). But from there it's the title track, which is about as lazy, braindead and bland a track as you can get. Really. Its pretty much garbage all the way around. I Want to Thank You (Very Much) starts off as almost a Frankenstein melding of Caribbean floozy lounge with a heaping de-vertebraed slab of elevator muzak...and then gets odd with strange bits of almost stiff acoustic guitars and brief punches of horns that make it sound like you are about to see a burlesque show, only to have it cut out back to the lounge track. Sun Runner has about eight notes at the beginning that make you think it might be a cheap but passable copy of Herbie Hancock. And then the rest of the song kicks in and you don't know wht to think of it. Best I could describe it is like neutered George Duke writing instrumentals for Olivia Newton John's album of Bossa Nova tinged singles. Yes, it's crap too. The regular piano in it is sharp and painful to the ears in various spots. The closer, Caribbean Nights once again starts ok, this time with a lazy beachcomber's groove, but then veers into something I could only describe as the backdrop music to spotting a greasy stranger at the casino tiki lounge ordering mai-tai's for the overly made up woman in a Prada knock-off she shoplifted from another casinos giftshop an hour back...and now they're celebrating his winning at Keno.
Skip this. Actually, skip Bob James.
Touchdown
Tappan Zee/Warner Bros. 1979
Produced by Bob James
Personnel:
Hiram Bullock, Earl Klugh, Eric Gale - guitars
David Sanborn, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, Hubert Laws - brass
Bob James - various keyboards
Idris Muhammad, Steve Gadd - drums
Ron Carter - bass
Bob James is a master of fluffy pop jazz, and may in fact be a direct ancestor to Kenny G, which would make him a pawn of the anti-Christ for all we know. He has on very rare occasions stepped out of that mode to make something accessible but -if only in spots- challenging. This album is largely not one of those occasions, made all the more annoying by the waste of great talent on it (most notably the impeccable Ron Carter).
This late 70s snoozer of a recording actually starts on a somewhat amusing note, with Angela (Theme From "Taxi") which actually survives well due to its status as a rather popular piece of TV music nostalgia. And truth be told I like the Fender Rhodes work in it (even Bob can manage a decent melody on the Rhodes, which can do a lot to cover your faults due to the sonic qualities of the Rhodes itself). But from there it's the title track, which is about as lazy, braindead and bland a track as you can get. Really. Its pretty much garbage all the way around. I Want to Thank You (Very Much) starts off as almost a Frankenstein melding of Caribbean floozy lounge with a heaping de-vertebraed slab of elevator muzak...and then gets odd with strange bits of almost stiff acoustic guitars and brief punches of horns that make it sound like you are about to see a burlesque show, only to have it cut out back to the lounge track. Sun Runner has about eight notes at the beginning that make you think it might be a cheap but passable copy of Herbie Hancock. And then the rest of the song kicks in and you don't know wht to think of it. Best I could describe it is like neutered George Duke writing instrumentals for Olivia Newton John's album of Bossa Nova tinged singles. Yes, it's crap too. The regular piano in it is sharp and painful to the ears in various spots. The closer, Caribbean Nights once again starts ok, this time with a lazy beachcomber's groove, but then veers into something I could only describe as the backdrop music to spotting a greasy stranger at the casino tiki lounge ordering mai-tai's for the overly made up woman in a Prada knock-off she shoplifted from another casinos giftshop an hour back...and now they're celebrating his winning at Keno.
Skip this. Actually, skip Bob James.
posted by theloniusfunk at 1:42 AM
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