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Classic Recordings: Bob James – Restless

Ten tracks from a 1994 album by a man whose earlier record supplied the backbone of hip-hop. Bob James kept working long after everyone stopped paying attention.

Restless, 1994

Bob James occupies an odd position. He is a serious jazz pianist — he studied composition, worked with Sarah Vaughan, and recorded an avant-garde album for ESP-Disk in 1965 — who then became one of the founding figures of the commercial jazz-funk that later got called smooth jazz.

His significance to hip-hop is enormous and largely accidental. "Nautilus," from his 1974 album One, is among the most sampled records in existence, and "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" supplied the bell sound that opens Run-DMC's "Peter Piper" and dozens of others. An entire generation of producers built careers on his catalogue without most listeners ever learning his name.

Restless comes from the middle of his long, steady run of albums, and it is a good example of what he does when nobody is watching for a hit.

What to listen for

"Lotus Leaves" is the standout and the track most likely to appear on compilations — a beautifully constructed piece with real harmonic movement.

"Storm Warning" features Hilary James, his daughter, a cellist — and the family collaboration gives the record its most distinctive texture. Cello is a rare voice in this context and it works.

"Awaken Us To The Blue" and "Serenissima" are the most compositionally ambitious pieces, and "Back To Bali" is the most obviously exotic-tinged — a common move in this genre and one worth listening to critically.

"Animal Dreams" and "Into The Light" are the atmospheric ones; the title track is the most rhythmically active.

Throughout, listen to the piano voicings rather than the arrangements. James is a genuinely sophisticated harmonic thinker, and the chords underneath these pieces are considerably more interesting than the surface suggests.

Go deeper

One (1974) is the essential album — it contains "Nautilus," and hearing it in context is a revelation if you only know it as a sample.

Fourplay, his supergroup with Lee Ritenour, Nathan East and Harvey Mason, is the other significant project.

And the sample trail is a genuine pleasure to follow: Ghostface Killah, Slick Rick, Eric B. & Rakim, Main Source and A Tribe Called Quest have all built records on Bob James. WhoSampled will keep you occupied for an evening.

A closing thought on why an album like this matters. By 1994 Bob James had nothing left to prove commercially and no realistic prospect of a hit, which is exactly the condition under which musicians often make their most honest work. Restless is not trying to be anything; it is a skilled composer writing for a small group of excellent players and letting the pieces find their own length. That is a considerably rarer thing than a chart record, and it is why this album still rewards a proper sit-down listen thirty years later.

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