Only CDs Is Sounding Like These # 98: Bob James, “The Very Best Of” (2015)

A new occasional series — CDs are coming back baby! And I’m here for it. BIGTIME! Also, some albums just REALLY suit the format, right

I have a huge chunk of Bob James’ catalogue on vinyl. I love the individual albums — but I have to credit this CD comp with that particular part of my collection.

Of course I already had the Taxi-related material (the original album Touchdown, with the song Angela on it, the actual TAXI soundtrack vinyl with the cues from the show, and the live album with Bob in a taxi on the cover…) but it was this compilation which has key tracks like Take Me To The Mardi Gras, and of course Nautilus, that sold me on Bob James as the guy I should collect.

Those seventies tracks sound and look right on vinyl — but this collection of highlights works best on CD.

And though that’s not a rule of thumb, it is good logic I think to save the hits collections and comps for compact disc, or cassette, and the albums for vinyl.

I think Bob James has been in my life forever, primarily because of Taxi but then I listen to this and his first four albums, and realise I knew a lot of this material too.

He gets a lot of grief for being soft pop and smooth jazz, but he’s one of the greats in my opinion. And so many people sampled him, so many great musicians worked with him, and he continues to create, to play, to challenge himself, and to flit through the sub-spaces within his genre/s.

I love him.

And I love this.

It’s the handy stopgap, fill-in; one of the CDs that I have packed in my emergency music kit. I’m also not joking about that. At all. That’s a thing. A very special thing. And of course Bob James is in there.