Bob James Trio Feel Like Making Live! (2 LP)

180g Vinyl Double LP!
TAS Rated 3.5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the May/June 2022 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
In the eyes of the rap generation, an older musician's hipness is often defined by how many times he or she has been sampled for beats and breaks. That means that keyboard wizard Bob James - whose records have been sampled a staggering 1,435 times, according to the website WhoSampled.Com - is a bona fide legend and cooler than cool. Although he's just celebrated his 81st birthday, Bob James is not about to close the piano lid for the last time and embrace retirement.
Alongside the same trio, bassist Michael Palazzolo and drummer Billy Kilson, that made 2018's critically-acclaimed Espresso album, Feel Like Making Live! captures James performing a career-spanning selection of material live in the studio. "Feel Like Making Live!" contains a beautiful collection of new jazz trio interpretations of Bob James' best-known hits. The former "Fourplay" keyboardist plays songs such as "Angela" (the title song of the film "Taxi!"), "Nautilus" (which has been sampled many times in the hip-hop area and has cult status) or an instrumental cover of Elton John's "Rocketman" in the trio.
This new jazz trio live-in-the-studio recording is released as a 180 gram double vinyl LP.
Feel Like Making Live! is smooth jazz front to back. From the opening cut ('Angela,' better known as the theme song to Taxi) to the closer ('Westchester Lady,' which originally paired James with Grover Washington), the Bob James Trio delivers the aural equivalent of comfort food, with performances as polished as the recording, which warrants very high marks for its clarity, dynamic range, and immediacy. - Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound, May/June 2022, Music 3.5/5, Sonics 4.5/5

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Double LP
• Hi-Res Audiophile Black Vinyl
• Live studio recording
• Gatefold jacket

Musicians:

• Bob James, piano
• Michael Palazzolo, bass
• Billy Kilson, drums

Selections:

Side A
1. Angela
2. Rocket Man
3. Maputo
4. Topside
Side B
1. Misty
2. Avalabop
3. Nautilus
4. Downtown
Side C
1. Niles A Head
2. Feel Like Making Love/Night Crawler
3. Submarine
Side D
1. Mister Magic
2. Nardis
3. Westchester Lady