Bob James Interview Page 4

BJ:  I’ve had some people talking to me about that track and I worried that I might have been a little far out on a limb because I also wanted to go one step further than just thinking of the project in the sort of conventional jazz terms from the West, but I’ve had the occasion recently to become a little bit more involved in the hip hop world, both because a lot of my old records have been sampled by hip hop artists, which has been very flattering, but I’ve also been a bit hands on in trying to see if I could learn anything from that world and the way that they put the music together so differently than the way we have in the past and the way they treat women differently and the way they treat these chunks of sounds that are looped and repeated and so forth, so there’s definitely that element in the “Dream With Me” piece which I kinda created having spent that time in the studio getting all this kind of raw material from them, and I took little chunks of it.  I didn’t want to intimidate them with trying to just write things down and having them play them literally; I wanted them to open up and just play whatever came into their head and then worry about how I would use it later, and that piece “Dream With Me” literally came about as a result of taking a lot of those chunks and then just combining them into hopefully like a hypnotic mood piece.

Smitty:  Yes, and it’s a kickin’ track, man.  I really love that one.  Well, now, the record is out here in the U.S. now as of April 10th?

BJ:  Yes, it’s just barely out and it’s very exciting for me.  It’s like the kind of bringing the dream to a conclusion, coming full circle with it, getting it introduced in Asia, where I kind of theorized that there might be a more receptive audience for it at first, where the people, your listeners, were more accustomed to hearing those sounds, and then if I could survive that, then taking on the challenge and the responsibility of getting it released here in the U.S.

Smitty:  Yes.

BJ:  Fortunately I have wonderful support from my record company, Koch, who has really embraced the project, and I believe they really understand it and are willing to take on the challenge of trying to promote something that is so different and might strike some people’s fears as being more foreign than they think that they’re able to deal with.

Smitty:  Yes.  Well, I hope that this is the first of more projects like this and with these great players that you’ve done this project with. And I applaud everyone at Koch for their usual “Out of the Box” approach in support of this great record.

BJ:  Well, thank you for the encouragement.  I’ve had some fun reactions during that Asian tour on that very first time when I was in Thailand, in Bangkok.  Immediately I had some musicians come up to me saying “Why don’t you do a project with traditional Thailand instruments?  We have all kinds of similar things to the Chinese instruments, you know.  Do a project with our music.”  The same thing happened to me in Korea and the same thing in Indonesia and the same thing in Japan.  “Our traditional instruments are different and they have their own unique characteristic and we’d love to hear them combined with jazz as well.”  So if I had enough ambition and if there were enough years in my lifetime, I think I could do a whole series like this.

Smitty:  Yes, man.  Well, I hope that you have some years left to do at least a couple more of these, man, because this is fascinating music and I really think that the public here in the U.S. will embrace this as well.

BJ:  Well, I sure hope so too and we’re gonna give it our best to make sure they get introduced to it and we’ll see what happens. Regardless of that, the passion has been there for me.  It’s been a wonderful experience and the wonderful thing to me about the recording media is that it now exists and you never know when people are gonna find it.

Smitty:  Yes, very true.

BJ:  I’ve had a few pieces of music in the past that didn’t quite get people’s attention when they first came out, but then lo and behold, 20 years or more later, suddenly somebody finds it and responds to it in a positive way and that’s a great aspect of being in the recording field.

Smitty:  Yes indeed.  Well, Bob, I want to personally thank you on behalf of all your many fans for this great project and all that you do in the jazz world, and I would say keep doing what you do, my friend, and keep your improvisational spirit strong.

BJ:  Thank you, Smitty, and let me definitely thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to help me introduce the project and make people aware of it.

Smitty:  Yes indeed.  It’s my pleasure.  We’ve been talking with the incredible Mr. Bob James.  Once again he has created an extraordinary new project.  It is called Angels of Shanghai.  This is a must for your CD player.  Bob, thanks again, my friend, and let’s get together again in the future soon.

BJ:  I hope so.  It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.bobjames.com and www.kochrecords.com