Montreux Jazz Special Concert
BOB JAMES (USA)
with Nathan East (USA), Jack Lee (Korea) & Lewis Pragasam (Malaysia)

11 Mar 06
Concert Hall
7.30pm

from $48

Bob James

With 38 albums and two Grammy® Awards to his name, Bob James is a true heavyweight of the jazz world.

A mainstay of the jazz scene since the ’70s, James' recordings virtually defined pop / jazz and crossover during the past two decades and he has won countless of fans worldwide with his inimitable brand of music which displays an uncanny ability to inflect jazz passages with pure pop sensibility. A highly versatile keyboard player and composer, James has also been regarded as being instrumental in turning 1970s fusion jazz more commercial and has written and produced albums which has become milestones in their respective genres.

His Grammy-award winning album Double Vision with saxophonist David Sanborn has been considered one of the defining albums of the smooth-jazz genre while his song Angela for the acclaimed TV series Taxi has been regarded as being among the greatest television series theme songs ever written.

At present a member of the group Fourplay, James' work with a variety of renowned musicians is testament to his talents and stature. He also recorded with guitarist Earl Klugh in Cool: Bob James and Earl Klugh (1992) and with saxophonist Kirk Whalum in Joined at the Hip: Bob James and Kirk Whalum (1996). James’ latest recording with Fourplay is Journey, released in 2004, while one of his most recent projects is Angels of Shanghai, featuring some of China’s most talented classical musicians.

For this special concert for Mosaic Music Festival in collaboration with the 40th anniversary of Montreux Jazz Festival, James will perform with some of the leading musicians in the scene today.

Korean-born jazz guitarist and producer Jack Lee is a familiar name in the New York music scene and known for his combination of jazz, Brazilian, R&B, pop and funk with Asian influences while Lewis Pragasam is Malaysia's foremost percussionist and among the few musicians in the world to have received a Fulbright Scholarship. Both Lee and Pragasam are co-founder of Asianenergy, a conceptual band.

Bassist Nathan East is one of the original members of the group Fourplay and has done sessions for Lionel Richie’s Endless Love, Kenny Rogers’ Lady, Kenny Loggins’ Footloose, and toured was part of Eric Clapton’s late-‘80s band.