The celebrated and prolific Grammy Award-winning jazz keyboardist Bob James was discovered and signed to his first record contract by Quincy Jones in 1962. James would go on to record over 60 solo albums and guest on as many more while working in New York City recording studios and hiring some of the greatest musicians of all time to play his unique blend of jazz-funk-fusion

Bob wrote “Angela,” the theme to the hit TV sitcom “Taxi” in 1976, which put his music in the ears of millions of viewers every week for the six-year, 118-episode run and cemented his place in American culture. A decade later, hip-hop producers began sampling his early recordings without permission or compensation, and suddenly, his music was being discovered by a brand new audience, and now Bob holds the distinction of being the 2nd most sampled artist in Hip-Hop (James Brown is in first place). Bob, the son of an attorney, took his copyright and IP very seriously and in the early days of hip-hop, found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to protect his music from unauthorized and unpaid usage.

Bob’s recording engineer from 1975-1990 was Phil Ramone-protege Joe Jorgensen and father of Mikael Jorgensen from the Grammy-Award winning band Wilco. Mikael would attend recording sessions and concerts in the late 1970s in Manhattan with Joe and became hooked on music and music production. Joe passed away in 2003 after battling cancer.

Mikael went to see Bob perform at The Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles in October of 2022 after not seeing him for over 30 years. Their brief post-show green room interaction felt like there was more to say, so Jorgensen decided to direct a film that told Bob’s story.

In February of 2023, Jorgensen went to The Blue Note jazz club in New York to film Bob performing with Talib Kweli’s band celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop. Mikael spoke with Talib Kweli, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels from RUN DMC, and a roundtable featuring hip-hop producers DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, and Statik Selektah about their love for Bob’s music and its significance as one of the cornerstones of the musical vocabulary of Hip-Hop.

“There’s no hip-hop if it ain’t you!”

- Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of RUN DMC on Bob James

At Bob’s current home in Traverse City, MI, Mikael conducted four days of interviews and conversations with Bob about his life and music in June of 2023. Notable moments include the conversations, stories, and memories that came up between the two of them while sitting on the couch listening to a playlist of Bob’s songs as well as Bob sitting at his piano articulating his appreciation for Gershwin, a deep dive into the song “Angela” and Bob talks about his struggle with perfectionism.

The Bob James Documentary will be a feature-length film about creativity and the struggles and successes of a talented, prolific, and influential musician through interviews and archival materials.

(Bob James & Mikael Jorgensen, February 2023
Photo: Janette Beckman

Large Professor, Pete Rock, Talib Kweli, Statik Selektah, DJ Premier & Bob James Feb 2023. Photo: Janette Beckman

Filmmakers:

Mikael Jorgensen - Director, Producer
Annie Uzdavinis - Producer

Frank Rios - Camera
Joe Rubinstein - Camera
Alan Marino - Camera
Philip Holahan - Camera
Rich Brauer - Grip / Audio
Samuel Crick - DIT

Sonny Abelardo - Bob James’ Manager
David Marchione - Bob’s Engineer / EP
Liann Kaye - Executive Producer
Rachel Kwag - Bob’s Creative Consultant

Greg Richling - Executive Producer
Jonathan Sheldon - Executive Producer