Bob James
Bob James
Robert McElhiney James
Bob James is a Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and producer whose compositions have been sampled in hundreds of hip-hop songs. Two of the most sampled songs in hip-hop history come from the Bob James discography—“Nautilus” from his 1974 album One and “Take Me To the Mardi Gras” from his 1975 album Two, which have both been sampled hundreds of times. His 1978 song “Angela” was also used as the theme for the TV show Taxi. After being signed by Quincy Jones to Mercury Records in 1962 and releasing his first album the following year, Bob James went on to release dozens of albums, including In the Chapel in the Moonlight, his latest album released in 2017 in collaboration with flutist Nancy Stagnitta.