Bob James and Nathan East have been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental/A-Cappella category, for “Ghost of a Chance”, from  the album “THE NEW COOL”, at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

James and East teamed up for this project, each bringing their own previous Grammy experience to create something special.  James, prior winner of two Grammys, also wrote the theme song to the hit television series “Taxi”.  East is hot off of his own Grammy nomination for his first ever solo record, 2014’s “NATHAN EAST”, and a Grammy Record of the Year win for laying down the bass on Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”.

Check out the Grammy nominations releases from the L.A. Times, E-Online, Perez Hilton, the Kansas City Star, the San Diego Union Tribune, and NBC-San Diego!

Record Reflections by A. Scott Galloway

25 years ago, a super group of contemporary jazz giants formed a quartet dubbed Fourplay and began the business of making evocative groove-scapes spiced with a tasty dollop of sensuality via soul-pop vocal stars and sexy covers of touchstones by boudoir masters Marvin Gaye and The Isley Brothers. Since that time, they’ve pretty much ditched the vocals and gone deeper into what I call movies for the ears. Fourplay’s new 10-song CD, Silver (Concord Records) – recorded at Sunset Sound Studio in Hollywood where they cut their self titled debut in 1990 for Warner Bros. – marks the band’s 25^th anniversary and is, fittingly, one of its finest most consistent CDs in some time.

Aside from said aural movie wonders, I find the highlights of this album (with all songs referencing silver in some constitution) are the slinky “Horace” (pianist Bob James’ homage to jazz legend Horace Silver, the great pianist and prolific “soul-jazz” composer who passed away in June 2014), the acoustic brushed elegance of drummer Harvey Mason’s “A Silver Lining,” guitarist Chuck Loeb’s “Precious Metal” – the most sensual and romantic of the songs featuring special guest Kirk Whalum – and bassist Nathan East’s “Aniversario,” a tasty slice of funk. Extra special are the returns of Fourplay’s previous guitarists: original member Lee Ritenour (who contributes the rich harmonically layered CD-closer “Windmill,” co-composed with old west coast studio friend “The Mase”) and Rit’s replacement Larry Carlton who joyfully teams with Loeb on the bluesy groove “Silverado” which feels like an Eddie Harris line buffed to signature Fourplay polish.

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THE NEW COOL is available NOW! Get yours here:
iTunes download: http://smarturl.it/TNC-iTunes
Physical CD + bonus photos: http://4wrd.it/TNC-YEGstore
Amazon.com: http://4wrd.it/TNC-Amazon

Behind-the-scenes videos & more at http://thenewcoolalbum.com

Nathan talks about Bob’s brilliant talent for arranging music…
THE NEW COOL is coming… 9.18.15. Pre-order now and get TWO instant tracks from the new album: http://smarturl.it/tnc-preorder
More at http://thenewcoolalbum.com

The New Cool, an acoustic offering by Fourplay founders Bob James (keyboards) and Nathan East (bass), will be released September 18 via Yamaha Entertainment Group. Recorded entirely in Nashville, the album was co-produced by Yamaha label president Chris Gero with James and East.

JazzTimes is pleased to present this exclusive premiere of the entire album!

Listen to the FULL ALBUM HERE!

Jazz pianist, composer, arranger Bob James and bassist, composer, educator Nathan East are featured in the September 2015 issue of Jazz Inside. Their new duo album, The New Cool is released on the new Yamaha Entertainment Group label and is inspired by the great piano duos of Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez, Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown and others. Together Nathan East and Bob James founded Fourplay 25 years ago. Among the highlights in James’ career include a long term association as the accompanist for Sarah Vaughn, as composer of the theme for the TV show Taxi, and as arranger for numerous albums on the CTI label in the 70s. Nathan East appears on some of the most influential and landmark pop albums in history by artists including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, George Harrison and others. This issue of Jazz Inside Magazine also includes an interview with saxophonist Ochion Jewell; CD Reviews, and a comprehensive calendar of hundreds of club, concert and event listings.
READ THE FEATURE ARTICLE HERE! 

Sometimes rules need to be broken!
More on this exciting musical collaboration between Bob James & Nathan East (and others!) on this new behind-the-scenes look at #TheNewCool.

THE NEW COOL is coming… 9.18.15.
Pre-order now and get TWO instant tracks from the new album! smarturl.it/tnc-preorder

While bassist Nathan East and keyboardist Bob James have collaborated before as members of the jazz supergroup Fourplay, they’ve never done anything quite like this. For their new project, they’ve teamed up as a duo for an acoustic jazz album that features a strong emphasis on the dance between bass and piano.

It’s called The New Cool, and it rolls out later this month.

The project got its start with Yamaha Entertainment Group label President Chis Gero sending East and James into a Nashville recording studio decked out with some state-of-the-art equipment provided by his company. They emerged with 11-tracks, more than half of which are original compositions. Their creations run the gamut from minimalistic duets to intricate ensemble arrangements.

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The New Cool” (www.thenewcoolalbum.com ) is coming. Labor Day Weekend is upon us and shortly after – September 18 to be exact –Yamaha Entertainment Group will release the first duets collection byGrammy winners Bob James and Nathan East. An intimate acoustic jazz set of piano and bass banter from the jazz legend and master musician,iTunes pre-orders for “The New Cool” are surging while the 10-part series of behind-the-scenes vignettes about the making of this extraordinary recording whets the appetite of sophisticated listeners by the thousands. Produced by James, East and Yamaha Entertainment Group presidentChris Gero, this masters’ class is in session boasting a syllabus of original compositions written specifically for this project and a few handpicked classics. With a straight-ahead lean while adventurously exploring all corners of the jazz playground, it’s unlike anything the highly-accomplished duo has ever recorded in their lengthy careers. 

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