''Two'' is the fourth solo album by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

keyboardist Bob James.

Reception

The album is the second of a series of jazz-funk classics (along with ''

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

'', ''

Three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

'' and ''

BJ4 ''BJ4'' is the fourth album by jazz pianist Bob James. Released in 1977, the album charted at number three on the Jazz Album Charts. This would be his last CTI album before starting his label Tappan Zee Records, named for one of the tracks on t ...

''). Released in 1975, the album charted at number two on the Jazz Album Charts. The track "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" is one of the most widely used tracks in hip-hop

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...

samples.

Track listing

# "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" (

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

) – 5:50 # "

I Feel a Song (In My Heart) "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" is a song written by Tony Camillo and Mary Sawyer. The song was originally recorded by Sandra Richardson in 1971 Gladys Knight & the Pips recording In 1974, the song was recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips and was f ...

" (

Tony Camillo Anthony J. Camillo (August 11, 1928 – August 29, 2018)
bongiovifuneralhome.com retrieved Apri ...

, Mary Sawyer) – 5:26 # "The Golden Apple" (Bob James) – 7:20 # "Farandole" (

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...

) – 8:24 # "You're as Right as Rain" (

Thom Bell Thomas Randolph Bell (January 27th, 1943 – December 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, pianist, and composer known as one of the creators of Philadelphia soul in the 1970s. He found success as a producer ...

Linda Creed Linda Diane Creed (December 6, 1948 – April 10, 1986), also known by her married name Linda Epstein, was an American songwriter and lyricist who teamed up with Thom Bell to produce some of the most successful Philadelphia soul groups of the 19 ...

) – 5:28 # "Dream Journey" (Bob James) – 5:55

Personnel

* Bob James – electric piano,

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

ARP Odyssey The ARP Odyssey is an analog synthesizer introduced by ARP Instruments in 1972. History ARP developed the Odyssey as a direct competitor to the Moog Minimoog and an answer to the demand for more affordable, portable, and less complicated "perf ...

, Yamaha YC-30

combo organ A combo organ, so-named and classified by popular culture due to its original intended use by small, touring jazz, pop and dance groups known as "combo bands", as well as some models having "Combo" as part of their brand or model names, is an ele ...

, arrangements and conductor *

Eric Gale Eric Gale (September 20, 1938 – May 25, 1994) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. ''Early life and career'' Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, Gale grew up in a diverse household. His paternal grandfather was from Yorksh ...

– guitar (1, 2, 4), bass (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) * Richard Resnicoff – guitar (3, 5) * Gary King – bass (3) * Andrew Smith – drums (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) *

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the ''Modern D ...

– drums (3) * Arthur Jenkins – percussion *

Ralph MacDonald Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist. His compositions ...

– percussion *

Patti Austin Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950) is an American R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter. Music career Austin was born in Harlem, New York, to Gordon Austin, a jazz trombonist. She was raised in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island. Quincy ...

– vocals, lead vocal (2) * Frank Floyd – vocals * Lani Groves – vocals * Zachary Sanders – vocals Brass and Woodwinds *

Hubert Laws Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm- ...

– flute (4), electric flute (4) *

Eddie Daniels Eddie Daniels (born October 19, 1941) is an American musician and composer. Although he is best known as a jazz clarinetist, he has also played saxophone and flute as well as classical music on clarinet. Early life, family and education Daniel ...

– clarinet *

James Buffington James Lawrence Buffington (born May 15, 1922, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania; died July 20, 1981, Englewood, New Jersey) was an American jazz, studio, and classical hornist. Buffington was a busy studio and jazz player on the French horn. He was ...

– French horn * Peter Gordon – French horn * Al Richmond – French horn *

Wayne Andre Wayne Andre (November 17, 1931 – August 26, 2003) was an American jazz trombonist, best known for his work as a session musician. Andre's father was a saxophonist, and he took private music lessons from age 15. He played with Charlie Spivak in ...

– trombone * Eddie Bert – trombone * Tom Mitchell – trombone * Tony Studd – trombone *

Randy Brecker Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B. Early life Brecker was born on Nov ...

– trumpet, flugelhorn * John Frosk – trumpet, flugelhorn * Victor Paz – trumpet, flugelhorn *

Lew Soloff Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944–March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. Biography From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard Sc ...

– trumpet, flugelhorn *

Marvin Stamm Marvin Louis Stamm (born May 23, 1939) is an American jazz trumpeter. Career Stamm was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Stamm began on trumpet at age twelve. He attended North Texas State University, where he was a member of the One O ...

– trumpet, flugelhorn Strings *

Seymour Barab Seymour Barab (January 9, 1921 – June 28, 2014) was an American composer of opera, songs and instrumental and chamber music, as well as a cellist, organist and pianist. He was best known for his fairy tale operas for young audiences, such as ' ...

, Alla Goldberg, Warren Lash, Jesse Levy, George Ricci,

Alan Shulman Alan Shulman (4 June 1915 – 10 July 2002) was an American composer and cellist. He wrote a considerable amount of symphonic music, chamber music, and jazz music. Trumpeter Eddie Bailey said, "Alan had the greatest ear of any musician I ever came ...

and Anthony Sophos – cello * Harry Cykman, Max Ellen, Paul Gershman, Harry Glickman, Emanuel Green, Harold Kohon, Charles Libove,

Harry Lookofsky Harry Lookofsky (1 October 1913 – 8 June 1998) was an American jazz violinist. He was also the father of keyboardist-songwriter Michael Brown, who most notably was a founding member of The Left Banke and Stories. History Harry Lookofsky w ...

, Joe Malin,

David Nadien David Nadien (March 12, 1926 – May 28, 2014) was an American virtuoso violinist and violin teacher. He was the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic from 1966 to 1970. His playing style, characterized by fast vibrato, audible shifting noise ...

Gene Orloff Gene Orloff (June 14, 1921 – March 23, 2009) was an American violinist, concertmaster, arranger, contractor and session musician. Background The son of a Russian immigrant violin maker, Orloff would try and get his father's violin down from th ...

and Matthew Raimondi – violin

Production

* Creed Taylor – producer *

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Theloni ...

– engineer * Bob Ciano – album design * Greg Laurents – cover photography

Samples

* Many artists sampled the drums and bell part of the intro to the track "Take Me to the Mardi Gras", an instrumental cover of the Paul Simon song. It has since become a widely recognized

drum break In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece. A break is usually interpolated between sections of a song, to pr ...

, similar to another break from another instrumental, "

Ashley's Roachclip "Ashley's Roachclip" is an instrumental by funk group the Soul Searchers from the 1974 album '' Salt of the Earth'' on Sussex Records. A portion of the track from 3:30 to 3:50 contains a widely recognized drum break that has been sampled countless ...

". * The melody of "You're as Right as Rain" was sampled by Norwegian electronic music duo

Röyksopp Röyksopp (), a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø formed in 1998. The duo consists of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland. Berge and Brundtland were introduced to each other through a mutual friend in Tromsø, Norway. They enjoye ...

for their 2001 single "

Eple "Eple" (; "Apple") is a song by Norwegian electronica duo Röyksopp, released as their second single. In 2003, it was re-released as the duo's third single from their debut album ''Melody A.M.''. Commercial use The song's title comes from the N ...

" (whose title means "apple" in Norwegian, in reference to ''Two''s album cover).

Charts

External links

Bob James - Two
at Discogs

References

{{Authority control 1975 albums Bob James (musician) albums CTI Records albums Albums produced by Creed Taylor Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio