After revisiting his straight-ahead jazz roots on 2004's
Take It from the Top, legendary keyboardist/composer
Bob James returns to his bread and butter smooth jazz sound on
Urban Flamingo. This time around
James digs into his synthesizer chops for a set of relatively tepid and pop-oriented tracks that have more to do with contemporary soft rock and R&B than actual jazz. To these ends,
James' daughter
Hilary James takes a pleasant vocal turn on "Lay Down with You," while the funky "Niles Ahead" does reveal
James' more organic bent and harks back to his classic '70s albums. However, the majority of the journeyman artist's compositions here will do little to expand his audience beyond die-hard pop-jazz aficionados.