musical shapeshifter - josÉ james talks' a straight-ahead set of voice-piano duets with...

MUSICAL SHAPESHIFTER - JOSÉ JAMES TALKS

Written by Charles WaringThursday, 26 June 2014 10:34 - Last Updated Thursday, 26 June 2014 11:37

When he emerged from nowhere in 2007 with a stunning debut album, 'Dreamer,' for GillesPeterson's UK-based Brownswood label, Minneapolis- born José James was hailed as one ofthe most exciting new jazz singers to emerge for many a year. With his warm, distinctivedelivery - which melded the lush, resonant tone of Johnny Hartman with the carefree athleticismof Jon Hendricks - James seemed a purist's dream by virtue of the fact that he seemed solelyfocused on maintaining and continuing the jazz tradition.

Cameo roles on albums by jazz legends Junior Mance (2008's 'Live At Café Loup'), and ChicoHamilton(2009's 'Twelve Tones Of Love') enhanced his jazz credentials but to the surprise of many, thesinger's next solo opus - 2009's 'Black Magic' - witnessed him taking a radically different direction, his mellow voice floating on a bed ofslinky neo-R&B and jazz-tinged hip-hop beats. James then left Brownswood and recorded aone-off collaboration for Impulse!, 'For All We Know,' a straight-ahead set of voice-piano duets with Belgian keyboardist, Jef Neve, in 2010. Afterthat he signed to Blue Note in 2012 and recorded 'No Beginning No End,' another diverse collection that witnessed the singer embracing different styles and moving

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away from the narrow confines of straight ahead jazz.

Now 36, the chameleonic and very personable US singer is back with his fourth solo album -and second for Blue Note - 'While You Were Sleeping.' Largely a guitar-led set that featuresseveral tracks of indie rock-style riffing and power chords, the 12-song collection is far removedfrom the intimate old school jazz style that he out started with. But while the album might bypassthe most blinkered of jazz critics, James hasn't abandoned the gorgeous soulfulness that hasbeen a consistent feature of all his recordings. The singer, who's due to play at London's Scalavenue on July 7th, recently talked at length to SJF's Charles Waring about his new album, hiswork with Italian jazz-funk maestro Nicola Conteas well as the musicians that have helped to shape his own unique sound and style...

Your new album 'While You Were Sleeping' is very different from what you've one before.What's the story behind it?

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It started when I was on the road and I was listening to a lot of Alice Coltrane - not any of thestuff that is commercially available but like the stuff that she recorded when she was in anashram; her cassette-only album from 1982 ('Turiya Sings'). What struck me was that was itwas so heavy on synths. There's like a real resurgence of synth-based music now and I waslistening to her and I was listening to (English electro auteur) James Blake at the same time andwas thinking like, wow, this is basically the same thing. To me there's so much church music inwhat James Blake does. So that got me on the connection between the jazz mind and theelectronic, indie rock world. So that was the genesis of it.

Some of the tracks, such as the opener 'Angel,' have a pronounced guitar-led rock feel tothem. What was the thinking behind that?

All the songs are written on guitar so it feels like a natural trend towards folk or rock or blues orsinger-songwriter music. It just sort of started heading in that direction and my bassistrecommended Brad Williams, a guitar player. We had some sessions with him and it felt reallygood. Actually there's a bonus track (on the album), 'Who Loves The Sun,' by the VelvetUnderground and that was an exercise for me to get the band headed in being morecomfortable playing rock. I didn't want to make a rock album but I wanted the energy andattitude of rock.

What's the response been to the new album?

Well, everybody outside of the UK loves it. Everyone in the UK who is a jazz person hates it,uniformly (laughs). Though actually jazz FM has embraced it, they like the Al Green track('Simply Beautiful') but there is really a lot of resistance to it - but only in the UK.

Many jazz critics here are purists who are resistant to change.

Yeah, mouldy figs, right? (Laughs).

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'While You Were Sleeping' is radically different from the album that you first started outwith, 'Dreamer,' in 2007. Are you a musician who's never content to sit still stylisticallyand enjoy taking risks?

I think so. Honestly, spending so much time in London and working with Gilles Peterson reallyshaped this whole trajectory. Before I met Gilles I was very much content to be a straight up anddown jazz singer and was still wearing suits. I was more like Gregory Porter in a way but evenmore classical than him. And I wasn't writing my own songs. 'The Dreamer' was the first songthat I ever wrote, which is crazy. Gilles introduced me to so many new artists and newcommunities and working with DJs and working with producers and I thought, wow, okay, this isa whole new world for me and I really haven't looked back. I'm really thankful for the time I hadworking with Gilles: he opened me up to new possibilities.

Now you're on your second album for Blue Note Records. What does it feel like to beassociated with a legendary record company that has so much jazz history associatedwith it?

It's incredible and a huge honour and I recently did a celebration concert in Amsterdam at theConcertgebouw and we performed with (legendary jazz saxophonist/composer) Benny Golson,which was amazing. He told me all these amazing stories, for example like how the track'Moanin'' (which Golson wrote while with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers) was written. And thenwe went from that to play some of my stuff, like 'Trouble' (from José's 2012 CD, 'No BeginningNo End'). It was just really cool and seamless, and he really loved it. What I find is that the olderthe jazz musician the more open-minded they are. It's really interesting. He was sitting thereand was super into it and this guy's 85.

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Brian Bender co-produced album with you. What does he brings sonically to the table? Well, Bender's the one who can make it all make sense. I'm the one coming up with the ideas; Iwant a little bit of this or little bit of that and Stereolab and he says okay. He's the one thatmakes it sound cohesive, so it's not all over the place because we took a lot of risks and went toa lot of places sonically and frankly I pushed band to go to places that I didn't know they wereprepared to go to, which is good. And they pushed me to those places too, so it's good to haveone person who is not in the band and who didn't write the songs and who emotionally isn't tiedinto the stuff and who can say: you know what? Let's do another take or "that was perfect"because there's a lot of heated discussion and a lot of fights in the studio and we were freakingout. Japanese trumpeter and your label mate Takuya Kuroda plays on your Al Green cover,'Simply Beautiful.' What was the experience of working with him like? He's just a joy. He's super-spontaneous and soulful and a great guy to be around. He makesyou really happy so he was just a total pleasure, man. What made you choose that particular Al Green song? I just love it. It's a song that's stayed with me since the first time that I heard it and we startedperforming it live and it was so good that we said let's do a studio version of it. You know itreally has to be good if you're going to cover Al Green or any of those greats: Marvin Gaye orAretha. It has to mean something. And I think it really does. In terms of your musical influences, which musicians over the years have helped toshape your own musical style? Miles Davis for sure. Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Marvin Gaye. I think those are the mainpeople and then from hip-hop, A Tribe Called Quest, The Beastie Boys, people like that. Anddefinitely (Seattle grunge rockers led by Kurt Cobain) Nirvana too. That was a big influence onthis album. What drew you to jazz in the first place? It was really hip-hop samples. I was really into A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Ice Cube,and pretty much everything I listened to had some kind of a jazz sample in there or a soulsample. I started checking out the samples, like A Tribe Called Quest sampled Roy Ayers' 'WeLive in Brooklyn,' so I found the original album and then when I discovered there was this vastunending catalogue of jazz and soul stuff I just got super-hooked. It was like this world that I hadstumbled upon that no one had ever told me about.

As well as your own new album you also have a cameo appearance on the new album,'Free Spirits' by Italian guitarist Nicola Conte, singing on the track 'Goddess of the Sea'... It's funny: everyone keeps telling me about it but I haven't heard it. I think it was something thatwe must have done in the studio that I totally forgot about (laughs). It might have beensomething that we had recorded before. I've been to Bari three different times. I did the samething with Jazzanova: just record a whole bunch of stuff while the iron is hot. We've done a lot ofstuff together. He's a great producer, super-musical, very knowledgeable, and he really hassuch an interesting, specific sound. Previously you worked with the legendary jazz pianist, Junior Mance. How did you meethim and what was the experience of working with him like? He is just a super-legend, man. God, I could talk about Junior forever. He's from the Midwest,originally from Chicago, so we have that in common. The thing about Junior is that he's workedwith pretty much every great jazz singer and musician who's ever lived. He's worked with JoeWilliams, Johnny Hartman, Dinah Washington and Carmen McRae and so just the stories (hetells) and that kind of accompanist doesn't really exist any more. It was absolutely great to workwith him. Given that Junior has worked with some of the greatest vocalists in jazz history, did itmake you feel that you were part of the music's tradition and vocal lineage? Oh, absolutely. To be able to work with those guys, him and Chico Hamilton, and to be able tomeet Benny Golson and have him hear my stuff, and say "hey, that's really great, you reallyhave something" really makes me feel special. Those guys created the music literally so comingfrom them that means more than anybody.

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You worked with Chico on his '12 Tones Of Love' album didn't you? I was so nervous. Chico started the New School actually. A lot of people don't know that he wasone of the two founders of the New School Of Music and Junior (Mance) was the first person hehired as a teacher. In true jazz fashion, the other guy, Arnie, who started the school, went to abar and saw Chico and said hey, we're starting a school will you be our first teacher? (Laughs).They were innocent times back then, like 30 years ago. Chico was still teaching at school - hewas teaching basic rhythm, if you can believe that - when I went there. When you're in theuniversity you get to test out a lot of stuff if you are in dance or something. Singers don't reallyhave as much musical training as saxophonists and instrumentalists so we all took basic rhythmand it turned out to be the best class ever because it was Chico Hamilton and he turned it into avocal session and talked about the legendary people that he worked with; like Lena Horne, whohe was with for six years or something. He was just a super-sweetheart and he remembered mefrom the class when he was making a bunch of albums. He called me and said hey, here's thebeat of the song, this is the place in time and that's it. He was real old school. He didn't tell methe key or anything specific. So you really have to prepare so I spent a week preparing for everypossible key and it was great because when I came to the rehearsal I knew I was ready. He wassuper-sweet but those guys don't really mess around. They mean what they say and they dothings in one take and that's it. There's like a seriousness about them in the studio that definitelydoesn't exist in my generation. There's not a lot of playing around... A straight down to business kind of attitude? Yeah, but it's relaxed: it's like we're here to make music and we're not here to waste the label'smoney on hanging out and getting high. Has that rubbed off on you, then, when you go in the studio? Oh, totally. I'm super-decisive, especially working with younger artists like Kris Bowers and even(guitarist) Brad. I think there's something about instruments that you can play all day and not gettired. They always want to do another take and try a different way but for me it's different. I'vegrown into the role of a producer, not only creatively, but also financially as an executiveproducer so I'm the one watching the clock: okay, cut, move on! (Laughs). What do you feel about the album now that is almost out... How does it compare to whatyou've done before? We had the release party in New York last night and it was fantastic. I just feel like it's a hugestep in my development. I really feel it. I think the songwriting is deeper: it's broader and I thinkI'm able to touch more people in different ways and I feel like the production has advanced inleaps and bounds. I've really loved everything that I've done. I'm not the sort of artist that looksback with disdain on my first album. I just think there's no comparison in terms of production. Itfeels more immersive to me and it feels like a more personal statement than anything I've done. Beyond this album, what are your musical ambitions? Is there anything else in thepipeline we should know about? Well, I have three projects that I'm working on right now actually, one as a producer. I'm workingwith one of the co-writers on my album, Talia Billig, who wrote 'U R The 1' and 'Without You.'She's doing a solo album that I'm helping produce and write for which is really cool. And thenI'm doing a special project next year for Blue Note in tribute to Billie Holiday for her hundredthbirthday anniversary. So that's going to be with Jason Moran and Christian McBride. Don Wasis producing that one. And then I've started writing a future José James album. Right now I'mthinking of doing a series of duets with all female singers. Hopefully that can happen. I've beendreaming of working with people like Corinne Bailey Rae for about four years now. There'ssomething about the duet that I love, especially like Marvin Gaye and all the duets he did: I thinkit brings out something different in him. Will you be writing your own material for that or will you be using covers? Who knows? We'll probably laugh about it when the album actually comes out but right now I'dlike to do original stuff. I think that would be cooler.

Just before you go, you did a great little album with Jef Neve a few years ago forImpulse! called 'For All We Know.' It won a couple of awards. How did that recognitionfeel? It feels great. That was a really special album. It's funny: we actually just did it on a whim. Weeach had a day off. We barely knew each other but had this great musical rapport and after afew glasses of champagne after his radio show I said hey, what are you doing tomorrow? I havethe day off. He said: nothing, I have the day off. I said let's make an album. Are you serious?Yeah, let's do it. So we just went into the studio and did the whole thing in a day and really did itfor ourselves and kind of as a joke but for fun and as we were driving back from the studio, likean hour from Brussels and it was raining, I'll never forget it, we were listening to it and I saidholy shit, I think this is really good (laughs). So to go from that to trailing all over the world andwinning prestigious jazz awards felt pretty awesome. And not to mention that being on Impulse!was like another dream. Yes, you've now recorded for two of the jazz's most iconic record labels.... Yeah, my jazz nerd self is very pleased. JOSÉ JAMES NEW ALBUM 'WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING' IS OUT NOW ON BLUE NOTE

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musical shapeshifter - josÉ james talks' a straight-ahead set of voice-piano duets with...

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