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| Jose James |
There is one thing you can count on when the vocalist José James
puts out a new album, it will be unlike anything he has done before. The
thirty-nine year old singer has been confounding his audience and critics alike
with his insistence on not settling on his past musical laurels. He is first and foremost an artist, who primarily wants to push himself and his art into new and sometimes
uncomfortable territory. For him these forays into the unknown are stretching exercises,
yoga for his creative spirit. The
Minneapolis born singer has always felt singing was his calling and he takes
his mission very seriously.
Ever since attending the New School of Contemporary Music in
NYC in 2008, James has been on a search to expand his musical horizons. He was
mentored by the pianist Junior Mance and the drummer/bandleader Chico Hamilton.
He claims his jazz influences as John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, but his
lineage also includes the music of Marvin Gaye and A Tribe Called Quest, and you
can hear the cadence of Gil Scott-Heron and the silky smoothness of Johnny
Hartman in his luxurious baritone.
My first exposure to James was at the Carmoor Jazz
Festival back in 2010. At that time I was so impressed that I wrote "He is a young artist that needs to be watched." In 2015 I caught James “live” when he came to
the Variety theater in Atlanta in support of his Yesterday I Had the Blues, a tribute to Billie Holiday. His stage
presence was noticeably more polished and his performance was inspired.
His debut album Dreamer
was self-produced and introduced in 2008 to critical acclaim, with James ushering in a new
era of jazz vocals that incorporated elements of hip hop into the repertoire. He released Blackmagic, a neo-soul classic that pushed further onto new ground. With little concern about alienating his core audience, James daringly released
a sparse duet album of jazz standards with the British pianist Jef Neve, For All We Know. The album received
international recognition garnering the Edison Award and L' Accademie du Jazz Grand Prix for best Vocal Jazz Album of 2010.
In 2012 James
was signed to the prestigious Blue Note record label where he released his single
“Trouble” and the album No Beginning, No
End in 2013 and While You Were
Sleeping in 2014. In 2015, in honor of what would have been of Billie Holiday’s
One Hundredth birthday, James released the impressive Yesterday I Had the Blues, where the singer skillfully interpreted
songs of Lady Day in his own inimitable style. Critics hailed the album and it was named on many best of jazz for 2015 lists including my own.
James most
recent album is titled Love in aTime
of Madness and once again is a departure from the vocalist’s past outings,
taking on a distinctive vibe that explores the soul, R and B, and funk of the
late seventies, modernizing it with electronica techniques like trap beat.
Notes on Jazz spoke to
James about his new album and his upcoming tour via telephone on March 8, 2017.
NOJ: You are starting a tour that will kick off in Atlanta, this
time at CenterStage, on March 16, 2017. This will be in support of your latest
album Love in a Time of Madness. Let’s get started on how this album came about.
JJ: A lot of people will be surprised to know this, but the
actual constructive beginning of this album and this process began with the
Blue Note catalogue. I was going through a now defunct Spotify app that was
amazing. It was all about Blue Note samples. It was this ingenious app that let
you hear pretty much every Blue Note sample in the history of the label. It was
incredible. I was going through it thinking about, what is some stuff I haven’t really checked out. I came across all
of this great material from the seventies with the Mizzell Brothers producing,
Hubert Laws, Donald Byrd and I realized that I knew those albums through
hip-hop samples, but I really didn’t actually know the albums. So I spent a lot
of time listening to the albums themselves. That actually pointed me in the
direction of the kind of funk jams, live your fantasy and all that kind of
stuff that you hear on Life in the Time
of Madness.
NOJ: You have a tour in support of this album and you
starting off that tour right here in Atlanta at Centerstage. Why start in
Atlanta?
JJ: Atlanta for me is easily one of the top three places to
play in the world. If I had to pick one city in the U.S. to play in the year it
would be Atlanta, just on a pure enjoyment level. I find it has the kind of
intellectual sophistication and musical appreciation, like New York or LA, but it
has that realness of like a Detroit or Chicago. People just really love music. It also has this real spiritual
and African American perspective that really puts it in a special place for me
all on its own. I love it, I know I have to start strong in Atlanta.
NOJ: I myself am a
transplant to Atlanta from the metro NY area and I was pleased to find a
vibrant and strong jazz community that is talented and quite dedicated.
Although audience participation in pure jazz is a little weak here.
JJ: I can see that.
NOJ :It is guys like you that I see as a bridge to a wider
audience and that is an important aspect to your music and your appeal.
But let’s continue about your new album. The title of your
new album Love in a Time of Madness. Is
that a conscious derivative of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez book and what is the
madness you are referring to?
JJ: For the longest time it was my working title and I wasn’t
sure if it was going to be my actual title. It was about two and a half years
ago when we started this. We weren’t in the full Trump era yet and all of this
extended police brutality against African Americans and people of color hadn’t
really hit the point where it is now. I find it almost debilitating. It has
been kind of on my mind. Trump had started making remarks about women and I
think the concept of trying to find something to hold on to, in a literal time
of madness, was really attractive to me and I started to work towards that.
The
madness part started to get totally crazy, it just got totally bananas man. You
know the racism, the sexism, the economic instability, the Brexit vote,
immigration wow. I just got overwhelmed by the realities of the news every day.
So I thought, I don’t know if people want me or need me to put out a political
album? It‘s so in your face already. The twenty-four-hour news cycle has been
tough for me. So I decided to focus on a solution. For me that’s love. That is
trying to connect to someone else, other than yourself. Also there are higher
levels of the writing on the album that I hope people pick up on, you know trying
to connect to a higher power or a higher source. Also to be honest with
yourself. This is an honest album for me, you know it is not all roses and cupcakes.
NOJ: Not at all. I can see the gamut of emotions in this
album. You touch on loss, fidelity, infidelity, arrogance, desire, infatuation.
I mean it’s all there.
JJ: Yeah.
NOJ: I guess you were trying to convey love and all its
messy truths, as an antidote to all the madness around you is that an accurate
reading?
JJ: Absolutely. Really, that is the only solution that I
have been able to come up with. The economy is unstable. I perform in like forty
countries a year. I have a lot of friends all over. We are all in the same
boat. Everyone is just trying to pay the rent and stay focused and have a
future. The only constant that I can see that we can draw on is either faith or
love. And love is the one thing that sort of crosses not only genres but
different religions and faith. Not to get super John Lennon on you, but I think
love is the only way forward for all humanity.
NOJ: Love is all there is.
JJ: It’s all there is man. The opposite of love is kind of
what we’re up against. Distrust and fear, and that is not just a long-term
solution.
NOJ: You have always
seem to push yourself musically. a commendable trait. You have always blurred
genres and challenged yourself to be true to the music as you saw it at
any given time. What was challenging to you about the music in this new album?
JJ: The challenging thing was twofold. First getting out of
the way. I have always been such a control freak over my career. I have
produced or written most of my albums that were not standards. This was really
one of the first times when I said, I just want to be a singer. I want to write
a little bit. I want to write as much as I want to and I want to focus on really
expanding my voice. I started taking voice lessons again for the first time in
twenty years. I started pushing myself the way like an Olympic athlete would push
themselves, really specific stuff. The other thing was I had to change the way
that I sang completely. I don’t mean technically, but stylistically. In jazz you
are way more behind the beat, you have a wide vibrato. There is a wide sense of
pitch sometimes, like you slide into notes differently. R andB there is no
vibrato, it’s on, it’s a straight eighth note. So I really had to work hard,
changing up my style because what I didn’t want it to sound like was someone
who came from jazz singing R & B. Not that there is anything wrong with
that, but I wanted it to be very serious, contemporary R & B. It took a minute to switch over. I had been singing Billie Holiday for a solid year.
NOJ: You have an extraordinary instrument, why change your
style so dramatically, embellish the music with so many electronics and effects
that it subjugates that instrument to a less prominent role?
JJ: This is the kind of way I want to sing right now. If you
look at it in terms of like a writer. If you write a certain kind of fiction,
maybe you want to try writing a crime novel. For me its more about trying to
expand my craft. It was really the Billie Holiday album; that album, that
material, that trio- for me I kind of like I of hit my zenith in jazz right now.
I can’t imagine surpassing that album artistically and frankly I am not
satisfied with anything less than excellence. So I said ok, what else do I want
to do, what is it that I have not done.
NOJ: You were once quoted as saying no other music is as
satisfying as jazz. You went to the New School and studied with Junior (Mance)
and you studied with Chico (Hamilton). Do you still feel that way about jazz or
has it changed?
JJ: I don’t think it has changed per se. I just think change
is good. I don’t want to say I will never sing jazz again. The irony of all
this is that Fifty Shades Darker the soundtrack is out now and its number one
on Bill Board and I am singing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “You Can’t Take
That Away From Me.” So there you go.
JJ: Absolutely.
NOJ: Most singers gravitate toward a good melody and good
lyrics. You once said for you music is about the rhythm. Can you expound on
that?
JJ: Well, I believe I read Charlie Parker talking about this
somewhere. The rhythm is what advances first. If you’re talking about jazz music,
you’re talking about Black music your talking about African music or
African-American music, then the rhythm has always been the catalyst that
really changes everything. So like, swing was this new beat that everyone
jumped on and it had endless variations. That evolved into a lot of things, the
backbeat, rhythm and blues, and all this other stuff. To me I always get
excited by the beat, you know the rhythm. When I was in London, I fell in love
with dubstep, drum and bass, broken beat and right now, what is exciting to me,
is what we call trap beat, because it’s the newest beat for me since J. Dilla behind
the beat hip-hop. Definitely it’s a growing thing. I see Glasper is
experimenting with it. Definitely Christian Scott is working it out with Justin
Brown and his band. Its interesting for me as a musician to take the parts of
popular music and popular culture and put my own thing on top of it. Which is
what we did on “Let if Fall” or Last Night.”
"...rhythm has always been the catalyst that really changes everything."
"...rhythm has always been the catalyst that really changes everything."
NOJ: Is there any song that you are closest to or particularly
fond of on this album ?
JJ: As a performer I really like “What Good is Love” because
it is the most operatic. The range is super wide and lyrically ... I
have written some of my favorite lyrics. Singing with Oletta Adams, that is
just a dream come true. “I’m Yours,” to be able to write a song and give it to
an artist of her stature and her not only liking the song, but also wanting to
record it and sound so good on it, that’s huge. Both of the collaborations, the
one with Mali Music, is really special because I think we actually
collaborated, meaning we created something new for each of us.
NOJ: (Robert) Glasper was recently quoted in an interview with Ethan
Iverson as saying that he sometimes wanted to forgoe improvisational soloing
and just get into long extended grooves.
JJ: It just feels good. You know what I mean. There is a
reason why I am touring with just a drummer, because that is the most important
part of my setup. Really, it always has been. I am more connected to the drums.
NOJ: So on your concert tour it’s just you and drummer Nate
Smith?
JJ: Nate Smith for the U.S. and Richard Spaven for the E.U.
and South America. Got to give the drummer some.
NOJ: How do you incorporate the art of improvisation in your
music?
JJ: On this particular album?
NOJ: In general.
JJ: I think I am just open to the moment. I have come to the
place where I believe it has to mean something for me to leave the written word
or the melody. When I was younger, I definitely sang just to hear how it would
sound and I was infatuated with Coltrane and Bird like everybody else. There is
definitely something to that process, but I think any artist gets to the point
where it has to have an emotional resonance. To me that is exciting. If you
have done a variation on something that has been done before and to know that it
is different because your different, that’s what is cool to me.
NOJ: Your delivery, especially on some of your rap and soul
material, is reminiscent of the great Gil Scott-Heron. Was he an influence?
JJ: Yes and no. I was definitely aware of him and loved his catalogue.
Early on people said Gil Scott-Heron when the Dreamer came out. He wasn’t
anyone that I studied like I did with Billie or Coltrane. There were a few
names that always came up right away Terry Callier, Gil Scott-Heron and Jon
Lucien.
NOJ: Wow, Jon Lucien is a name I haven't heard in quite a long time. He did a
magical version of "Dindi" from 1970 that just killed it.
JJ: Yeah, these guys are amazing. So, to get back to your
question, Gil wasn’t a huge obvious influence, but he was a very influential
person who I respect tremendously. What you said makes sense, he probably influenced a bunch
of people who influenced me. Like every person in hip-hop.( Laughing)
NOJ: You always seem to have two or three projects on the burner
what can we expect next from you?
JJ: The second I’m finished with one album I start working
on the next one, so I am already working on that. I am hoping actually, without
giving away too much, I am hoping to work with Christian McBride a little bit
closer than I have in the past. We have collaborated on a few things. We really
work well together. He is the busiest
man in show business.
NOJ: My wife, who is not the biggest of jazz fans, loves him. We have seen him several times. The
man has so much talent its astounding.
JJ: So much talent, so much. I want to do more stuff with
him and I don’t know exactly what shape it will take, but we are going to make it
happen.
NOJ: You start this tour March 16, 2017 at Center Stage in
Atlanta and the how many dates do you have booked?
JJ: We are going through May 18, 20017 ending in Santiago,
Chile. We go through April in the U.S ending in Seattle and then we go onto the
E.U. for the rest of April and into May and then down to Mexico and South
America so it’s a world tour. It’s going to be going all year.
NOJ: That’s quite rigorous. You are married and have a young
daughter that must be tough.
JJ: Yeah, you know I love performing. I think anybody who is
with a professional performer that is just part of the deal. I wouldn’t be
happy if I couldn’t do it. I’m home a week and I start to think about gigs.(Laughs)
NOJ: I read somewhere that you did a bit of acting in the movie Fifty
Shades of Darker?
JJ: That was an amazing experience. We recorded the songs
for the soundtrack at Capital in studio "B" where Frank Sinatra originally
recorded them using the same microphone. I got chills just walking in there
with all that history. My first takes were just terrible because there was just
too much history. We recorded everything as authentically as possible. I
believe the tenor player was the same guy that was on the original Sinatra recording.
NOJ: How did you get into the acting gig?
JJ: In Fifty Shades of Darker, music is like the star in both the book and the movies, which is super cool.
They really wanted, the director James Foley, wanted, an authentic feel across
the board. The music, the sets, and everything about it. They were looking for
a real jazz singer, who could really deliver the song, but also that had a look that was
very multi-cultural, super cool and young. Thankfully I got the call. I went to
Vancouver, and had an amazing three days of just working on one of the biggest
projects I have ever been a part of. To this date, I think it has grossed $350
million dollars worldwide.
NOJ: I also read that you have aspirations to write a novel?
JJ: I do man. I have been taking notes for about eight years
at this point. Every year I tell myself I am going to carve out some time to nail to
nail down the first chapters, and every year I get busier and busier. The goal
is to get busy enough so that I can take an entire year of and then I can sit
down and just write this thing. It will be a crime novel based in New York
City.
NOJ: Cool. I’m sure your listening fan base would be
distraught if you took off a whole year without singing, but you got to do what
you got to do. Follow your muse where ever it goes.
JJ: Exactly, but I’ll be happy when I get a book down.
NOJ: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. I
appreciate it. Good luck with the album, the tour and your career.
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