Posted in: Jazz by Victor C on March 12, 2009 | 0 Comments
Not your average, everyday, run of the mill English jazz musician.
To call Jamie Cullum a jazz musician would be great understatement. Not that he isn’t a jazz musician and a great one at that. No, that’s not the problem. The problem occurs at his concert as he scratches on a turntable, bangs a beat on his piano, walks out on stage drinking a Guiness, covers songs from Jimi Hendrix to Radiohead to Pharell, plays the guitar and drum and likes to jump of his piano and the end of his concerts. The problem isn’t that he isn’t a jazz musician, rather that he is so much more.
Jamie, born in Essex England, started his musical career by playing gigs anywhere he could. Influenced by Miles Davis, Jamie sold his CD’s out of his own car until jazz label Candid released his album ‘Pointless Nostalgic’. That album got him started on a journey that has so far nabbed Jamie a Grammy (including a nomination for his song ‘Gran Torino’ from the same titled movie), BRIT and 2 Golden Globe nominations. Not to mention 4 millions albums sold. Not to shabby for an English jazz musician.
Image via Wikipedia
I first discovered Jamie when in 2005 I downloaded a bunch of free songs on iTunes. As I was going through and listening to the list of songs only one song caught my attention. Not only was it catchy and different, it had a great lyric in it as well: “Like a warm drink it seeps into my soul”. The song in question was All At Sea. I ended up looking up the rest of his album ‘TwentySomething’ on iTunes and loved it. I immediately went down to Best Buy, bought a copy, and threw it into my trucks CD player. It was awesome.
Needless to say, it then went directly into my iPod and I couldn’t stop listening to it. I knew I had to spread the gospel of Jamie so I immediately took it to my best friends house where a few friends and I were getting together. I put the CD on and let it play. I remember at one point when another of my friends called that night and I ended up putting my phone up to the speaker so he could hear. I felt like the band member from ‘Back To The Future’ who puts the phone out so Chuck Berry can hear Marty playing the guitar. Ever since that night my best friend has been as hooked as I have been.
Fast Forward to today and I have seen Jamie in Concert 4 times. Bought 5 albums. Scoured iTunes for every song he has sang on. Started a fan web page. Told everyone I know about him. And currently can’t wait for his new album to come out. If you want something new to hear that fresh and has a whole lot of heart and soul buy one of his albums. If you want a concert experience that is simply amazing go see him live. Just check him out. I promise you wont be sorry. He’s more than you would expect.
