Posted in: Piano by Victor C on April 16th, 2010 | 1 Comment
Jazz artist puts on an amazing concert at the Avalon in Hollywood.
Every once in a blue moon an artist comes along that when you see them live you are blown away. The artist sounds exactly as they do on their CD and when they command the stage, they command the stage. Not only that but an energy seems to be alive in the crowd, it’s almost palpable and you tend to get swept up in it. That’s exactly what happened to me on March 25, 2010 at the Avalon in Hollywood when me and some of my friends saw Jamie Cullum perform. The thing is, this is the 5th time I had seen him live and the 5th time this has happened.
Image via Wikipedia
Jamie,a British jazz artist, appeared on stage that night, holding his customary Guinness can of beer, and just took control of the stage and crowd. On tour in support of his newly released album “The Pursuit”, Jamie opened with a song from the new album. From there he went on to play a mixture of old songs and new, including two songs I had never been lucky enough to hear live: “Frontin” and “Wind Cries Mary”. The first being a cover of a Pharrel song and the second a cover of a Jimi Hendrix song. He’s one of those rare artist that can cover a song and sometimes make his version better than the original.
Hearing Jamie play the piano, sometimes like a classical pianist and sometimes like a crazed mad man, is truly something that can be mostly appreciated live. He tends to use every part of the piano. Including playing the inside strings and banging on the outside of the piano. Every part of the piano is an instrument when Jamie is around it.
Mr. Cullum tends to never run out of energy. I liken him to the Energizer Bunny from those old Energizer commercials. And that energy transfers over to the crowd. They almost seem to feed off of it and Jamie does the same feeding off the crowd. Jumping off the piano, running around on stage, the aforementioned banging of the piano, and and his crazy cool covers are just some of his signature moves that separates him from the rest.
He just knows how to perform live. It’s not something that can be taught, it’s something that lives within you. And Jamie Cullum most definitely has it.
seymikins July 7th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Good write! Jamie is doing a lot to keep Jazz alive for another generation thanks to his more mainstream popularity. I always hope people will go on to listen to some of his influences and get deeper into the music..