Happy Birthday José James!

Celebrating the birthday of jazz singer José James with his 2015 performance of John Coltrane's "Equinox" in Amsterdam.

José James sings Bill Withers on new Lean On Me album

Jazz singer José James put his own stamp on the music of Bill Withers for his latest album for Blue Note out now. 

Happy Birthday John Coltrane!

Remembering the saxophone titan with tributes from Clifford Jordan, Nat Birchall & José James.

José James changes up his delivery for EveryLittle Thing

José James rids himself of the "jazz crooner" tag with his forward looking new album due June 10. 

Happy Birthday John Coltrane

One For The Weekend: José James

José James previews new album in Toronto

As part of the 2012 NuFunk Festival, in collaboration with Do Right! Music, jazz sensation José James will play the Great Hall on Friday March 2.

The supremely soulful Minneapolis-born singer combines a deep knowledge of the jazz tradition with a b-boy's respect for hip hop culture (check his creative reinvention of Freestyle Fellowship's Park Bench People below) for a spiritually potent sound all his own. Undeterred by the lack of support from commercial radio and the woefully out-of-touch mainstream jazz media, James steadily built a global following with stellar festival performances, sold-out club dates and profile-raising collaborations with McCoy Tyner, Jazzanova, Chico Hamilton, Nicola Conte, Wynton Marsalis, Flying Lotus, The Heritage Orchestra, Christian McBride, Toshio Matsuura, Simbad and Robert Mitchell.

While James'superb swing through the standards on 2010's For All We Know (Impulse!) served notice to the jazz establishment that the promising young baritone had serious chops, the next album could be the topper. As such, James' return to Toronto to preview material for his forthcoming release No Beginning, No End will make his show at the Great Hall (1087 Queen West) a major event.

Tickets are $20 advance and available at Play De Record (357A Yonge), Soundscapes (572 College) and Rotate This (801 Queen West).

Park Bench People by José James



LINKS
NuFunk Festival www.Nufunk.ca
José James www.josejamesmusic.com

Happy Birthday John Coltrane!

 

Equinox by José James



Resolution by José James

José James debuts two new songs

José James interview



Park Bench People



Trouble



It's All Over Your Body

José James fires up Nicola Conte's Love & Revolution

The long awaited Nicola Conte album Love & Revolution is finally finished and it's coming out on the Impulse! label through Universal which seems perfect for the sunny spiritual jazz vibe of the highly collaborative project. Once you get past the festively flowery sleeve art, the first thing you'll notice about the new 15-track recording (there's also a limited-run 2 CD version with six bonus songs) is that it's much more of a vocally-driven affair from the deep-digging DJ turned dancefloor jazz maestro with notable contributions from rising star José James along with Gregory Porter, Alice Ricciardi and Nailah Porter. Their positively smokin' update of the Roy Ayers Ubiquity classic Love From The Sun (see the clip below) will make you forget Alex Attias ever touched it.
Of course, Conte's bold decision to tackle such  monumental pieces – including the Lightmen Plus One's majestic All Praises To Allah reissued on Now Again's enhanced US version of the superb Spiritual Jazz compilation – required serious instrumental support so Conte enlisted a stellar cast Timo Lassey on flute and baritone sax, Till Bronner, Fabrizio Boss, and Flavio Boltro on trumpet; Magnus Lindgren and Tim Warfield on tenor sax, in addition to his dependable core group comprising Gaetano Partipilo, Pietro Lussu, Paolo Benedettini, Teppo Makynen, Bridgette Amofah, Fabrizio Bosso, and Pierpaolo Bisogno. There's no telling when (or even if) it will appear in Canada but since Conte just staged a Love & Revolution release party at Teatro Piccini in his hometown of Bari, Italy on May 21, the album will likely be available in some form momentarily.
 
Love & Revolution (Impulse!)

1 / Do You Feel Like I Feel (3:53)

2 / Love from the Sun (4:33)

3 / Here (3:50)

4 / Black Spirits (5:44)

5 / Mystery of You (4:22)

6 / Shiva (5:30)

7 / Ghana (5:09)

8 / Quiet Dawn (4:45)

9 / Scarborough Fair (4:03)

10 / Love and Revolution (3:35)

11 / Bantu (5:59)

12 / All Praises to Allah (4:30)

13 / Ra in Egypt (4:02)

14 / Temple of Far East (6:06)

15 / I'm the Air (4:19)





Love From The Sun by Nicola Conte feat. José James

José James: The other Minneapolis marvel

There's no shortage of jazz-lite shows around town this weekend with the Toronto Jazz Fest in full swing but if you're tastes run a bit deeper you should do yourself a favour and check out fast-rising vocalist José James and his Blackmagic band at Revival (783 College) tonight (Friday, July 2)  along with Elizabeth Shepherd and DJs John Kong and Jason Palma. Have a listen to what James does with John Coltrane's Equinox and Resolution and you'll understand why the 31 year-old baritone is considered to be the hottest musical prospect out of Minneapolis since the Purple Wonder himself.  Tickets are $25, doors open at 9 pm.

Equinox by José James


Resolution by José James

And while we're on the subject of Prince, that crazy caricature emblazoned tunic he was wearing on stage at the BET Awards on Sunday wasn't simply another head-scratching display of narcissism, the odd fashion statement was actually meant to be a promotional teaser for his new album, 20Ten.
Just as his Planet Earth album was distributed in the UK with the Mail On Sunday in 2007, the 10-track recording which Prince claims has "strong funk and new wave elements" (shock!) is being given away free as a cover-mount CD with various European newspapers and magazines. France's Courier International will have it first on July 8, followed by Belgium's Het Nieuwsblad, England's Daily Mirror, Scotland's Daily Record with their July 10 editions and then the German version of Rolling Stone will have it on July 22.
No date has been set for a North American release but with more than 2.5 million copies of 20Ten being distributed overseas, anyone interested in hearing it shouldn't have much difficulty finding it online next week. 

 20Ten track listing:

1. Compassion
2. Endlessly Beginning
3. Future Soul Song
4. Sticky Like Glue
5. Lavaux
6. Act Of God
7. Walk In Sand
8. Sea Of Everything
9. Everybody Loves Me
10. untitled bonus track




LINKS
José James site http://www.josejamesmusic.com
José James myspace http://www.myspace.com/josejamesquartet