emulation project, article 2

In the Studio

Jamie Cullum Fights Heat with Cool Jazz

Album - London Rain
Due Out - May
Producer - Alan Bates

It’s 80 degrees inside a studio in Santa Barbara, California, and Jamie Cullum isn’t breaking a sweat – yet. He sits at a piano, brow furrowed in concentration as he attempts to pick out the notes to Pharrell Williams’ Baby. Williams looks on, visibly impressed, as Cullum fuses jazz vocals with rhythmic, gritty beats. “The air conditioning broke, but we’ve got something great going on right now, so we’ll stay til we melt,” the Neptunes producer says. “The sound of this just feels to good to stop.”
An energetic mix of jazz and rap is exactly what underscores and propels Cullum’s new album, London Rain. The 11 tracks planned for the album are a departure from typical contemporary jazz, however the smoky vocals infused with crossover vibes from swing, R&B, hip hop, and pop is similar to the genre blur of his previous album, 2005’s Catching Tales, except with a little more edge. Besides collaborating with Williams, Cullum has also worked with Kanye West, John Legend, and Joy Division to create an.
“The last record was a great prelude for this one,” says Cullum. “But I take jazz and stretch it to its furthest limits this time.” The buoyant tempos mixed with seductive jazz cadences are evident in “Once Again” and “Wrong,” with a salsa influence manifesting itself in “Stars Out Tonight.” Cullum even beatboxes on “Didn’t You?”
“Yeah, I beatbox at every concert, since I like to do a lot of covers, and people kept asking me when I was going to actually record a track like that,” Cullum says. “Then Justin [Timberlake] comes to me and says ‘I wrote this, and I want you to see what you can do with it.’ I wasn’t going to turn that down.”
However, a jazz record isn’t complete without brooding ballads, and a cover of Sinatra’s “I’ll Be Seeing You” and the original “On My Mind” are almost operatic in their composition. Cullum manages to stay true to his roots, though, paying homage to his hometown of Essex, including sounds recorded on the streets of Essex in the undoubtedly piano-driven “London Rain.”
“I felt like shit when I wrote that song, I was going through a lot,” Cullum says. “I tried to make it as raw and real as possible yet uplifting.”
The result is an album that is an eclectic mix of elements anchored by a jazz core. “A lot of people say I’m pretty young to be trying to completely revitalize the jazz genre,” the self-taught Cullum says. “But I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing, and I’m not sure I care, as long as I keep my jazz cool and my beats hot!”