Jamie Cullum
@ the Pizza Express Jazz Club (The Big Audition)
27 July 2011
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Desert Island Discs
Which 2 albums would you take with you to a desert island?
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Jimi Henricks – Are You Experienced
Biography
Having spent two years touring in support of Catching Tales, Cullum
retreated from the spotlight and spent much of the next two years
recharging his creative batteries through a variety of musical and
non-musical endeavours. Cullum and his older brother, and frequent
collaborator, Ben joined forces for a dance music project “BC
vs. JC” that found the brothers creating melodic dance music
in clubs across England; Cullum also contributed to albums for artists
as varied as Pharrell Williams, the Count Basie Orchestra, Japan’s
Soil & Pimp Sessions, Norway’s Beady Belle and France’s
Camille; as well as spending time as a Goodwill Ambassador to Ethiopia
for Unicef.
Cullum’s highest profile “side projects” were
via his ever growing courtship with Hollywood; beginning with 2007’s
animated Disney feature Meet The Robinsons in which Jamie was the
singing voice of Frankie The Frog, continuing with his vocal on
the Golden Globe-nominated “Best Original Song” from
the John Cusack film Grace Is Gone, and culminating in his co-writing
and performing with Clint Eastwood the Golden Globe-nominated “Best
Original Song” from 2008’s Gran Torino.
Inspired by the creative breadth of projects he was a part of since
Catching Tales, and having liberated himself from the usual recording
constraints of schedule, equipment and instruments when he built
his own aptly-named Terrified Studios in London (a nod to his admitted
intimidation in the face of technology), Cullum approached The Pursuit
with a loose, experimental atmosphere that was only hinted at in
his earlier albums. With recordings in hand from his new studio
and his home kitchen (where he has dozens of keyboards so he can
write & record when finding inspiration from two of his other
great passions – cooking and eating), Cullum moved the project
to Los Angeles for three months, recording the bulk of the album
with veteran producer/musician Greg Wells (whose extensive resume
includes work with Katy Perry, One Republic, Mika and Rufus Wainwright)
and a stellar assortment of musicians, including members of Beck’s
band and the horn section that played on Michael Jackson's Thriller.
“It was intentional to work with a new producer and new musicians,
and to record in a city that I didn't know that well,” Cullum
states. “I needed to frighten myself. Being in unfamiliar
territory forced me to do things differently, and to operate on
a hyper-sensitive, hyper-alert level. Having turned 30, I just felt
like I needed to do something different.”
Cullum’s risk-taking approach to the recording sessions paid
off, fostering an anything-goes vibe that yielded some of the most
inventive arrangements and compelling performances of his career.
“It was a very positive atmosphere," says Cullum, who
plays piano, guitar, bass and organ on the album. "A lot of
the tracks were just me and Greg Wells and an engineer. That continued
to give it a homemade feel, and gave us the feeling that we could
try anything.”
Cullum’s willingness to defy convention has served him well
during his lifelong pursuit of musical fulfillment. He began playing
piano and guitar at the age of eight; in his mid teens, Cullum was
in & out of rock bands playing guitar, drums and piano; he was
also the drummer in a hip-hop combo, eventually finding his way
back to jazz through the samples used in his favorite hip-hop recordings;
and Cullum spent the end of his teen years living in Paris, where
he honed his skills performing in local jazz clubs before going
on to become the biggest-selling British jazz artist of all time.
Cullum has won an enviable reputation as a magnetic live performer,
playing freewheeling concerts that emphasize spontaneity and improvisation
- and which rarely employ a set list.
The restless artistic spirit that animates The Pursuit is encapsulated
by the album’s title, which was inspired by Nancy Mitford’s
classic novel The Pursuit of Love. “It's my fiancé’s
favorite book, and the line in ‘Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down’
that says 'The pursuit of love consumes us all' is a reference to
that,” Cullum explains. “The reason I made it the album
title was that I’ve come to realise that life is one long
pursuit. Being a musician is not about any obvious goal; it's about
appreciating the journey as opposed to the destination.”
“The artists I most admire,” Cullum concludes, “are
people like Miles Davis and Tom Waits, who make all kinds of different
records, and change and evolve over the years, but still remain
themselves. That's what I aspire to. I'm only about five per cent
of the way there, but I've got time.”
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