We just came back from this year’s jazzahead! fair in Bremen (expect a report sometime later this week) during which a bunch of great new releases came out. José James finally came up with his 12th release. Titled “1978” (his birth year), it’s a double vinyl album with a total of nine tracks, three of…
We’ve already announced singer José James‘ next album “1978”, to be released on April 5th on Rainbow Blonde Records. The singer just announced on his Bandcamp page that there will be 500 hand-numbered vinyls of the album, coming in a gatefold packaging, clear anti-static sleeves and heavy duty vinyl poly bag packaging. 250 copies of…
Gina’s favorite singer José James returns with a fantastic new song, preceding his album “1978”, due out on his own Rainbow Blonde Records on April 5th. With production nods to Quincy Jones and Leon Ware, José has worked with Brazilian rising star Xênia França and Congolose/Belgian rapper Baloji. His band on the album also includes…
On tour with his latest project “On & On: José James Sings Erykah Badu”, the singer told an almost sold-out Paradiso crowd last night that a jazz singer of today is supposed to celebrate contemporary artists, instead of reworking the classics by Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Even though he keeps admiring both vocalists (he…
We’re happy to be a part of the Bandcamp campaign to produce José James‘ new album “On & On: José James Sings Erykah Badu” on vinyl. 4.590$ were needed and in the end, 248% of that total were funded. Vinyl is now being produced and will be sent out in July. In the meantime, José…
Its José’s 45th birthday today and he’s giving us a new album as a present. José’s 7-track tribute to the great Erykah Badu just came out today on his own Rainbow Blonde label and features BIGYUKI on piano, keys, and synths, Ben Williams on bass, Jharis Yokley on drums, Ebban Dorsey on alto sax, and…
Growing up with the music of Bill Withers, I always thought that “Lean On Me” was the least attractive. Which of course still means that it’s an amazingly great piece of music, coming from the mind of this brilliant artist. And so it was this particular song last night at Neukölln’s Heimathafen where José James…
José James has gone back to “contemporary R&B” on his new, appropriately titled album “Love In A Time Of Madness”. He says that “there’s a resurgence of something I haven’t seen since the ’90s or ’00s, when hip-hop, R&B, and pop were converging in really thrilling ways through folks like Tribe, Erykah Badu, or D’Angelo. There’s…
It was the final night of this year’s highly entertaining XJAZZ Festival – the area in Friedrichshain was run over by people visiting the Village Market, a weekly streetfood festival catering to all kinds of foodies, food junkies, and everyone else in between. But on the night before, artistic director Sebastian Studnitzky played his latest…
One of the songs José James performed last night during his brief showcase concert at Berlin’s Apple store on Kurfürstendamm was the moving ballad “Tenderly”. It is one of nine tracks from the fine and fitting tribute to the singer he discovered at a very early age in life. Earlier that day, we talked about…