José James Announces New Album

We’re still playing his amazing tracks from last year’s “1978” LP when singer José James just announced his next album “1978: Revenge Of The Dragon”, slated for release on his own Rainbow Blonde Records on May 9th. The first single, a tribute to Erykah Badu, whom he calls “one of the greatest living artists of our time”, just came out last Friday. Called “They Sleep, We Grind (For Badu)”, it is also a tribute to the kung fu cinematography of late 70s films and José also released an accompanying video with lots of Shaolin elements in there.

On the album, which is his 13th, José once again plays with his stellar band and some special guests: Bigyuki on keys, David Ginyard and Kyle Miles on bass, Jharis Yokley on drums with Ben Wendel (tenor sax), Ebban Dorsey (alto sax), Takuya Kuroda (trumpet) and his wife Taali (vocals). Of the eight tracks on the album, four are interesting covers: “Rock With You” (Michael Jackson), “I Thought It Was You”, one of my alltime favorite Herbie Hancock songs, “Love You Inside Out” (Bee Gees), and “Miss You” (Rolling Stones). We’re still raving about his last performance in Berlin last October. His next stop in Germany will be at jazzopen in Stuttgart on July 13th when he opens for Lionel Richie. More dates will follow soon.

Check out the video to “They Sleep, We Grind (For Badu)” on YouTube here.