Jamie Cullum
(born 20 August 1979) is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter, pianist, guitarist, and drummer.
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Biography
Cullum was born at
Romford Hospital in
Essex. He was brought up in
Hullavington,
Wiltshire. Educated at the independent fee-paying
Grittleton House School and the sixth form at
Sheldon School. He then went on to study English Literature, and minored in Film Studies, at
Reading University where he graduated with
First Class Honours.
His mother, Yvonne, is a secretary of
Anglo-Burmese origin, whose family settled in
Wales after
Burma's independence; his father, John Cullum, worked in finance. His paternal grandfather was a
British Army officer, while his paternal grandmother was a
Jewish refugee from
Prussia who sang in
Berlin nightclubs.
He is currently engaged to British supermodel
Sophie Dahl and is due to be married in 2010.
Musical career
Cullum released his first album,
Jamie Cullum Trio—Heard it All Before
, in 1999, of which 500 copies were made. Due to their rarity, original copies have sold for as much as £600 on
eBay.
The success of
Heard It All Before
resulted in Cullum being invited to appear on
Geoff Gascoyne's album
Songs of the Summer
.
After graduating from
Reading University, Cullum released a best-selling album,
Pointless Nostalgic
, which stirred interest from
Michael Parkinson [1] and
Melvyn Bragg. (Cullum made his first television appearance on Parkinson's BBC chat show in April 2003 and was the last musician to perform on the Michael Parkinson Show 'Final Conversation' recorded on 26 November and broadcast on 16 December 2007.)
Just after Cullum appeared on Parkinson for the first time he signed a £1m contract
for three albums with
Universal, who beat
Sony in a bidding war. Cullum's third album,
Twentysomething
, released in October 2003, went platinum and became the #1 selling studio album by a jazz artist in the United Kingdom. Cullum ended 2003 as the UK's biggest selling jazz artist of all time.
Jamie is now putting the finishing touches to his much anticipated new album, which will be released later this year.
Although primarily a jazz musician, Cullum performs in a wide range of styles and is generally regarded as a "crossover" artist with his musical roots firmly based in jazz. Cullum draws his inspiration from many different musicians and listens to a very eclectic mix of music from
Miles Davis [2] to
Tom Waits and many more.
Cullum has belonged to several bands, ranging from banging drums in a
hip hop group to playing guitar in rock bands such as Raw Sausage and The Mystery Machine, in his teenage youth. Cullum names his elder brother,
Ben Cullum, as his biggest musical influence, and the two have collaborated extensively.
Jamie Cullum is well known not only for his abilities on the
piano, but also for his unique entertainment style and charisma. One of the many things that features in Jamie's concerts is the "stompbox" (not to be confused with an
effect pedal for guitars), made from a small wooden block. The stompbox is used to
amplify a musician's tapping foot. Jamie found this in
Australia and uses it to enhance upbeat and fast-paced songs such as
Seven Nation Army
originally by the
White Stripes and "
Gold Digger", originally by
Kanye West. He is also often found using a looping machine. This plays a heavy part in Cullum's versions of
Seven Nation Army and
Teardrop by
Massive Attack. Cullum is also often found
beatboxing at most gigs.
As well as the
White Stripes and
Kanye West, Cullum has performed work by
Massive Attack,
Rihanna,
Pussycat Dolls,
Radiohead,
Gnarls Barkley,
Elton John,
Justin Timberlake,
John Legend,
Joy Division and many others. He has also recently collaborated with
Kylie Minogue,
Sugababes,
Will.i.am and
Burt Bacharach.
Cullum rarely works to a set list and on average his gigs last just over two hours. The gigs are largely improvised, rooted in
jazz but not solely consisting of jazz music.
Cullum has played at many large music festivals, including
Glastonbury Festival 2004,
Coachella 2005, 2006
South by Southwest,
North Sea Jazz Festival, the
Hollywood Bowl (performing with the
Count Basie Orchestra) and the 2006
Playboy Jazz Festival.
On the April 29, 2006, Cullum played his biggest ever crowd on
Queensday in
The Netherlands.
Awards
The British Jazz Awards first recognised Cullum's growing success by awarding him the "Rising Star" award, at the 2003 ceremony in July.
[3]
At the
2004 BRIT Awards, Cullum was nominated in the "British Breakthrough Act" category. He performed live in the ceremony at
Earl's Court, a duet with
Katie Melua of
The Cure's "
The Lovecats". In the
2005 BRIT Awards, Cullum was nominated for two awards: "Best Male Artist" and "Best Live Act".
In 2005 Cullum was nominated for a
Grammy while taking
BBC Radio 2 "Artist of the Year" honors at the BBC Jazz Awards (as voted for by listeners of Radio 2).
In 2007 Cullum won the Ronnie Scotts Jazz Award for "Best British Male". He was also nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for his composition, "Gran Torino".
Pointless Nostalgic
This album began life as a self-funded project and eventually got taken on by Candid Records. It is typical of Jamie's current performances featuring a mix of standard, originals and contemporary covers. It was recorded in the Spring of 2001 @ The wonderful Clown's Pocket Studios, Beckenham by Derek Nashe and Co-Produced by Geoff Gascoyne.
On this album Jamie created covers of old classics with new arrangements of Warren and Burke's "Devil May Care", Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" and Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So".
The album got Jamie a spot on Parkinson and received this review in Jazzwise September 2002: "Cullum's mellifluous tone, clarity of diction, exciting pianism - clearly mark him out as a young artist with immense potential...A perfect showcase.. breathing new life into tried and tested vehicles, there's an infectious devil-may-care swagger about the whole album".
Twentysomething
Recorded at London’s Mayfair Studio and released 20 October 2003,
Twentysomething
contains a mix of jazz standards, contemporary tunes and heartbreaking ballads.
Due to the acoustic nature of the music, producer Levine chose to record and mix
Twentysomething
entirely on analog tape. Since the album was recorded almost entirely “live” with no need to correct or improve performances, Levine saw no need for the infinite amount of tracks and computerised ‘improvements’ that digital recording affords. Thus
Twentysomething
has a warm, clear and realistic sound.
The album includes jazz standards "What a Difference a Day Made," "Singin' In The Rain," and
Cole Porter's "I Get A Kick Out Of You", modern takes on
My Fair Lady
s "I Could Have Danced All Night," Jeff Buckley’s "Lover, You Should Have Come Over," and Jimi Hendrix’s "Wind Cries Mary," as well as new tracks written by Jamie and brother Ben, including the first single from the album "All At Sea" and title track "Twentysomething".
Catching Tales
Cullum's third major label album, entitled
Catching Tales
, was released on
September 26,
2005, in the United Kingdom and
The Netherlands, and two weeks later in the United States, on
October 11. The American and French versions of
Catching Tales
do not include the track
Fascinating Rhythm
, which appears on the European version.
The first single released from the album, in the United Kingdom, was "Get Your Way", a collaboration with
Dan The Automator which used a sample from the
Thad Jones song "Get Out Of My Life, Woman". The second single released, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, was "Mind Trick", written by Jamie and his brother,
Ben Cullum.
The third single from the album was the self-penned track "Photograph", which Cullum said was written on New Years Day (2005) after he found a box of old photographs at his parents house.
A special edition version of
Catching Tales
was released in Europe, featuring a 20-minute documentary, including behind the scenes footage of Jamie recording the album and on the road footage, from across Europe.
Catching Tales
has also been released on double vinyl, as was the first single, "Get Your Way". A limited edition version of the "Get Your Way" single was released on red vinyl.
Cullum collaborated with
Pharrell. They recorded various songs together and it was thought that the track titled "Wifey" would make an appearance on
Catching Tales
, but this was prevented by legal and contractual problems.
Cullum's vocals finally featured on Pharrell's debut solo album, on a track titled "You Can Do It Too", though Cullum is not credited as a featured artist.
Both
Catching Tales
and
Twentysomething
were produced by
Stewart Levine.
Cullum toured in support of
Catching Tales
from the end of October 2005 to December 2006. He played gigs in places such as: Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, South America, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, as well as returning to America no less than four times in one year, to tour extensively across the USA.
The Pursuit
On
June 4,
2009, Cullum announced the title of his fourth studio album,
The Pursuit
[4]. The album, which is set to be released in
November of 2009, was mainly produced by
Greg Wells,
[4] and the first single has been annouced as "I'm All Over It"
[6].
Other band members
From 2003 to 2008 Cullum played consistently with Geoff Gascoyne, on bass, and Sebastiaan de Krom, on drums. From 2003 until 2004 the trio was joined by
Ben Castle on saxophone, John Hoare on trumpet, Barnaby Dickinson on trombone and Malcolm MacFarlane on guitar.
Sam Wedgwood (guitarist and trumpeter) later joined Cullum, on tour, for a little over a year. At the end of 2005 Cullum was joined by Tom Richards (saxophonist, occasional guitarist and percussion). Soon after that Sam Wedgwood left, to pursue his own solo musical career. At the beginning of 2006 Rory Simmons (trumpeter and guitarist) joined the band as a replacement, meaning the total number of band members (including Jamie himself) is five.
As of March 2009, Jamie's current band line-up is under revision but includes Tom Richard (sax), Rory Simmons (trumpet) and Chris Hill (bass).
Discography
Albums
- Heard It All Before
(1999)
- Pointless Nostalgic
(2002) #55 UK
- Twentysomething
(2003) #3 UK, #83 US, #2 Australia
- Catching Tales
(2005) #4 UK, #49 US, #26 Australia, #30 Germany, #1 Mexico
- Live at Ronnie Scott's
(2006) (exclusive for iTunes)
- In the Mind of Jamie Cullum
(Compilation CD)
- The Pursuit
(November 2009) [7] [8]
Collaborations featured on other albums
- "Greatest Mistake" with John Oates on White People
by Handsome Boy Modeling School
- "Bittersweet" with Relax on Puppets Among Pirates
- "Sky High" with James Kinney on MySpace (unreleased track)
- "One For My Baby" with Toots Thielemans on One More For the Road
- "To..." with Geoff Gascoyne on Songs of the Summer
- "God Only Knows" with Geoff Gascoyne on Keep it to Yourself
- "Love Won't Let Me Wait" with Geoff Gascoyne on Keep it to Yourself
- "Sweet Insomnia" with Gwyneth Herbert on First Songs
- "The Road Less Travelled" with Clare Teal on The Road Less Travelled
- "You Can Do it Too" with Pharrell on In My Mind
- "Intermission Music" with Beady Belle on Belvedere
- "Superdude" with Skandouz on MySpace (unreleased track)
- "Where is Your Heart At?", composed and written by Rufus Wainwright, on the soundtrack for the animated film, Meet the Robinsons
. Also recorded, "Give Me the Simple Life" for this soundtrack.
- "Grace is Gone", composed by Clint Eastwood, featured on the official soundtrack for the film Grace is Gone
- "Home is Where it Hurts" with Camille on Music Hole
- "Gran Torino" with Clint Eastwood on the Gran Torino OST
DVDs
- Live at Blenheim Palace
(2004)
- A Tribute to Brian Wilson
(2005) - Performs "Sail on Sailor" with Fred Martin & The Levite Camp
- Telling Tales
(2005) - with Catching Tales Special Edition
Singles
From
Pointless Nostalgic
:
From
Twentysomething
:
- "All At Sea" (2003) Promotional Release
- "These Are the Days"/"Frontin'" (2004) #12 UK
- "Everlasting Love" (2004) #20 UK, #35 Netherlands
Video Directed by Andy Hylton (http://www.andyhylton.com)
From
Catching Tales
:
- "Get Your Way" (2005) #44 UK, #25 Netherlands
- "Mind Trick" (2005) #32 UK, #26 Netherlands
- "Photograph" (2006)
From
The Pursuit
:
References
- Jamie batters new life into jazz
- JAMIE CULLUM BIOGRAPHY
- Jamie Cullum jazzes up music scene
- http://www.mtvasia.com/News/200906/09018121.html
- http://www.mtvasia.com/News/200906/09018121.html
- http://www.jamiecullum.com/news/article/538
- http://twitter.com/jamiecullum/status/2026183233
- http://twitter.com/jamiecullum/status/2026181805