Jose James – The Dreamer (Brownswood)

Released: 28/01/2008

I’ll start off by quoting King Britt, as I feel his words neatly express my initial reaction to the album one and a half year ago - ”Just when you think that real voices are gone and replaced by synthesized vocoders or perfectly melodined melodies, comes a real voice. A voice who’s texture, tone and timbre seem to trace the history of real jazz greats. A voice that when you hear it, you know that’s what defines the word voice. Ladies and Gents José James”.  

The soulful warmth and intimate presence is up there with the great Terry Callier, Jon Lucien and Gill Scott-Heron. That is no little feet for an artist that cites John Coltrane, Marvin Gay and Billie Holliday as his musical mentors. So who is José James? He is a talented Brooklyn based Irish/Panamanian jazz singer that blends the sounds of jazz and soul, without being trapped within any artificial genre boundaries. In addition to the debut album, José has also featured on music by artists such as Jazzanova, Flying Lotus, JAM, and Dj Mitsu the Beats and Nicola Conte. José sings as part of a basic quartet made up of him, Nori Ochiai on piano, Alexi David on bass and Steve Lyman on drums, but there are slight variations on different tracks. José produced and arrange most of the compositions himself.

There should be no surprise that José first was picked up by BBC music maestro Gilles Peterson. After establishing his Brownswood Recordings record label back in 2006 he have signed artists such as Ben Westbeech and Elan Mehler. The label was set up with the simple aim of releasing good new music, music with soul – no matter where it’s from or what the style. Easily a value proposition to my liking. Check out Gilles great podcasts (available for free through iTunes) for truly inspirational sessions with musicians or just listening to Gilles digging out music from his collection.

The album starts off with the title track “The Dreamer“. The sensual, powerful, yet subtle trumpet gets the mood just right before José’s warm and rich baritone voice enters the frame. “Velvet” and ”Blackeyed Susan” continues the innocent, sensual atmosphere. Loads of emotions expressed in an fragile and honest manner. Picking out favorites is easy on such a complete and accomplished album, yet I would dedicate a few extra words to his cover of Freestyle Fellowship’s “Parkbench People”. It is accompanied by a great video shot by Josh Rothstein and filmed on location at a homeless shelter in New York.

“Spirits up Above” takes a slightly different angle, using the range of his voice with a more bouncy, tag-along jazz number to revise Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s little known but wonderful composition. The next track is another cover version – this time the theme song from Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have it - Bill Lee’s “Nola”. ”Red”, more than the other tracks on the album, pays homage to his hero Coltrane and is more live, experimental. 

“Winter wind” got that lovely acoustic piano accompanied with slow drums and a intimate presence before José’s lovely voice completes the romantisism with a story of lost love and loneliness, a theme that continues into the nostalgic “Desire”. Yet the two closing tracks are filled with a positive message. ”Love” ends the record on the sensual, spiritual note, with a drumbreak that ups the tempo and adds that little extra to the closing number.

The talents of José James should be apparent to every listener – he could easily be one of the greatest of his generation.

MySpace | Brownswood Recordings | Josejames.com |