About Jamie Cullum « Jamie Cullum Fanzone

www.jamiecullum.com

Jamie Cullum was born on 20 August 1979 in Romford, Essex. He was brought up in Hullavington, Wiltshire, he is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums.

Cullum was educated at the independent Grittleton House School and the sixth form at Sheldon School, a comprehensive school. He then went on to study English Literature and Film Studies at Reading University, where he graduated with First Class Honours.

His mother, Yvonne, is of Anglo-Burmese origin, whose family settled in North England 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.

Musical career

With only £48 to produce it, 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 Sumer.

After graduating from Reading University, Cullum released his best-selling album, Pointless Nostalgic, which stirred interest from Michael Parkinson and Melvyn Bragg.

Just after Cullum made his first television appearance, on Parkinson in April 2003, he signed a £1m contract for three albums with Universal, who beat Sony in a bidding war. Cullum’s second studio 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. On the 11th November 2009 Jamie released The Pursuit, his 4th album

Although primarily a jazz musician, he 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 an eclectic mix of music from Miles Davis 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 continue to collaborate extensively.

Cullum is well known not only for his abilities on the piano, but also for his style and charisma Jamie hs also perfomed with many stars, inludingh Kylie Minogue, Sugababes, and Burt Bacharach.

Jamie is well known for never sticking to a set list. Therefore his 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 (in 2004 and 2009), New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (in 2005), 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 30 April 2006 Cullum played his biggest ever crowd on Queensday in the Netherlands.

Jamie also played the BBC Proms in 2010.

Jamie has also taken his career into Radio and since April 2010 he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.

Pointless Nostalgic

Pointless Nostalgic began life as a self-funded project and eventually got taken on by Candid Records, featuring a mix of standards, originals and contemporary covers. It was recorded in Spring 2001 at Clown’s Pocket Studios, Bexley, by Derek Nash and co-produced by Geoff Gascoyne.

On the album Cullum 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”.

Twentysomething Recorded at London’s Mayfair Studio and released 20 October 2003, Twentysomething contains a mix of jazz standards, contemporary tunes and ballads.

Due to the acoustic nature of the music, producer Stewart Levine chose to record and mix Twentysomething entirely on analogue 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 digital recording.

The album includes jazz standards “What a Diffrence 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 “The Wind Cries Mary”, as well as new tracks written by Cullum and his brother Ben, including the first single from the album “All At Sea” and the title track “Twentysomething”.

Twentysomething

Recorded at London’s Mayfair Studio and released 20 October 2003, Twentysomething contains a mix of jazz standards, contemporary tunes and ballads.

The album includes jazz standards “What a Diff’rence 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 “The Wind Cries Mary”, as well as new tracks written by Cullum and his brother Ben, including the first single from the album “All At Sea” and the title track “Twentysomething”.

Catching Tales

Cullum’s third major label album, also produced by Stewart Levine, entitled Catching Tales, was released on 26 September 2005, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and two weeks later in the United States, on 11 October. 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 Cullum and his brother Ben. 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 Williams. 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.

Cullum toured in support of Catching Tales from the end of October 2005 to December 2006.

The Pursuit

On 4 June 2009, Cullum announced the title of his fourth studio album, The Pursuit The album, which was released on 10 November 2009, is produced by Greg Wells, and the first single is “I’m All Over It”, written by Deacon Blue frontman, Ricky Ross. The album was recorded at a Los Angeles studio, using songs that Cullum originally recorded at his Shepherd’s Bush recording studio, Terrified Studios.

The Pursuit was recorded in a variety of places; Jamie’s kitchen, a studio in L.A. and “Terrifed Studios” (Jamie’s own in Shepherd’s Bush). Various musicians were also used in the recording process. Songs recorded in L.A. mostly used session musicians and sees Greg Wells and Cullum play various instrument including drums and bass. “Don’t Stop The Music”, the second single from the album (released as a download only in January 2010 was recorded with Chris Hill and Brad Webb.

Jamie married British food writer and former model Sophie Dahl in a private ceremony at the Lime Wood country house hotel in the New Forest National Park in England on 9 January 2010. And they are now expecting their first child.