JOSÉ JAMES / “Black Magic Concert”
José has a new album, Blackmagic, that has a contemporary production vibe. My man has the chops and the consciousness to do a wide range of music and since he grew up with hip hop that is a major part of his identity but nevertheless it’s as a jazz singer that he excels—and when I say excels, I mean there is no one else under 40 who even comes close to doing what Mr. James does.
Moreover, although I dig his recordings, none of them are in the same league with his concerts. Back in December we featured José’s magnificent “Facing East” John Coltrane Tribute Concert.
Well, he’s done it again. Here’s a recent Belgian concert promoting his Blackmagic release except it’s a jazz concert—real, stretching out, exploring, improvising, innovative jazz concert. It's José James the jazz artist interpreting José James the contemporary singer. It doesn't take long to realize that there is a radical difference. Moreover, whereas the album was only about 67-minutes long, the concert clocks in at a few minutes shy of two hours. This concert needs to be released.
You have not heard Blackmagic until you’ve heard this concert. BTW, you can go online and see a video of the concert.
The only other thing I have to say is: Listen!
This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 1:58 am and is filed under Cover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “JOSÉ JAMES / “Black Magic Concert””
April 17th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
been a JJ stan for a minute now, so it’s great to feel 1 step closer to a live experience. gratitude to BOL, truly phenomenal post.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:09 am
The Facing East concert is brilliant, I play it a lot it’s so good; so I’m really looking forward to hearing this. Thanks so much!
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