José James
On & On
Rainbow Blonde
Buy via Bandcamp | Listen Below
Since his debut album (The Dreamer) in 2008, José James has combined soul, jazz and elements of spoken word to create a niche all of his own. An indicator of the traditions he follows is evident in the albums of cover versions he intersperses between his collections of original material. In 2015, he released a set of Billie Holiday covers and then three years later in 2018, Bill Withers’ discography received the attention it more than deserves.
If there’s a sense of chronology in his choices, it shows in this most recent choice of artist to cover. On & On, as the title reveals, is a set of seven songs from the impressive catalogue of Erykah Badu—from her stellar debut through to New Amerykah Pt 2 (2010) and it is an intriguing and impeccably performed ode to the singer-songwriter.
As befitting someone often referred to as the “jazz singer for the hip-hop generation,” he serves up subtle changes in instrumentation, a desire to crawl inside the songs to get to their heart and his instantly recognizable vocals to provide a powerful reminder of the strength of Badu’s catalogue and his notable talent for creating fresh versions of classic songs.
The album cover itself is also worth including in this conversation as its color palette, typeface and positioning of James’ body are themselves an homage to another musical titan. With only a slight change to the head’s position, the cover is an almost exact replica of Alice Coltrane’s Journey To Satchidananda. The links between both artists are obvious—both use their plaintive humanity to reach for divinity (whatever that may be named) and seek transcendence from this mortal plain.
The opening of “On & On” can only be read as an homage to Coltrane too, with a flourish of jazzy freedom that might not seem too out of place on the previously mentioned work of genius. The one-minute-and-forty-second flourish also makes it clear that this is a work of jazz interpretations (not that you’d expect much else from James). That intro aside, the song proceeds as you might expect, but from that point on there is something new and interesting that James and his collaborators add to each song.
Listen to the Album:
On the divine bliss of “Didn’t Cha Know” it is a shot of Afro-futuristic keys that hint at a better place being not of this earthly realm, but on “Green Eyes” (one of my favorite songs), its success lies in subtle changes to the multi-faceted song. Whereas Badu opened it with the crackle of an aged record from the dim and distant past, the opening movement here is played as cocktail lounge jazz that does the same job in accentuating the wry heartbreak and therefore making the following change in tone as effective as the original. Further on, the breaks between movements give the musicians involved a chance to unleash some impassioned jazz freneticism that, once again, adds drama to the epic beauty.
Hearing “The Healer” from New Amerykah Pt 1 stripped of its genius production by Madlib shows that the song thrives regardless of setting and in doing so reveals the truth at the heart of this project. By covering these songs, James is not only offering a valid and enjoyable reinterpretation of them, but he is also showing that these compositions should be considered part of soul music’s canon. Just as the Great American Songbook was revisited and reimagined countless times by the greatest of singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, so these songs demand the attention of singers and arrangers to offer their versions of them.
Notable Tracks: “Green Eyes” | “The Healer” | “Out My Mind, Just In Time”
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