All that’s Jazz?

I saw another concert this weekend. Last night I saw Jamie Cullum. He was playing at the Hilton where Barry Manilow plays. As a matter of fact, I saw Jamie in the Barry Manilow gift shop before the show. Man, is he short! This must have been my weekend to see the short people perform. Various sources report him as being 5’4”, but I find that a little surprising. Whatever, the little munchkin and play and sing.

I will officially go on record as saying that I don’t particularly care for Jazz music. I think I can count on one hand the number of jazz cd’s I own. I just have a problem with music that deals with a lot of improvisation. It bugs me. I went out on the Internet to do some research on Jazz just so I could explain better why I don’t like it. There are so many different types of Jazz; it’s impossible to make a sweeping statement to say I don’t like it. So fine then. I don’t like some of it.

Jamie combines jazz with a number of other influences such as pop, big band, and he even had a segment with drums he picked up from a recent trip to Brazil. It was like Carnival in there at one point. His show has a lot of energy and he played for at least 2 hours. It was a strange crowd too. A mix of college kids and grandparents. I noticed about halfway through the show that the grandparents didn’t stick around. I’m sure it’s hard to cater to everyone. So here then are some of the highlights.

First of all, the guy doesn’t exactly look like a jazz musician. Think about Billy Joe Armstrong minus the eyeliner sitting at a piano. Jamie is only about 26 years old, so instead of coming across as another Harry Connick Jr, he looks more like another Harry Potter. Seriously, all he is missing is the lightening bolt on his forehead. He came out in a blazer and pencil thin tie, white shirt, torn jeans and tennis shoes. After about 2 songs, the jacket was gone, 4 songs and the tie was gone, another few songs and the shirt was history too. Turns out he was wearing a Barry Manilow t-shirt under the dress shirt. He also likes to bang on the piano and climb on it and jump on it and pretty much everything but set it on fire. This is jazz?

Then there was the music. Jamie has 2 albums. He played a number of songs from both. The youth and wildness of his appearance is in direct opposition to his talent and very precise interpretation of his music. There is such maturity there when you watch him play and when you hear him sing. Some of the random bits of songs he threw in were kind of fun too. He did an interesting interpretation of Kelly Clarkson’s Since You’ve Been Gone. I guess even he can’t escape the album either. He also did a funny bit of Don’t Cha by the Pussycat Dolls. Strange, but true.

He switched to the guitar at one point. Katie- I know you can appreciate this. As soon as the guitar came out, so did the song requests. I swear I would not have been surprised to hear someone yell “Freebird.” No one did, but someone did yell “Sweet Caroline.” He did fumble around and play a bit of the first song he learned on guitar. A little ditty called “You’ve Got a Friend.” So, we had ourselves a little sing-along to that one.

Toward the end of the show, when the rest of the band was off stage and it was just him on the piano, he started to play a song that I knew the words to and couldn’t identify right away. I knew it wasn’t his song, but I couldn’t think what it was. Then I identified it as a song called “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” Now I know that some of you out there will know this song as performed by the Joy Division. Yeah well, I don’t know that version. I know it as a remake by another British gentleman by the name of Paul Young. Paul Young just happened to be the first concert I ever saw. So, I’m sitting there in the theater with my jaw hanging open because (to me) he is playing a Paul Young song and that’s when I knew this kid was OK. Actually, I knew before then, but that really sealed the deal.

The show was really good and I would recommend catching it if you get the chance. Even if you don’t consider yourself to be much of a Jazz fan, don’t worry. This isn’t too much like Jazz. If you want to download some songs to see if you like him, I highly recommend these 5:

• London Skies
• Frontin
• All At Sea
• Get Your Way
• What a Difference a Day Makes