News
December 10 2012
JAMES SET TO MAKE NATIONAL TV DEBUT DEC. 18 ON TBS CONAN;
BLUE NOTE DEBUT NO BEGINNING NO END TO BE RELEASED JAN. 22
José James has announced his winter 2013 U.S. tour dates in support of his forthcoming Blue Note Records debut, No Beginning No End, which will be released on January 22. The tour will kick off January 23 in his hometown of New York City with an album release show at the Highline Ballroom with other stops along the first leg including Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis. After a month-long tour in Asia and Australia throughout February, James will be returning to the U.S. in March for a run of West Coast dates that includes Oakland, San Francisco, and a Los Angeles show at The Del Monte Speakeasy on March 12.
James is also set to make his national TV debut on December 18 when the singer-songwriter will make an appearance on TBS Conan performing his song “Trouble.”
JOSÉ JAMES – 2013 U.S. TOUR DATES
Jan. 23 – Highline Ballroom – New York, NY
Jan. 24 – Howard Theatre – Washington DC
Jan. 26 – Scullers – Boston, MA
Jan. 29 – Cedar Cultural Center – Minneapolis, MN
Jan. 30 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
Feb. 10-Mar. 6 – Asia & Australia Tour
Mar. 9 – The New Parish – Oakland, CA
Mar. 10 – Brick & Mortar Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
Mar. 12 – The Del Monte Speakeasy – Los Angeles, CA
December 6 2012
December 4 2012
JAMES ANNOUNCES JAN. 23 ALBUM RELEASE SHOW AT HIGHLINE BALLROOM IN NYC TO CELEBRATE HIS BLUE NOTE DEBUT NO BEGINNING NO END
José James is set to make his national TV debut on December 18 when the singer-songwriter will make an appearance on the TBS late-night show Conan. James will be performing “Trouble” from his forthcoming Blue Note Records debut, No Beginning No End, which will be released on January 22 and is currently available for pre-order on iTunes and Amazon. WATCH HERE
While in Los Angeles, James will also be taping a live session for KCRW's Berkeley Street Sessions, an intimate concert series at Apogee's Berkeley Street Studio that has featured such artists as Ryan Adams, Death Cab for Cutie, Little Dragon, Janelle Monae, The Shins, Patti Smith, Regina Spektor, and St. Vincent. The session will air later on KCRW’s signature music show Morning Becomes Eclectic.
James has also announced an album release show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City on January 23, as well as March 12 show at The Del Monte Speakeasy in Los Angeles. James will be presenting songs from No Beginning No End, an album that influential UK DJ Gilles Peterson has called “a landmark” likening it to “Smokey Robinson for the new generation.”
“It’s not nearly enough to say that a musician mixes jazz, soul and funk, because so much has been built around that intersection since the 1970s,” wrote Ben Ratliff in The New York Times earlier this year. “The singer José James lives around that intersection too. He’s a romantic baritone with a deep-funk band, stretching out songs, evoking both the ’70s of Roberta Flack and Gil Scott-Heron and the ’90s and oughts of J Dilla.” Ratliff continued, “But Mr. James, who has revealed himself in stages over the years, is a very different kind of singer than D’Angelo. He’s a little more acoustic singer-songwriter, a little more delicate. He’s clearer, more disciplined and lower key; he can move you with silence and the pure strength of his vocal tone.”
November 29 2012
LOVANO SET TO RELEASE 23rd BLUE NOTE ALBUM CROSS CULTURE ON JAN. 8
FEATURING US FIVE PLUS SPECIAL GUEST LIONEL LOUEKE
On January 8, 2013, saxophonist and composer Joe Lovano will release Cross Culture, his 23rd Blue Note recording and the third consecutive release by his critically acclaimed quintet, Us Five. To celebrate the album’s release, Lovano will be taking Us Five out on an 11-city U.S. tour that launches January 19 and includes shows at The Mint in Los Angeles (January 22) and Yoshi’s in Oakland (January 24-26) before culminating with two nights at The Allen Room at Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City (February 22-23).
Cross Culture is an 11-track tour de force that presents 10 of Lovano’s original compositions along with a stunning interpretation of the Billy Strayhorn ballad “Star Crossed Lovers.” Augmenting his core group (pianist James Weidman, bassists Esperanza Spalding or Peter Slavov, and drummers Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela) with the daring West African guitarist—and fellow Blue Note artist—Lionel Loueke, Lovano delivers his most fully realized representation of a career-long quest to explore the notion of universal musical language.
“Since I started to tour in the late ‘70s, I’ve collected instruments from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and North and South America,” says Lovano, who, in addition to his instantly recognizable tenor saxophone, improvises on G-mezzo soprano, tarogato, and aulochrome, and plays an array of percussion—bells and shakers, an Israeli paddle drum, and a Nigerian slit drum called an oborom. “I’ve spent a lifetime feeling the passion of experiencing the spirits in the sounds of the collective ancestors in these instruments, creating music but feeling like the earth. It’s coming through in my compositions and in the way we play together.”
Loueke, who himself combines exhaustive knowledge of harmony and folk forms, contributes seamlessly and egolessly to six pieces. “Lionel doesn’t just play the guitar,” Lovano says. “He freely integrates himself with the rhythm section and with me in the front line, and shares the space in a personal way.”
JOE LOVANO US FIVE – WINTER 2013 U.S. TOUR DATES
Jan. 19 Ballroom, Kennett Square, PA
Jan. 20 Swyer Theatre-The Egg, Albany, NY
Jan. 22 The Mint, Los Angeles, CA
Jan. 24-26 Yoshi’s, Oakland, CA
Jan. 27 John Van Duzer Theatre, Arcata, CA
Jan. 28 Kuumbwa Jazz Cntr, Santa Cruz, CA
Jan. 30-31 Dazzle, Denver, CO
Feb. 1 Wheeler Opera House, Aspen, CO
Feb. 2 MIM Music Theater, Phoenix, AZ
Feb. 22-23 Allen Room @ JALC, New York, NY