The Pianoman At Christmas (Blue Note)
Jamie Cullum
Released in 2020
Jazz FM 20 Contemporary Christmas Jazz Albums
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l2OUDxb10bQWT47S0J01FFwGWPd0_veoY
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0yZjbdYWNna4I7CIkHVW7g?si=CgYxpfuARSOcmY2CA2-t-Q
About:
The Pianoman At Christmas is an album that represents the many colours of Christmas feelings. As December approaches don’t you feel some of that nostalgia kicking in? You’ll hear a lot of my Christmas memories and thoughts on the album but I’d love to see some of yours too. All you have to do is upload a video or picture, via the link below that represents Christmas nostalgia or a favourite Christmas Memory – whether it’s from a Christmas party, a Christmas day family ritual or something that just gives you that festive spirit. I will then take your wonderful memories and use them to create a music video for my song ‘Christmas Never Gets Old’, which will be released on Friday on The Pianoman AT Christmas album. It could be really amazing so let’s try and make a new, collective Christmas memory.
Jamie Cullum
Track Listing:
1. It’s Christmas (Jamie Cullum) 03:14
2. Beautiful, Altogether (Jamie Cullum) 03:32
3. Hang Your Lights (Jamie Cullum) 04:55
4. The Jolly Fat Man (Jamie Cullum) 03:04
5. The Pianoman at Christmas (Jamie Cullum) 04:35
6. Turn On the Lights (Jamie Cullum) 04:15
7. So Many Santas (Jamie Cullum) 03:29
8. Christmas Never Gets Old (Jamie Cullum) 02:44
9. How Do You Fly? (Jamie Cullum) 05:59
10. Christmas Caught Me Crying (Jamie Cullum) 03:17
Personnel:
Jamie Cullum: vocals, piano
Tom Richards: conductor, piano, saxophone, Sleigh Bells, tambourine, backing vocals
Brad Webb: drums, backing vocals
Loz Garratt: upright bass, electric bass, backing vocals
Ross Stanley: piano
Tom Varrall: guitar
Backing vocals: Aisha Stuart, Naomi Miller, Shanna Goodhead
Trumpet: Louis Dowdswell, Rory Simmons, Tom Rees-Roberts, Tom Walsh
Alistair White, Mark Frost (bass), Nichol Thomson, Trevor Mires: trombone
Graeme Blevins, Howard McGill: alto saxophone, flute
Martin Williams, Paul Booth: alto flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone
Claire McInerney: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, flute
James Turner: percussion
Ed Richardson: drums (2)
Chris Traves, Dave Stewart, Mark Nightingale, Tracey Holloway: orchestral trombones
Mike Poyser, Owen Slade: tuba
Alexei Watkins, Angela Barnes, Laurence Davies, Michael Thompson, Richard Bissill: French Horn
John Mills (leader), Beatrix Lovejoy, Ben Buckton, Ciaran McCabe, Daniel Bhattacharya, Dorina Markoff, Everton Nelson, Jeremy Isaac, Kate Robinson, Marianne Haynes, Max Baillie, Natalia Bonner, Patrick Savage, Rita Manning, Steve Morris, Tom Pigott-Smith: violin
Ann Beilby, Helen Kamminga, Julia Knight, Kate Musker, Lydia Lowndes-Northcott, Reiad Chibah: viola
Bozidar Vukotic, Chris Worsey, Ian Burdge, Tony Woollard: cello
Chris Laurence, Richard Price, Stacey Richard Watton: double bass
Hugh Webb: harp
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios and Air Lyndhurst Studios, London, UK
Produced by Jamie Cullum, Tom Richards and Greg Wells
Mixed by Greg Wells
Recording Engineer: Andrew Dudman
ProTools Operator: Cristopher James Parker
Assistant Recording Engineer: Edward Denholm/Gianluca Massimo/Jack Mills
Mastering Engineer: Simon Gibson
Photography: Jane Hilton
Creative Direction and Design: Pete Manley
Review:
With his first holiday-themed album, 2020’s The Pianoman at Christmas, Jamie Cullum strikes a festive balance between swinging traditional pop and heartfelt singer/songwriter introspection. It’s a balance the singer and pianist has been perfecting ever since breaking through in the early 2000s, moving between urbane re-interpretations of jazz standards and his own lyrical pop/rock originals. It’s also a formula that has helped him remain a Top 20 chart regular in the U.K. with albums like 2014’s Interlude and 2019’s Taller. The Pianoman at Christmas makes the most of these skills as Cullum brings all of his varied experience to bear on a set of original holiday songs. Produced by Greg Wells, the album is a fittingly lush production, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios with a varied mix of big band, orchestral, and small group arrangements. Tracks like “It’s Christmas” and “Christmas Never Gets Old” are big swinging numbers that capture a Frank Sinatra fireside sparkle. Similarly vintage-sounding, “Hang Your Lights” is a snappy, minor-key jump blues rhumba in the Louis Prima tradition, while “So Many Santas” crackles with a Las Vegas high-kicking chorus-girl energy. We also get the bluesy, Ray Charles-sounding “Jolly Fat Man” with its wry, nightclub sense of humor. While much of the album evokes the 1950s and ’60s golden age of traditional pop, there are more introspective moments as Cullum settles gently into the Billy Joel-esque title track, the ebullient ’70s soft-rock anthem “Turn On the Lights,” and the dusky, cinematic string romanticism of “Beautiful Together.” The Pianoman at Christmas isn’t just a great holiday album, it’s a great Jamie Cullum album.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)
