New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Blue Note Records recording artist
Jamie Cullum - the best-selling jazz artist in U.K. history - will open for
Billy Joel at Madison
Square Garden on Tuesday, November 25, and Thursday, December 18. Cullum also supported Joel at his October 2 show at the legendary New York City venue.
Cullum's new album, Interlude, will be released in the U.S. on January 27, 2015 on Blue Note Records and it will include three exclusive tracks that did not appear on the original U.K. edition. The album marks a shift to straight-ahead jazz and a return to interpretation from an artist who has made a habit of bending genres, writing original material and bringing new sounds and new listeners to the music. Working with producer Benedic Lamdin of Nostalgia 77, Cullum selected a number of jewels from the American songbook, including the title track, which was penned by
Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli, and added a couple of modern surprises - Sufjan Steven's "The Seer's Tower" and Randy Newman's "Losing You."
Beginning today, fans who pre-order the album on iTunes (iTunes.com/JamieCullum ) will receive track "
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" featuring Gregory Porter" in addition to the first single, "
Good Morning Heartache" featuring
Laura Mvula. Interlude can be pre-ordered on Amazon in CD and vinyl formats.
Cullum invited
Gregory Porter and
Laura Mvula into the studio after giving the acclaimed new artists their first plays on radio on his award-winning BBC
Radio 2 show. Neither of the two classic songs had ever been recorded as a duet before.
Jamie, a keen amateur photographer, turned to friend Michael Agel of Leica Camera for help in creating the artwork for Interlude. Leica cameras in hand, they took advantage of his 2014 U.S. tour to develop Cullum's skills behind the lens, taking shots of the people and places he encountered along the way, and Michael capturing Jamie, both off and on stage. The resulting images can be seen on the front cover of Interlude and in an exclusive photo booklet included in the deluxe version of the album.
"I have been fascinated by photography since rescuing my mum's old camera from the attic as a child," said Cullum, who was honored to have some of his photos included in the Leica Galerie exhibition at photokina in Cologne, Germany in
September 2014.
Jamie has expanded his artistic endeavors even further with The Eighty-Eight, an occasional magazine for the adventurous thinker. A new issue featuring essays, stories and photographs curated by Cullum will be out in early 2015.
Cullum was recently part of an all-star line up of artists who re-recorded the Beach Boys' hit "
God Only Knows" for children in need. The single also features Pharrell, Chris Martin, Emeli Sandé, Brian May, Elton John, Florence Welch and Lorde, to name a few. The "
God Only Knows" video, which can be viewed HERE, was simulcast across all BBC TV and radio networks to mark the official launch of BBC Music.
Jamie grew up listening widely, from rock, drum n' bass to hip hop and discovered jazz through acts like DJ Shadow and A Tribe Called Quest. He self-released his first album, Heard It All Before, in 1999, while he was still studying at the University of Reading. Pointless Nostalgic (2002), released by legendary indie jazz label Candid Records, was certified Gold in the U.K. It was followed by Cullum's breakthrough major label debut, Twentysomething, which climbed into the Top 5 in the U.K., where it was subsequently certified triple Platinum. Cullum recorded two songs for the Meet the Robinsons soundtrack and was nominated for a Golden Globe® for "Best Original Song" for "Gran Torino," which he co-wrote for the 2008
Clint Eastwood film of the same name. Interlude is the follow-up to Cullum's 2013 album Momentum, which he recorded with producers Dan the Automator and Jim Abbiss. Cullum has recently appeared on albums by Labrinth,
Birdy and alternative hip hop supergroup Deltron 3030.
