The jazz voice of a generation, José James released his debut LP ‘The Dreamer’ in 2007 on Brownswood Recordings. It was crammed with smoky, low-slung jazz grooves blessed with Jose’s rich baritone vocals – magnificent self-penned works nestling alongside uniquely crafted cover versions of John Coltrane, Rashaan Roland Kirk and even West Coast hip hop institution Freestyle Fellowship. Pursuing the same deeply soulful vocal jazz tradition exemplified by Babs Gonzales, Billie Holliday, Joe Williams and Leon Thomas, ‘The Dreamer’ quickly cemented Jose’s stature and raw talent within the worldwide jazz community, and beyond.

Since ‘The Dreamer’ José has performed in maybe 30 countries, worked with some of the best, wisest and finest artists in the world such as Chico Hamilton and Junior Mance and he has built a community of friends and fellow music-lovers all over the globe. This global community helped shape his sophomore record: ‘BLACKMAGIC’. Working alongside the
likes of Flying Lotus (Warp/Brainfeeder), Moodymann, DJ Mitsu, Taylor McFerrin, he proved that he was perfectly at ease riding FlyLo’s bumpy sketches, or indeed morphing Benga’s dubstep anthem ‘Emotions’ into a killer live jazz workout. Now signed to Blue Note Records, Jose has just released his 6th studio album entitled ‘Yesterday I Had The Blues: The Music Of Billie Holiday’.