Quotes by Jose James - Page 1

I'm pretty much always planning two albums ahead.
Jose James / Vocalist
Albums
Planning
Two
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A lot of people in my generation, we use hip-hop as a tool to compose.
Jose James / Vocalist
My Generation
Compose
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I remember the first vinyl I bought: 'Purple Rain,' my favorite Prince album, ever.
Jose James / Vocalist
Purple
Rain
Vinyl
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When I sort of step in my jazz world, it's somewhere between instrumental jazz and vocal jazz.
Jose James / Vocalist
Jazz
Steps
World
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When I start working on a new album, I kind of stop listening to a lot of outside stuff just so I can kind of focus.
Jose James / Vocalist
Albums
Focus
Listening
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I love that [ late-50s Verve recordings] - to me, that's the epitome of vocal jazz. It's my favorite style and era of it.
Jose James / Vocalist
Eras
Jazz
Style
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I think my first musical memory is actually listening to Billie Holiday. I think I must have been, like, 3 or 4 years old.
Jose James / Vocalist
Holiday
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I really like the complexity of jazz, the emotional depth; I feel like there's no other music that's really as satisfying as jazz.
Jose James / Vocalist
Complexity
Emotional
Jazz
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I don't get writer's block. I don't try to write anything; when something comes, I write it. I just practice and when I get an idea I write it down.
Jose James / Vocalist
Block
Trying
Writing
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I went to a Catholic high school, and I was super rebellious. I would dress weird or play jazz. I was definitely pushing against whatever was going on.
Jose James / Vocalist
Catholic
Pushing
Rebellious
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My goal is to write one book of fiction, and that's all I want to do. It takes so much time, and I don't really have enough time. But I admire writers so much.
Jose James / Vocalist
Enough Time
One Book
So Much Time
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[Billie Holiday] was keeping it super real, and you can feel that to this day. Everything that she sang, she believed in. So I had to pick songs that I felt the same about.
Jose James / Vocalist
Holiday
Real
Song
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All my stuff is pretty seamless - like now, while I'm touring [Yesterday I Sang The Blues], today I'm going to go in the studio, I'm writing my next one. For me it's continual.
Jose James / Vocalist
Stuff
Writing
Yesterday
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For me, the difference between a musician reading an arrangement on a piece of paper, and them closing their eyes and listening to what's happening around them and responding to it, is huge.
Jose James / Vocalist
Differences
Eye
Reading
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I think a lot of times we think of music as being different from other art forms. You would never ask a sculptor or painter, 'Go paint this because you'll get paid more,' you know what I mean?
Jose James / Vocalist
Being Different
Paint
Art Forms
Forms
Sculptor
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Kind of the sad thing is that - it's still true - a lot of jazz people just listen to jazz, and a lot of hip-hop people just listen to hip-hop, and there's not a lot of crossover, unfortunately.
Jose James / Vocalist
Sad
Crossover
Jazz
Unfortunately
Sad Thing
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If you look at the other singers of Billie Holiday's time, they were really trying to entertain. They were trying to make people feel good. They were singing fast - and she was singing the blues.
Jose James / Vocalist
Feel Good
Holiday
People
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I'm working with a producer, Scott Jacoby, who co-wrote "Trouble" off No Beginning No End. Without giving away too much, it's a definite pop/r&b vibe, pretty strong melodies, and definitely about songs.
Jose James / Vocalist
Giving
Song
Strong
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For better or for worse, I think my approach to jazz is very traditional, in one sense, but is [also] very out of fashion today. It's about the musicians, and it's about that magic that happens in the moment.
Jose James / Vocalist
Fashion
Magic
Thinking
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The other songs [of Billie Holiday] - "Body and Soul" is like the standard - I also wanted some songs that I knew I would sound good on, as a producer. It's been the same nine songs since I debuted it back in 2012.
Jose James / Vocalist
Holiday
Song
Soul
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I think the frustration you can get into as a young artist is when you realize your limitations, but you want to accomplish that rather than seeing that you don't have to do everything. Just focus on your strengths.
Jose James / Vocalist
Accomplish
Frustration
Limitations
Strengths
Young Artist
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For me jazz is kind of an extension of hip-hop. Kind of the sad thing is that a lot of jazz people just listen to jazz, and a lot of hip-hop people just listen to hip-hop, and there's not a lot of crossover, unfortunately.
Jose James / Vocalist
Jazz
Kind
People
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I feel like Europe is way more advanced. They're way more open to the definition of jazz. More cool. They're like, 'You want to do that? Awesome. You want to work with a rapper? Awesome.' They're not, 'Aah, it's not real jazz.'
Jose James / Vocalist
Rapper
Advanced
Awesome
Definition
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I go by the "Miles Davis school of production and band-leading", where you pick the best musicians you can, you provide them with a minimum of direction, and you just let the music happen. I've seen it work time and time again.
Jose James / Vocalist
Band
Musician
School
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I also tried to focus on songs that Billie Holiday wrote, songs that she had a hand in shaping, like "Strange Fruit"; songs that were written for her or songs that she wrote herself, like "Fine and Mellow" or "God Bless The Child."
Jose James / Vocalist
Children
Holiday
Song
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When it's all said and done, jazz with a capital J is where I'm coming from. Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk - that's what I really studied when I was a teenager and what really fueled my passion.
Jose James / Vocalist
Charlie
Holiday
Miles
Monk
Teenager
Studied
Davis
Capital
Dexter
Fueled
Gordon
Parker
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Chico Hamilton told me, "The first take is important in jazz because that's where the real emotion is." That's your true response to what's happening, and everything else after that, your brain is involved because you have something to reference.
Jose James / Vocalist
Brain
Important
Real
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I want to break down the wall of, you know, you have to put on a jacket and tie, and you have to act a certain way, and you have to know how to order the right kind of wine. All these things have suddenly been built up around jazz and the way it's presented.
Jose James / Vocalist
Break
Jazz
Wall
Wine
Certain Way
Jacket
Presented
Right Kind
Suddenly
Tie
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I actually started the whole project some years ago with a live debut at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. The focus was mainly on my favorite period of Billie Holiday, which was the late-50s Verve recordings, with essentially a small version of the Count Basie band.
Jose James / Vocalist
Focus
Holiday
Years
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I've sort of realized there's a definite pattern to my output at this point: there's an album that everybody sort of loves, that's a real balance between the old and new, like The Dreamer or No Beginning No End, like a blend of jazz and hip-hop, or r&b and soul and hip-hop.
Jose James / Vocalist
Hip Hop
Real
Soul
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The level of musicianship in New York is the highest in the world. It's tough to get into. You start gigging making 50 dollars a night, or playing for nothing to get to something. It's insane. It's like being a modern dancer, or something - the hardest thing to make money from.
Jose James / Vocalist
Dancer
Insane
Night
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Once I had the band, Jason [Moran] and John [Patitucci] and Eric [Harland] - it's very exciting to have that trio of just world-class guys - I already knew it was going to be fantastic. I didn't really tell them anything about it. They didn't know what they were going to play beforehand.
Jose James / Vocalist
Class
Guy
Play
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I'm listening to a lot of Drake, and a lot of Frank Sinatra just because it's his centennial also. I'm going to be doing some tributes to him this year. I love that Beck album. It was funny to me because my two favorite albums of the year were definitely the Beyonce album and the Beck album.
Jose James / Vocalist
Listening
Two
Years
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There used to be a club in new york called Bradley's - I've never been there, it closed in the 80's - but I used to study with Junior Mance, and he would tell me about Bradley's. It was a very important place for a generation of jazz musicians in New York. It was really all about pianists there.
Jose James / Vocalist
New York
Important
Musician
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I think comparisons are very on the surface. If I sing, like, 'Park Bench People,' and there's kind of a social undertone, people will say I sound like Gil Scott-Heron. But for me, the more insightful comparison would be a Roberta Flack or Nina Simone - people who really mix different genres of music.
Jose James / Vocalist
Comparison
Different Genres
Insightful
Nina
Surface
Music Me People
Bench
Genres
Mix
Park
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I really pulled from that repertoire that Billie Holiday was singing, and the way she sang it. It's sort of this beautiful, not really midpoint, but a period of her career where she really still had her voice. She had that deep wisdom that we've come to associate her with. To me, that's her at the height of her powers.
Jose James / Vocalist
Beautiful
Careers
Holiday
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Jason [Moran] and John [Patitucci] and Eric [Harland] knew it was a Billie Holiday tribute. I'm sure they assumed it was going to be like another singer date, where we just have a bunch of charts and they write them down and they got paid and kind of moved on. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not what I intended.
Jose James / Vocalist
Holiday
Moved On
Writing
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There's a more experimental album that follows that, which is like Black Magic and While You Were Sleeping. Then there's a return to jazz, For All We Know and Yesterday I Sang The Blues. It wasn't like a planned thing, I just kind of realized it when I made a list of my albums. Like, oh wow, this is exactly what I did before.
Jose James / Vocalist
Black
Sleep
Yesterday
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Whenever I'm talking about relationships, it's always at least three things. It's my relationship with myself, my relationship with God or an idea, and then usually somebody, a real person. I try to operate on all three levels at the same time, and it's difficult, but I never want to have a break-up song or something like that.
Jose James / Vocalist
Relationship
Difficult
Levels
Real Person
Song
Talking
Time God Myself
Least
Operate
Relationships
Same Time
Whenever
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I'm a man that's unique to the world. That's kind of the star I was born under - on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius. My mother is Irish-American, and my father is Afro-Panamanian, so it's kind of been the story of my life to be a bridge between different cultures and different styles, and musically, that's between jazz and R&B.
Jose James / Vocalist
Aquarius
Cusp
Different Cultures
Jazz
Unique
Life Man World
Bridge
Capricorn
Cultures
Musically
Styles
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I feel like, in many ways, Billie Holiday's still very under-appreciated as an artist. People focus on her voice, and all of the very recognizable vocal things that she does, which are great. But I wanted to, with this project, start the conversation again about her as a radical feminist, as a civil rights activist - taking a stance. And also just [her] being a non-conformist.
Jose James / Vocalist
Artist
Holiday
Rights
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Jose James Quotes - Page 1

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