José James is blazing his own path

May 3—Jazz singer José James presents his dilemma starkly: He grew up in the time of hip-hop, and he couldn't rap. The Minneapolis native says he began to drill down on music as a 14-year-old, right when an interesting melange of styles was occurring on the radio.

The Digable Planets broke through by mixing jazz samples and rapping on their hit single Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) in November of 1992, and shortly after that, Guru released his seminal album Jazzmatazz Volume 1: An Experimental Fusion of Hip-Hop and Jazz in May 1993.

At an impressionable point in his life, James saw a path that hadn't existed a year or two earlier. He could aspire to be not just a singer but also a Duke Ellington-style bandleader, a producer, and a fuser of musical worlds that are still relatively unexplored.

"I didn't really understand jazz, but I was fascinated by it because it was in so many samples," says James, who will appear at Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery on Thursday, May 9. "I was listening to hip-hop, mostly. De La Soul had all the Prince Paul production and all these cool samples. Digable Planets, same thing, all these references. A Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed Muhammad. I was trying to figure out what jazz was through their lens."

Now years later, he's learned those lessons well. James and his partner, Talia Billig, started their own record label, Rainbow Blonde, in 2018, and he's put out five albums since 2020.

details

José James presents 1978

7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9

Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery

2791 Aqua Fria Street

$35; check for ticket availability

505-988-1234; lensic.org

Those five albums hint at the depth and breadth of his interests: There's a live album in the mix, a Christmas album, and a tribute to the work of singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. His latest release, 1978, pays tribute to his birth year and another fertile time of music crossing borders.

James mentions just a few of the artists who inspired him in utero, such as Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Prince. He even offers a nod to James Taylor.

"I was obsessed with the sounds of the late '70s," he says. "I think there's just an incredible wealth of material, and there's all these styles rubbing up against each other in this cool way. Disco was at its apex, about to turn into hip-hop and that club culture. Reggae, its rise on the global scene with Bob Marley; it was a really fascinating snapshot of global culture."

James says he sang during his high school years, but his life in music kicked into high gear when he competed in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocalist Competition. He made it to the semifinals and in the process was exposed to world-class musicians like keyboardists Herbie Hancock and George Duke, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, and drummer Carl Allen.

He moved from Minnesota to New York and enrolled in The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. His debut release, The Dreamer, came out in 2008 when he was 30. James steadily built his reputation album by album and after landing at jazz label Blue Note Records, he released five albums between 2012 and 2018. One was a tribute to Billie Holiday, and another interpreted the work of Bill Withers.

"I try to look at it as documenting my evolution," James says of the rapid release schedule. "To me, that's what great artists are all about, whether it's the Beatles or Nina Simone or John Coltrane or Stevie Wonder. If you have the ideas, put them down. And when you don't, don't. That's why I do these tributes as well, these cover records. Because I think there's plenty of things to explore as a jazz singer. New material. New vistas. And I just love to perform. I'm a creature of the stage, first and foremost."

James, who also plays guitar, says that the writing process for 1978 took about five years. They recorded it — from start through mastering — in about a year-and-a-half, he says, and his albums are always tracked live in the studio. He strives to make the music work in as few takes as possible, a philosophy he took from jazz legend Miles Davis.

"The first reaction to the music," he says, "is the most honest."

James and Billig have experienced some changes over the last few years. They married in 2019 and both had COVID in the first wave of the pandemic. They moved from New York to the Netherlands, where they taught at the Conservatorium von Amsterdam. And after two years abroad, they moved to Pasadena, California.

James says they had lived through the hard grind of the pandemic, and he learned he never wants to be a full-time music professor after his stint in Amsterdam. He loves performing too much — and he's busy.

He and Billig wear the many hats it takes to run their own record label. They book the tours, gather the musicians, and even handle the details of art direction for their album covers.

"The idea is, 'If you're going to build the house, you may as well own the house,'" James says. "Anybody who's successful who I read about — whether it's Beyoncé or Taylor Swift or Drake — they're very invested in every step of the process, from what they're wearing on stage to the lighting, design, and cover art. I think we're sort of in a different era now. It's really about the vision of the artist, and Rainbow Blonde is the fulfillment of that dream."