Jazzy Star

Eighteen months ago, Jamie Cullum was at something of a crossroads; “I had two dangers approaching me with the new album,“ he admits. “I would either, as a reaction to working constantly over the last six years, make something so utterly progressive that no one would realise it was me, or I would make something that hadn’t moved on at all. Allowing myself to step back and process my... achievements I guess, in context, enabled me to do an album that was both progressive but also sounds like me too.”

Winks towards the progressive on latest offering ‘The Pursuit’ include the startlingly electro-minded ‘Music Is Through’ and ‘We Run Things’; two dance-heavy compositions Cullum reckons were just waiting to happen.
“I’ve been involved in dance music for maybe 12 years now. My brother’s a dance music producer and DJ, I’ve played a lot on dance records. I’ve been to Ibiza and done a live session for Pete Tong. It’s something that is part of my world. I guess I was never confident enough about seeping these influences into my records.”
Never one to err on the side of convention, The Pursuit features a cover of the Cole Porter classic ‘Just One Of Those Things’ to which Cullum has added an introduction about one-night stands. Was it a bit scary to rewrite the work of one of the greatest composers of all time?
“Scary...” he ponders, “you know, it should be. I don’t want to sound disrespectful. I’m quite used to bending standards to my will. I wanted to give it an intro which gave a slightly more 21st century spotlight on it.”
Far from a man stuck in 1975, or indeed 1939, Cullum lists off Health, the XX, Micachu and the Shapes and Bombay Bicycle Club among his favourite artists of the year. And he is proud to reference Rihanna as openly as Coltrane; “I’m not very mysterious about the way I come up with things, the bass line on the last song on the album, I got that idea from the Portishead song ‘The Rip’, part of the single is somewhere between Elton John and Sergeant Pepper. I wear my influences on my sleeve. I’m quite happy to say that.”
The high point of Cullum’s musical respite was undoubtedly the Golden Globe nomination he scored for the song ‘Gran Torino’, which came about thanks to one very special fan.
“This is obviously one of the most, probably the most amazing thing that’s happened in my career so far," he admits. "Clint Eastwood heard me doing a demo of a song of a film he was working on quite by chance and ended up using that on the film... I ended up recording it in his house on his piano with him sitting about as far away from me as you are now.” Cullum seems somewhat bemused by his next sentence. “Then we went out to dinner... hung out!”
Clearly a lot has happened in six years, not least his high-profile engagement to Sophie Dahl, for whom Cullum boasts on his album sleeve he plays “every note, now and always”. “’The pursuit of love consumes us all’ is a line in one of the songs,” he says, “and it sums up what this album is about.”
‘I was discussing with a friend about turning 30 and I said the great thing about having an art form in your life, music in my case, is that it’s all about the journey, there’s no finish line. You don’t get to one point and then that’s it, you’re in Madison Square Garden. You just keep going, you keep getting better and keep writing better songs. It’s a lifelong pursuit and I love that.”
Speaking of the big 3-0, will Cullum be reworking his one of his best known self-penned tracks ‘Twentysomething’ to mark the milestone birthday?
“I’d feel a bit weird about singing that now, I’ve not sang it since I’ve turned 30. But, I’ve a real soft spot for that song. It was a real moment for me. It was written before I had a record deal, it was written with no thought that anyone would hear it so it’s a sweet little thing that became a signature tune...” ...he trails. “But I haven’t really got a any thirtysomething issues,” he laughs. “What do thirtysomething men worry about anyway – getting fat and bald?”