In the music world the three Bs traditionally stand for Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. For jazz singer José James they stand for Billie, Bill and Badu (as in Holiday, Withers and Erykah).

His most recent album, On & On, was released at the beginning of this year and finds James putting his own vocal stylings to the songs of Erykah Badu. In 2015 he released Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday and in 2018 he released Lean On Me, a selection of songs by Bill Withers.

This Saturday James concludes his summer US tour in support of On & On at The Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. This will be the first and only show of the tour that will feature his entire band that appeared on the album performing with him live.

Earlier this week I spoke with James about Erykah Badu and her music, lessons he’s learned over the years of his career and the challenges he faces as a jazz singer. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

What does this music that you’re performing mean to you now that is perhaps different than what it meant to you when you first recorded it or when you first started playing it live?

I first approached it from what it meant to me. To me, Erykah Badu is kind of like the Joni Mitchell of my generation. She changed the game with her songwriting, with her musicality, with her presentation, with the way that she effortlessly blended all these genres. So I think I first made the album and thought about it in terms of wanting to respect what she had created and find a way in. Now that I’ve been performing it for quite a while, the songs have sort of become mine.

There’s this beautiful moment where the ownership transfers to the performer. That happened with the Bill Withers project, too. You start putting your own thoughts and feelings and emotions into these songs. It really becomes a deeply powerful way to bring a piece of yourself to these songs that are so familiar to all of us. We’ve been kind of taking it in different directions every night. So now what you have is this deeply personal and deeply creative world that exists alongside Badu’s world.

What is the story you want to tell about yourself through her music? 

I think there’s a degree of deep seriousness these days around what jazz singers can do. Why is hip hop and R&B this impenetrable place that jazz singers can’t go? So to me, it’s really about breaking new ground. I’m always excited when it’s something that nobody’s really done before because it feels fresh and it feels like there’s a discovery here. That’s the most powerful thing we can do as artists.

I played Erykah Badu’s songs and I don’t think what you’ve done is a huge leap. This makes complete sense to me.

It’s not a huge leap. We didn’t completely take apart her stuff and make it atonal or something. That’s part of the history of jazz singers, too. When Ella did her celebrated songbook series, she sang the melody, she sang the songs, but it’s the way that she did it, with the phrasing and the rhythm and the inflection and her history that made it jazz to me. Some of the songs I didn’t really change one note of the melody, but in order for me to get inside of her phrasing and then make it my own.

What I was referring to mostly was the fact that I heard a lot of jazz in what she was doing. 

That is so true, especially on her first two albums. There’s like upright bass on there, you know, like Appletree. Maybe it sounds like she’s performing with the jazz trio, which is so cool.

You’re a huge fan of Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane’s collaboration. I think you’ve said that’s the best male jazz vocalist album. Hartman did an interview with the New York Times in 1982, and he said, “The more you sing a song, you are apt to change it. It reflects the moods that you’re in.” Do you share that opinion about the many songs that you’ve recorded, whether they’re your own or somebody else’s? 

Jazz is Shakespeare. This is the classical repertoire. As you mature, hopefully, and deepen, hopefully, and go through some life experiences, then all of a sudden the words in the text become more relevant to you. Definitely when I first sang it, you know, this idea of being touched either physically or emotionally by this other person and kind of reminiscing about that moment, the times was much closer. But now that I’m 45, I can really think of a lot of different ways. For example, like a mentor who opened my world to jazz or to poetry or art kind of changes the feeling of it for me. Even though it’s ostensibly a romantic song, in my mind it’s turned into something else, which I hope comes across in the interpretation.

Should an artist have just a narrow range of interest and a way of expressing his or herself? Does it frustrate you that people seem to want you to be one thing because that’s easiest for them?

It has been frustrating in the past. I think I’ve sort of made peace and found my happy medium with how much I need to explore and how much we exist in service to people. That was a big shift in the pandemic for me. A lot of time to think about why I do it and when I would hopefully come back to jazz singing and performing would I do anything differently. The shift for me was I think I’ve artistically pushed the boundaries as far as I want to. Now my challenge is how creative can I be within sort of like the parameters that my fans enjoy because I definitely pushed it at some points past what my fans enjoy. For the hip hop kids who are like, why are you doing a duo with the jazz pianist? Or for the jazz purist you’re doing trap drums with autotune? There’s beautiful space in the middle, which I love. I think part of getting older is finding what you do best and figuring out how to explore that infinitely.

In an interview that you did in 2012 with the MinnPost you said, “If I could do jazz the way I wanted to, I would, but I just can’t. I can’t do it with the freedom I want or the audience development I want.” Along with your own perspective that you just expressed changing, has anything else changed for you in the 11 years since that comment that makes that less true today?

I think what’s changed is seeing people who have done both and in talking to some of them. Hearing the frustration of some people [who] feel like they’re in golden handcuffs and they can’t write songs or do things or produce that they want to. Then other people who spent their whole career just throwing paint against the wall but now want to sort of hit this commercial high. They’re not able to because they’re all over the map. Being at peace with your choice, no matter what the result is, that’s the challenge.

McCoy Tyner gave you great advice to just be yourself when you were touring with him. Knowing how much Coltrane means to you and how much McCoy Tyner means to you, which was more important, the advice or the man who was giving it to you?

The advice coming from him had a lot more weight. The thing about McCoy, which I found with a lot of living legends across genres, is that they are never looking backwards. McCoy was never telling people how to play. He was always positive. He was always uplifting. He really was in service to the music, to the audience and to his musicians. Never met another musician who was more generous with compliments or energy on stage. 

If you could go back in time to when you were in an a-cappella group called Cerulean and give yourself advice that you think your 16-year-old self really needed to hear to help him navigate his way through the life and career that you’ve had, what would that be?

I can’t believe that you found out about Cerulean, but I love it. I think I would just tell him that everything you believe about music and yourself right now is absolutely true. No matter what comes and goes, you don’t have to worry about anything. The cliché thing is true. The highs and the lows can knock you down. I remember when I was doing Letterman and Conan O’Brien, that was a bit too overwhelming for me. I wasn’t really ready for it. The downs, I haven’t sung in two years because of COVID. I wasn’t ready for that either. In both of those times I definitely did tap into how I felt about music back then because sometimes just putting on your favorite album and remembering this is why I do it is the most important thing.

To see the full interview with José James, please go here.

All photos by Janette Beckman/Courtesy Rainbow Blonde Records

The post José James and The Three Bs appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

It was said that nothing could stop singer Sarah Vaughan. That proved to also be true of the 2021 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Jazz Competition when even COVID couldn’t interrupt it. Though delayed twice by the pandemic, once the competition took place there was a first-ever tie. Named as winners were Gabrielle Cavassa and Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim.

Tawanda has recorded and released her first album, Smile, on Resonance Records. The album, which we love, features a mix of standards (Smile, What a Little Moonlight Can Do) with songs by Donny Hathaway, Maureen McGovern and Sting.

On Wednesday, April 19th, Tawanda will perform at Baltimore’s Keystone Korner. Thursday, April 20th, Tawanda will appear at Chelsea Table + Stage in New York City to celebrate Smile. For those not in the area, there is also a livestream option that will be available.

Last week I spoke with Tawanda about the album, the pressures a young artist faces (particularly one who wins the same award that previously went to Cyrille Aimée, Jazzmeia Horn and recent Grammy winner Samara Joy), and the role of improvisation, not just in her music, but in her life. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Since you are winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, I want to ask you about something Vaughan said. “I just get on stage and sing. I don’t think about how I’m going to do it. It’s too complicated.” Is she right? Do you think instinct is more important than thought when performing? 

Oh, I love that. Speaking as someone who is diving ever deeper into their performance and the way that I tell my stories, I’m trying to go from a place of thinking to a place of simply just being a conduit for the music and the stories. So I absolutely do think she’s right. I think when you’re overthinking it hinders your expression. But of course, with with genres like jazz, there is a lot of thought and tension that goes into it, especially if you’re improvising. 

As a younger artist, what is the process for you of learning to trust that instinct? 

It requires a deep vulnerability. That is kind of the journey. I think so often we get wrapped up in comparing ourselves to other people or overthinking the way we are being perceived. For me, it’s just about staying grounded in the moment, feeding off the musicians that I’m with and co-creating a space to deliver a message. So to put it more simply, I think just staying present is very important in that process. 

Your album Smile was recorded during the pandemic. In a video that’s on Renaissance Records website you stated that you set out to offer hope, “to a world that was changing so much.” What did the album give you? 

The album gave me belief in myself and strength. I always refer to the song titled I’m Okay, which was made popular by Dianne Reeves, because during that time I really wasn’t okay. I was having to show up to the studio and there was so much on my mind: struggling for the first time quite seriously with mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Then to get into the studio and sing these songs, specifically songs like I’m Okay. That’s a very assertive, very strong statement of all of these things have happened in my life and here I am now. And you know what? I’m okay. That was more of a manifestation and almost maybe a prayer for me during that time. So it just gave me that strength. Being so influenced by the person who produced it, George Klabin, he really thought that those messages were important, not only for me during that time, but just for everyone else in a time of of great confusion.

Given everything that went into making the album for you personally and emotionally, what’s your relationship when you hear the album now?

It’s so funny listening back to it. I firmly believe that you’re exactly where you need to be at every moment. During the time we were recording it, I did not feel ready. Listening back I think I sometimes get in my head about these quite difficult songs and they’re pretty involved. I wish that I could have approached them with all of the growth that I’ve done between now and then. I’ll get the chance to do so as I continue to perform them now. But I definitely listen back to the album and it’s almost like I can hear that little girl.

It almost felt like a loss of innocence. I don’t mean that in a very serious way. I just mean that I really kind of woke up. Listening to back to it, it definitely feels like all the growth I’ve done between now and then is striking to say the least. 

You begin with Smile and you end with it a cappella version of Smile. How how is your relationship at the first version of Smile altered by the time you get to the a cappella version?

It’s lovely to open with a song that everybody knows and loves; a song that is so popular. I think by the end of the album, if you listen to it the whole way through, start to finish, which I hope that people do, then it kind of takes on this whole journey.  Listening to it back in my head as I’m talking to you, it does seem like a mature delivery of life. 

Josh Nelson, who arranged most of the songs on the album, had the idea of doing that a cappella and putting it somewhere within the album. I’m really glad we ended up choosing the end because it’s kind of a moment of reflection.

When you sing a song like Smile that the world knows because there have been countless recordings of it, what are the challenges that you give yourself so that your approach to the song is something we haven’t heard before?

The word smile, especially to women, always takes on a different tone because we’re kind of conditioned to be these happy, smiling creatures all of the time. As I said, during the time we were recording this, I didn’t want to be that person. I was literally down in the dumps. Why am I singing about smiles? So it ended up being so healing for me because I needed that reminder. That is what influenced me most to perform it the way that I did on the album. I may not always feel this way, but I need this reminder.

How do we smile when our heart is aching and breaking and remind ourselves that after moments of rain and cloudiness, the sun comes through and things get better. They always get better. Then they go back and then they go forward. It’s like this never ending cycle of ups and downs. I just let that guide me.

There’s a lot of pressure that an artist puts on themself when making their first album. That milestone is behind you now. Do you feel moving forward there is less internalized pressure or industry pressure for what follows? 

I think so, yes. It’s always been my plan to do other kinds of music, too. So I see this as a very huge milestone. But I know it’s not the end and it doesn’t reflect what will come. It really feels like a first project. I didn’t come up with everything start to finish. I was presented with a lot of it. I trusted the producer because he’s really been taking me under his wing. But I look forward to the future. I have some things in the works now where I do have more creative liberty and it shows different sides of me and it does reflect more of who I am as well.

The pressure is definitely real and I definitely had some moments where I’m like, Oh my gosh, is this good enough? But I certainly hope it is. But now I have more of an understanding about the intention that goes into these things and I’ve gained a voice throughout all of this as well.

You sang I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry at the at the Sarah Vaughan competition. You said you were doing a song about endurance, which is, “a skill I’ve been honing.” You’re in the early stages of a career where endurance is definitely something that’s going to be required of you. Is the world today for any music artist, regardless of genre, infinitely more complicated than it might have been 25 years ago? How do you navigate all of that?

That’s something I think of every single day because I do not currently survive just off of music. I can’t. I live in L.A. I work full time. I have to. There’s no other choice. I’m looking forward to a day when I can supplement all of my income with my art. It’s definitely changed a lot and with social media, too.

There was a time in my life when I felt totally comfortable sharing literally each and everything about my life. But then during COVID, I was off Instagram and social media for a year. It felt so good to not have to exist in multiple places at one time. I can just be me myself. 

As we started recording this album and I started doing more shows, it became a requirement for me to be back on social media. That’s just how the world works now. You really have to find a persona that is marketable and become, I hate to say this, but like a prostitute of sorts on social media. It’s so tricky.

It really kind of breaks my brain because artists need to be vulnerable to create and authentic. But is it truly authentic if every moment that we’re sharing is curated? It’s this huge philosophical question that I will have to be diving into as social media and technology ever more creep into our way of living. But yeah, it’s definitely tough. I’m finally getting back to a place where I can just be myself and just feel comfortable sharing that about me.

You said also in the promotional video that is on Resonance Records website, and you were quoting your sister, who said, “I don’t think people understand jazz if they haven’t had heartbreak.” Does that mean your understanding of this music also comes from that heartbreak?

Oh, yeah. 100%. I’m so influenced by the pain that I have felt in life. The moments where I had no other choice but to live creatively. As someone who is very independent, there are those things that sometimes you find yourself maybe lacking and it puts you into survival mode. But it just ends up informing your life and allowing you to be more creative. Then you can use all of those experiences as different colors to better paint these pictures.

I feel like I’ve always had this kind of sad soul. Not sad, but sad in the way that I love to analyze hurt. I love to feel things very deeply. I feel like very sensitive. I feel like those things really help me when I am creating.

I want to ask you about something that George Gershwin said. He said, “Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise.” How do your jazz skills help you improvise and navigate your way through life?

I want to talk a little bit about my parents, because I think they were my original improvisers with life. I’m a first generation American. My mom’s from Germany and my dad is from Mozambique, Africa. He ended up in Germany when the wall was up. He was on one side of Germany, my mom was on the other side. The wall came down, they met, and then they ended up moving here to the United States. 

You have to have a plan for where you’re going. Maybe not necessarily a plan, but you have to get really good at kind of just picking up and leaving; going with the flow. I think that aspect of life was shown to me and my sister from a young age and it’s definitely influenced the way that I live my life.

I feel like a pretty independent person and I feel like I love change. I love change and I love getting creative with life. I love getting creative with each individual moment, creating something out of nothing. I feel like that has influenced my improvisation. It’s definitely been a life full of improv, I can tell you that. And I’ve had a lot of fun with it.

To watch the full interview with Tawanda, please go here.

All photos by Jeff Xander/Courtesy Chelsea Table + Stage

The post Jazz Vocalist Tawanda Just Wants to Smile appeared first on Cultural Attaché.