Jose James: A Broad-Minded Singer Lets The Beat Build

Credit Janette Beckman / Courtesy of the artist

by editor of KERA News

Jose James knows jazz. The son of a Panamanian jazz saxophonist, he studied at the prestigious New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, was a finalist in 2004's Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocalist Competition and recently toured with legendary jazz pianist McCoy Tyner.

James' past albums notably blend jazz, R&B and soul. But on his latest release, No Beginning No End, the 35-year-old musician demonstrates that his creative process is steeped in the methods of hip-hop.

James says the beat for the song "Trouble" came to him while he was riding the Q train in the New York City subway. So that he wouldn't forget it, he beatboxed it to himself during his 20-minute commute to the studio.

"A lot of people in my generation, we use hip-hop as a tool to compose," James tells NPR's Melissa Block. "And then it's the jazz training that let me turn that into a full song."

James collaborates with French-Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra for "Sword + Gun," which weaves percussion with Gnawa — sacred Moroccan music involving string instruments and polyrhythmic clapping. They completed the track by using what James describes as the No. 1 hip-hop compositional tool: sampling.

"Without a band or anything, in about six hours, we had already written a whole song that sounded pretty amazing," he says. "And it was really exciting for me, because I don't think a jazz person would ever walk into a studio without a band — and without a song — to record a track on their album."
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