When Jamie Cullum plays the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Friday, don’t be surprised if you hear some rather overenthusiastic whoops and squeals.
Not that the jazz supremo doesn’t deserve them. Far from it.
With his beguiling mix of earthy, jazzy pop, super-smooth vocals and puppylike on-stage energy, even the most restrained audience member would struggle not to squeal at Mr Cullum like a hyperventilating teen.
No, the explanation is a little simpler than that: “I’ve got quite a few friends who live in Cambridge, so there’ll be an unnatural amount of joke screaming when I play because all my friends will be there. It’ll be like ‘Oh my God, Jamie!’” he squeaks, “and ‘You’re a GOD!” That kind of thing. Heheh.” It may be first thing on a Monday morning, but Cullum is in a jovial mood – not bad for a sleep-deprived father of a baby (Margot, 6 months) and a toddler (Lyra, 2), let alone someone who’s deep in rehearsals for a hectic tour. He’s playing everywhere from Belfast to Bordeaux, promoting his sixth and latest album, Momentum - but there’s bound to be surprises, as Cullum never has a set-list.
“There’ll be moments of really deep jazz, some pop moments as well – but it could go any way, really. I walk on stage and try to make it a fresh feast every night. Not even the band knows what I’m going to play.” Crikey, isn’t that a bit exciting for them? “Yeah, but they’re used to it,” he shrugs. “If you rely on the same tricks every night, it can be like you’re going through the motions; a bit like theatre in some ways. And actually I really thrive on spontaneity on stage. It’s exhausting, but it keeps it fresh.”
Growing up in Wiltshire, the son of musicloving parents, Cullum took up the guitar and piano as a boy. His talent was unmistakable, yet he never learned to read music: “I just was kind of terrible at it,” he says sheepishly.
“But I’ve always found it easy to play things that I hear. Not necessarily note for note, but I can work something out just by hearing it.” At school, he was “into everything” musically - particularly hip-hop which, with its plethora of samples, introduced Cullum to the sounds and styles of an earlier era: “It was a real link to old soul, and funk, and jazz music.
But I was never the kind of kid who walked around school in a trilby, wishing I was living in the 60s,” he adds quickly. “I was going to raves and concerts with everyone else, I just had very open ears from a young age.
“When I got home from school, the first thing I would do was go to the piano or the guitar, or put music on. It was my retreat from the crippling handicap that being a teenager is.
My crutch was music.” Did he ever think he’d be famous? “No, I did not!” he laughs. “I had no designs on fame.
Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Whats-on-leisure/Choice/Jamie-Cullum-Music-was-my-retreat-from-the-crippling-handicap-that-being-a-teenager-is-20131024060033.htm#ixzz2ijZfekbJ
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