In this age of nostalgic revival, if such a thing is possible, nothing sounds more anachronistic and yet exciting than a Christmas music album. Like Elvis, Frank Sinatra or Mariah Carey, blessed all, the pianist and jazzman British Jamie Cullum last year he embarked on the adventure of combining Christmas and music in his own way. He did it with an original album (The Pianoman at Christmas -Universal-) and now it returns to our homes, like the announcement, rounding off the effort with a new expanded edition. Callum receives AS at the Hotel ME in Madrid’s Plaza de Santa Ana and although the morning is sunny, there is plenty of Christmas spirit. “For me they are a few days of the year that I conceive to be together, in a house, children, your uncles, your aunts, that chaos, that madness when eating and drinking … and that has been lost a lot because of this pandemic “, he comments.
In this The Pianoman at Christmas (The Complete Edition) brings more company to cover songs rooted in the Christmas of the northern hemisphere like Frosty the Snowman The Winter Wonderland, which by the way already attacked Ella Fitzgerald from the jazz vein on her 1960 Christmas album. “Last year I tried to create new songs, make my contribution, but I think that a Christmas party is not complete without also going to the classics. Now it is the total Christmas album”, dice. “Or so I hope”, he adds with a contagious laugh.
On the way to Cullum, a vinyl ready to sign on a table on the hotel’s panoramic terrace. A Christmas present in itself. “Vinyl has come back so strong that factories can’t cope with so much demand”, he reflects. “I’ve been vinyl before it was anything cool. Now if you are in your twenties you have to have a record player to be cool. I had one when I thought it was an antique “. Humor british with a moral. “If you keep something long enough it will be fashionable again …”.
In love with Spain
The promo date is at 9:00 in the morning, but Cullum is not hiding under equally panoramic sunglasses. He has a habit of getting up early even though he is on tour. It is not an urban legend: neither a half circle nor a furtive yawn during the conversation. A small guy but who gives off a huge energetic halo, a musician an eclectic with a constant, that he loves Spain. The same to come to perform at the Goya or to share the bill with Joan Baez at the Jazzaldia de Donosti in 2019 or to do it, let’s touch wood, with Metallica at the Mad Cool Madrid next year. And sing in Spanish, maybe? “I have tried to sing in other languages, it seems beautiful to me, I tried it in Spanish and also in French, which I am better at. Options arose in previous works to make versions in Spanish, but I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, musically speaking”. However, that door is not closed. “Spanish works with a timing and a very particular rhythm that can be very interesting to build a song, if at some point that song appears and I feel that it is feasible, I will go for it “.
“Sing in Spanish? If at some point a song appears and I feel that it is feasible, I will go for it”
If Muhammad does not go to the mountain, maybe a Spanish artist can approach the individual Cullum universe. “I would love it and it seems appropriate to see my career, because I spend so much time in your country … Although I have collaborated with Alejandro Sanz, what else can you do after that?”. Moratalaz’s star appears on the scene and after informing the Essex musician that Alejandro is working on a new anthem for Real Madrid (“I hope he does well, creating a football anthem is more difficult than composing a Christmas song!”, jokes), it seems like the perfect time to turn the conversation to the beautiful game.
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“My father is from Liverpool, but I am from Swindon Town, I will have seen a thousand games …”
Because Jamie Cullum is considered a fan of this Liverpool rock and roll with Klopp and he is not. Or not so much, at least. “The one who is a big Liverpool fan is my father, he watches all the games and the first game he took me was one of that team and he gave me my first shirt, but I’m really more of a fan of a small club that you don’t even know. … “, it proceeds with a certain mystery. “The one that suits me is Swindon Town, now they are not doing very well, but I have been to hundreds and hundreds of games”.
Unlike a compatriot also famous on the piano and more football fan, Elton John, Jamie Cullum is more excited when asked about what other sports fill him. Although he advances that his thing is “to play FIFA and Mario Tennis”, like Pablo López, who was the opening act for him back in 2013 and knows what it is to put a winner to Rafa Nadal, tennis makes him dick. “I recently had a lesson and it was at Wimbledon, on court 3”, he confesses. In immaculate white, as is the tradition of the prestigious club? “Sure, sure, I had to buy everything because I thought that rule was only for the tournament … The fact is that I played a game with my drummer, I received the lesson and I was able to drink a beer in the area where the players go to relax after the games. For me it was like stepping on sacred ground “.
“I am proud to have been a mini revolution and that now there is a little more jazz in popular culture”
Little by little, he leaves his label of jazz thug and although the orthodoxy of the genre has lost hope or interest in redirecting it towards traditional jazz rails, the English musician continues to give the same after forty as when he shot as a star with Twentysomething… “I leave that for the interviews,” he admits, although deep down he is pleased. “It was something different to be a kid who appeared in a T-shirt and with sneakers playing a piano, that’s why I am proud that it was a small mini revolution and that now there is a little more jazz in popular culture than before”.
Jamie Cullum is not Santa Claus, nor does he want to be, but welcome to our Christmases.
