Product Description

'Catching Tales' is the anticipated second album from jazz revivalist Jamie Cullum. Written in less than four months and featuring collaborations with Dan The Automator, Ed Harcourt, and The Neptunes to name but a few, the album features ten original tracks penned by Cullum himself, and also features a handful of jazz standards and covers. The lead single 'Get Your Way' is also included.

Track Listing

1. Get Your Way
2. London Skies
3. Photograph
4. I Only Have Eyes For You
5. Nothing I Do
6. Mind Trick
7. 21st Century Kid
8. I'm Glad There Is You
9. Oh God
10. Catch The Sun
11. 7 Days To Change Your Life
12. Our Day Will Come
13. Back To The Ground
14. Fascinating Rhythm
15. My Yard

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10562 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 65 minutes

From the Label
Jamie Cullum returns to centrestage of the Jazz crossover world with an incredible new album, Catching Tales. A smorgasbord of jazz standards, pop, swing and r&b grooves, this is the ultimate Jamie Cullum album. Jamie has collaborated with a range of music svengalis, including Guy Chambers, Dan the Automator (from The Gorillaz and collaborations with DJ Shadow), Salaam Remi, Ed Harcourt and many more, but he's careful not to forget his roots and his brother Ben has co-written a number of tracks on this album, as he did on Twentysomething.

Customer Reviews

Jamie Cullum - a very classy performer!
Jamie Cullum is an impressive performer, not just live but also on disc. He has a fantastic sense of rhythm and his piano playing is exquisite, making these songs a delight for jazz fans. The tone of his singing is slightly nasal to qualify for one of the all-time great voices but the timing of his delivery is first-class - certainly on a par with the greats.

What is particularly impressive is that most of these songs are either wholly or jointly written by Jamie. There are a handful of standards on the album, which he does with great individuality and panache, but his own songs stand up to this standard very well, making this an excellent album.

Overall, not flawless - it'll be interesting to see how his voice matures with age - but more than good eough to qualify as a 5-star album.

very good - but dont expect a 'jazz' album!
I bought this after finding Cullum's two previous outings proving now to be a little tiresome. As good a pianist as he is, he never seemed quite right playing those standards. Slick, yes, but for real jazzers there simply wasn't enough 'proper jazz' in them to be essential albums.

This album is his best yet - but it would be a bit of a fallacy to call it jazz. The strength here is the songwriting and standout tracks are the well-known and sassy 'Get your Way'; the characterful and swinging 'Nothing I Do'; the soulful 'My Yard' and of course the lovely ballad 'I'm Glad there is You'.

Cullum has found an original voice here so lets hope he can continue in this vein and break-away from jazz-marketed-as-popular-music, which we all know VERY rarely works for anything more than one album. Oh, and the CD is very nicely produced too.

Catchy Tunes on Catching Tales
Simply put: Jamie Cullum is one of the most talented musicians currently making music. Not only does Catching Tales capture his musical talent, it showcases his songwriting ability, which he has not properly flaunted on previous albums. For those listeners (and reviewers) who are so gratuitously caught up in defining the term "jazz," I invite you to think outside the box for an hour or so while Jamie does his thing. (Consider this: is any genre -- be it classical, hip-hop, rock, or jazz -- clearly defined? The lines are always blurry, and this is not a bad thing, unless you believe that music and musicians should never evolve.)

Catching Tales is about life lessons in various forms -- both musically and lyrically. "Get Your Way" bounces with punchy sampling (Joe Williams' "Get Out of My Life Woman") and tells of a stubborn anticipated confrontation; "Nothing I Do" blends a perfect contrast of a cheerful, rhythmic melody with lyrics of a tempestuous relationship; "21st Century Kid" ambles breezily about coming of age in a time of uncertainty, punctuated with easy-feeling chords and harmonies; in "7 Days To Change Your Life" we hear Jamie's well-known keyboard talent beneath tongue-in-cheek info-mercialish lyrics, with a style that is pleasantly reminiscent of Harry Connick, Jr.

And it seems Jamie himself is no stranger to reminiscing. Tales and tunes of nostalgia also take the stage in this recording: "Photograph," "Mindtrick," "Oh God," and "Back to the Ground" all demonstrate Jamie's unique marriage of insightful lyrics and appropriate, flavourful grooves. "Catch the Sun," though not penned by Jamie, is an upbeat and inspiring reminder to live in the moment, and although cliche, the energetic refrain might find you humming along. The smooth, sonorous Rhodes-driven texture of "My Yard" reminds me of India Arie or the Brand New Heavies, and indeed, leaves me thinking that rather than confine jazz to a four-walled room, we should, as Jamie says, "explore all the possibilities" and "take the script and flip it, baby."