Track Listing

1. The Dreamer
2. Velvet
3. blackeyedsusan
4. Park Bench People
5. Spirits Up Above
6. Nola
7. Red
8. Winter Wind
9. Desire
10. Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9043 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-28
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Keep dreaming
It takes a full twenty minutes into Jose James's debut the The Dreamer before I'm left truly impressed. "Spirits Up Above," is a fine track indeed. New Orleans in its feel with the bluesy collective chant and the rolling piano it branches off into some fine percussion work before lurching back into the chorus. Top stuff. So why did we have to wait so long to escape from the New York dirge of the first four tracks? It's as though at last the record has finally kicked in. "Nola" follows, the vocal far rangier and confident, the band finally letting loose. Another excellent track.
Don't expect to find something radically new on this. James has a soft, sleek delivery that is very easy on the ear, a straight Jazz voice not erring to other singer styles. But somehow it doesn't captivate me. It's a problem, because I actually found the first part of the album quite mundane. It's as though there's James voice and the band - you're listening to one or the other, not both at the same time.
The arranagements are predictably superb, particualrly Alexi David on bass, who carries the flow of the album quite excellently.
Perhaps after all the hype and plugging I'm entitled to feel a little bit disappointed. "The Dreamer" - more accomplished than spectacular.

Dissapointing Album after the hype
After the Giles Petersen hype, I was a bit disappointed with this album. I didn't feel it was groundbreaking or all that interesting. In fact it was downright boring background music to me, which is not an opinion I hold about many albums. But that is what comes to mind here.

Definitely one to look out for
Brooklyn based, half-Irish and half-Panamanian José James sounds like a soulful cross between Gil Scott Heron, Terry Callier and Kurt Elling. He's definitely a jazz singer and we don't seem to have enough of those, especially younger ones to take the music form forward. He sings here as part of a basic quartet made up of him, Nori Ochiai on piano, Alexi David on bass and Steve Lyman on drums - though Luke Damrosch plays drums on "The Dreamer" and "blackeyedsusan" and Junior Mance plays piano on "Spirits Up Above".

There's another slight variation to the line-up (and general vibe of the album) on "Park Bench People", where Ryan Blum takes up keyboards and Gal Ben Haim plays guitar. Blum also plays keys on the album closer, the drum & bass-inspired "Love". Omar Abdukarim also plays trumpet albeit, on the title track only.

It isn't the most exciting album I've ever heard (James just doesn't have the vocal range for that and I'm grateful that "Love" was included here) but it's certainly very interesting and what he may lack in vocal range, he more than makes up for in tone and warmth. I'd never heard of José James before (I believe it was my buddy Joe who pointed him out to me - thanks Joe!) and I think this is his first album. What I can't take away from the man however, is his undeniable songwriting, producing and arranging talent and I also have to give him respect for deciding to go this route when pop or r&b could have potentially offered him so much more, so much more quickly. He obviously loves and believes in what he's doing. He can only get better from here and I look forward to that. Definitely one to look out for.

Mostly produced and arranged by James himself and executive produced by no other than the legendary Giles Peterson - a man who knows a thing or two about good music if anyone does - "The Dreamer" could be the ideal soundtrack to your summer family gatherings, card games, cocktails parties, or that midnight hour. Highly recommended.