jazz pianist and singer, “I didn’t think it could be my job, I thought I wasn’t good enough”

Jamie Cullum is a British jazz singer, songwriter, pianist and singer. It is celebrated all over the world by throngs of loyal and growing fans. His work on film soundtracks Bridget Jones Where Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood was hailed.

Over the past 18 years, he has delivered exceptional concerts with artists who were just as exceptional as Herbie Hancock, who moreover made him want to make music and this profession when he was younger, or again Kendrick Lamar or Lang Lang.

franceinfo: You will be at the Django Reinhardt festival in France on June 23. Happy to play in France?

Jamie Cullum: I love this festival. I love the history of this festival, I love the musicians it is connected to and France is one of the best places to play since you love musicians. Playing music and music connected to jazz is really a pleasure for me.

You started playing the guitar at the age of twelve, then jazz thanks to your brother and Herbie Hancock, whom you will meet later. I also know that you had a Jewish refugee grandmother from Prussia, who sang in many cabarets in Berlin. When did you decide that music was going to become your profession?

It took time. I had been doing music as a job since I was fifteen. I was a pianist in cocktail bars in hotels, but I didn’t think that could be my job. I thought I wasn’t good enough. I lived in a very rural place and the connection to making a career out of it was too abstract. I thought it would always be a hobby, a passion. I have always been very musically oriented and this persistence continues today. For example, I took my first piano lesson two years ago, during the pandemic.

There was the soundtrack of the film Bridget Jones, Age of Reason with this cover of the song Everlasting Love by Robert Knight (2004). In 2008, there are Gran Torino, composed by you for Clint Eastwood. You speak of one of the most beautiful moments of your life. Has it changed your life to work for this very beautiful project?

I felt like I was playing with the big guys and I really needed to do the best I could. I’m pretty confident to say that I managed to do that and I’m really proud of this song.

“The ‘Gran Torino’ soundtrack changed my life, professionally. It was the moment I felt I had to prove that I was a good songwriter.”

Jamie Cullum

at franceinfo

We have the feeling that you have built yourself over time. Has this course allowed you to know more about who you are?

It’s a very complicated question. This is a question that we are asked in therapy a little! I believe part of my adventure and journey was finding out who I was as a man and as a human being without music. I’m happy to say that I realized that I was really a human being without playing music. It was a good realization for me to understand the person I was.

I would like to talk about France. She welcomes you again to the Django festival How does it feel to play in France?

France is such a wonderful place to play because they love musicians. It welcomed musicians from all over the world long before other countries did. It’s really one of the best aspects of my job to be able to come to this type of festival.

“I feel a lot of love when I come to play in France and it’s completely mutual.”

Jamie Cullum

at franceinfo

You are considered one of the best live performers around the world. What does it represent for you?

My brain doesn’t work that way. It’s great compliments that you give me, but I believe that when you are involved in the community of musicians, what is most important is to realize how many musicians there are who are wonderful and that no one has heard of. The piano is my teacher. When I’m in front of a piano and I can’t play exactly what I have in my head, I know there’s work to be done. That’s the project of my life, that’s being a musician, so it enriches you.

Jamie Cullum will also be at the Marciac jazz festival on August 3 and November 18 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.


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