Bucky's Picks: Jamie Cullum, twentysomething

Sometimes I find a new CD and I just can’t shut up about it. So, I figured, why not blabber to the whole Internet about it?

Jamie Cullum – twentysomething

I’d never heard of this cat until last Saturday night. A hockey game (sadly, not NHL) had just finished, and some music program came on. The opening shots were of the artist, Jamie Cullum, strumming his acoustic guitar on the tour bus and expressing his excitement over the upcoming gig. He’s a baby-faced waif, with a hairdo that made me wonder if he’d been fathered by one of the Bay City Rollers, and his outfit for the show was a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. I figured the music would be of the earnest, folky, earthy-crunchy variety, and I prepared to switch over to my Playstation.

Then the band started in, and I wondered why I was hearing swingin’ jazz. As I pondered that, Cullum came racing out onto the stage, leapt onto a grand piano, dove off and danced some more, then launched into a brilliant, frenzied vocal rendition of “I Get a Kick Out of You.” I was impressed enough by that to freeze with the remote in my hand, and then the little shit sat down at the piano and totally melted my mind with his jazz chops.

The whole show had me mesmerized, as he drove through hard-swingin’ covers and originals, smoothe ballads, hip soul, and an improbable but completely irresistible disco-funk cover of “I Could Have Danced All Night” (yes, from My Fair Lady). I never did get to gaming until the whole concert was done and he’d taken his final flying leap off the piano. He also took a flying leap into my CD collection this week, and if you want something like you ain’t heard lately, y’all oughtta check it out, too.