Fred Kaplan

Jose James, Yesterday I Had the Blues

Fred Kaplan  |  Mar 31, 2015

I'm usually not a fan of male baritone jazz singers, not even Johnny Hartman (except, of course, on his album with Coltrane): they tend too much toward the operatic, and they're usually too smooth, too eyebrow-arched suave, for my taste anyway. But Jose James is something else, and his new album, Yesterday I Had the Blues (Blue Note), goes down like a rare vintage port on a chilly night.

This is one of several Billie Holiday tributes in her centenary year, and James whisks a blend of sorrow, desire, and wistfulness into such anthems of achy romance as "Body and Soul," "I Thought About You," "Lover Man," "Fine and Mellow," and, leading things off, "Good Morning Heartache."

James has chops—check out his spine-tingling falsetto on "Tenderly"—and enough self-assuredness to hold a note that's slightly off-key, for quite a while, until the chord comes around and makes it right.

He's backed by a consummate rhythm section: Jason Moran, taking his own strolls and shuffles on piano without ever stepping out of his sideman's role; John Patitucci, a steady, tasty anchor on bass; and Eric Harland (who's played with Moran on Charles Lloyd's albums), rolling subtle twists on drums.

The session was recorded and mixed at Sear Sound's Studio C by the venue's chief engineer, Chris Allen, using a lot of tube microphones (a U-47 on the voice, a pair of U-67s on the piano, a Telefunken on the bass, and a mix of tubes and ribbons over the drums), laid down in 24/96, and it sounds like that—warm and present, but not in the slightest bit flabby: the bass line is taut, and when Moran hammers the keyboard, as he does once in a while for emphasis, the sound doesn't just get louder, it swells, it expands into the room, like it should.

COMMENTS
Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on March 31, 2015 - 4:21pm

This ain't the blues. Any resemblance to Lady Day is merely coincidental. I have loved both for a long long time.

BradleyP's picture
Submitted by BradleyP on April 1, 2015 - 6:59am

Right, it ain't the blues, but it's blues processed through the jazz idiom, of which there is a long, long history. Call it what you will, I found it rather enjoyable. I think "blue jazz" is the most fitting description.

Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on April 3, 2015 - 2:41pm

Search for records produced by Bob Porter, for one, for soul jazz. Check out B3 soul masters Jack McDuff or Jimmie McGriff, for example. Then there's Cannonball Adderley (Mercy Mercy Mercy), Etta Jones, Houston Person, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Monty Alexander, Oscar Peterson, etc. etc. etc. -- the depth of soul/blues jazz is endless. For vocals there's also Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure, Jon Hendricks, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Linda Hopkins, Big Joe Turner, Jimmie Rushing, Joe Williams, etc. etc. etc. Jose here is Pat Boone.

Fred Kaplan's picture
Submitted by Fred Kaplan on April 3, 2015 - 7:29am

Who said this album is "soul jazz"? It's not.

Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on April 4, 2015 - 7:36am

What do you consider Billie Holiday and her accompanists, like Lester Young and Ben Webster, to be? That's not soul? Maybe you should check out Webster's "Soulville" (Verve).

According to the title of the above album, it's supposed to be "blues." It's not. It's bland wallpaper music. James sounds like an anesthetized Lou Rawls.

Do you have any appreciation of blues in jazz, from Louis Armstrong to Monk to Coltrane, from Sidney Bechet to Bird to Mingus? And, of course, the blues of the Basie & Ellington organizations? Miles, in his autobiography, said it all: "If you can't play blues, you can't play sh!t."

Which touches on the issues of the death of jazz and blacks' lost connection to the blues, a whole 'nuther subject beyond the scope of this forum and Stereophile.

Fred Kaplan's picture
Submitted by Fred Kaplan on April 5, 2015 - 9:20am

I take it you haven't heard the album. The title is "Yesterday I Had the Blues." Doesn't necessarily mean it's the blues, any more than "Kind of Blue" is the blues (it's "kind of" blue). I was replying to reader who were referring to "blues" and "soul jazz" as a sub-genre of music, not as an element IN jazz. Obviously, Billie Holiday has no peers in singing Billie Holiday music. The others you mention are without rival as well. I wasn't meaning to put Jose James in the same category (though he is black, for whatever that's worth - not much, I think, but you brought it up).

Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on April 6, 2015 - 1:54pm

Wrong. I listened to the album on Spotify. It's putrid, esp. compared to Lady Day. (Check out the WKCR Billie Holiday centennial special -- see below). Did you even listen, as I recommended, to Soulville by Ben Webster, one of Holiday's major accompanists? I doubt it. It's a classic. It IS soul. (And the sound quality, at least on vinyl, is fine.)

What is the "blues," Mr. Kaplan? Maybe you think it's just I-IV-V, 12 bar. No, it's not. It's so much more. It's also the seminal Louis Armstrong's Potato Head Blues, Bird's Blues for Alice, Trane's Blue Train, Monk's Blue Monk, and, yes, Miles' Kind of Blue. Why in the world do you think all these titles contain the word "blue"? And why is Billie Holiday's autobiography entitled "Lady Sings the Blues"? (Have you at least read it?)

Do you play an instrument? Do you play jazz? Can you read a chart? Do you have any idea of chord substitutions, such as the tritone sub? If I knew how, I would post a well-known chord chart, which lists 17 chord progressions. #1 is a 12 bar, I-IV-V. #14 is Bird's's standard, Blues for Alice (which when fully arpeggiated has 24 changes in 12 bars). This widely circulated chart graphically, explicitly demonstrates the harmonic evolution of the blues, which every major jazz musician instinctively knew, when jazz was still alive.

And, yes, James' album claims to be the "blues." And, yes, it certainly tries to be. But it lacks the complexity and richness of the blues.

Fred Kaplan's picture
Submitted by Fred Kaplan on April 6, 2015 - 12:50pm

I've listened to all the records you mention, long ago and recently. You needn't lecture me on tritones. I make no claims that this stands up to Lady Day herself, nor - for all my admiration of Jason Moran & Co - that the instrumentals hold up to something like Ben Webster. (I don't need your recommendation to go there.)

Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on April 6, 2015 - 2:00pm

I'm just standing up for the blues, man. It's so much more than this junk. Jose James truly reminds me of a zombie Lou Rawls.

Yeah, you don't "need" me, I don't "need" you, blah blah blah. No "need" to get so defensive. We're just disagreeing about music.

And I picked only classic, standard titles. Of course, you've heard them. That's the point.

Fred Kaplan's picture
Submitted by Fred Kaplan on April 7, 2015 - 5:09am

I should note, listening on Spotify might have obscured the fine subtleties of the rhythm section's work.

Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on April 7, 2015 - 12:08pm

Absolutely. The internet is just a dirty, quick means to sample music. The access it offers, however, is a godsend.

In the very good movie Bluesland: A Portrait in American Music, writer & critic Robert Palmer (Deep Blues, Rock & Roll: an Unruly History) clinically, exquisitely accurately lists the OBJECTIVE musical attributes of blues. Although beyond the scope of this cursory thread, one would do well to evaluate Yesterday I Had the Blues in terms of this list. It forms the basis of my criticism of this recording. One can find these attributes in abundance in everything from a VeeJay recording of Jimmy Reed to a Decca recording of Basie, but not here.

Fred Kaplan's picture
Submitted by Fred Kaplan on April 7, 2015 - 5:26pm

I'm just saying there are subtleties in the music - in the voice, but even more in the rhythm section - that would not come through on Spotify.

BradleyP's picture
Submitted by BradleyP on April 1, 2015 - 6:59am
Joe Whip's picture
Submitted by Joe Whip on April 1, 2015 - 8:51am

and will take Johnny Hartman any day.

Marcwas's picture
Submitted by Marcwas on April 2, 2015 - 4:29am

Not a fan of male baritones? Not a fan of Andy Bey, Hartman, Arthur Prysock, Joe Williams, Billy Eckstine, Sinatra, Charles Brown, Nat King Cole, Eddie Jefferson, Bill Henderson… But this guy is the exception to the rule?! Wow. Truly, there is no accounting for taste.

Fred Kaplan's picture
Submitted by Fred Kaplan on April 3, 2015 - 7:28am

I like Andy Bey very much and, of course, love Sinatra (though don't consider him a JAZZ singer, though then again maybe, given the Basie albums, I should).

Marcwas's picture
Submitted by Marcwas on April 3, 2015 - 9:28am

Fair enough. Thanks for the response, Mr. Kaplan.

Osgood Crinkly III's picture
Submitted by Osgood Crinkly III on April 5, 2015 - 5:02am

Tune in to WKCR (Columbia Univ. station)
Billie Holiday Centennial Festival
Sun, 5 Apr 2015, 2:00pm - Fri, 10 Apr 2015, 9:00pm
on iTunes or online https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/

(WKCR's Phil Schaap produced "The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve 1945 - 1959")

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