José James

Born in Minneapolis, Pennsylvania, on January 20, 1978, Panamanian American singer José James brought together fans of jazz, soul, and rap with his 2008 album The Dreamer. Back with Blackmagic in 2010, he then collaborated with pianist Jef Neve on the album For All We Know, which was released on the Impulse! label. The album was honored with an Edison Award and the Grand Prix de l'Académie du jazz. He then signed to the Blue Note label for the best-selling album No Beginning No End (2013), which reached number 1 on the jazz charts and number 15 on the R&B charts. Two years later, While You Were Sleeping (2015) consolidated José James' status among the great jazz and soul singers of his generation. That same year saw the release of his tribute to Billie Holiday, Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday, which climbed to number 5 on the jazz charts. He followed that album with 2017’s Love in a Time of Madness, an exercise in electronic R&B with producer Antario ‘Tario’ Holmes. After his final album for Blue Note, Lean on Me (2018), José James founded his own Rainbow Blonde label, under which his subsequent releases appeared, starting with No Beginning No End 2 (2020) and the double live album New York 2020 (2021). In 2021, he issued the holiday album Merry Christmas from José James, before paying tribute to Erykah Badu with the album On & On: José James Sings Badu (2022). José James embraced neo-soul, funk, and jazz in 2024 with the release of the retro album 1978.

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