Jazz crooner Jamie Cullum entertained a sell out Manchester audience on Monday evening with a blinding, energetic set of jazz classics and original material. Cullum’s huge range of style and eclectic range of genres appeals to a wide audience with both young and not so young in attendance this evening. Cullum’s ability to take the likes of Radiohead and Jeff Buckley classics and add his own unique twist (in a respectfully tasteful manner) has meant that he has rarely been out of the spotlight since appearing on the scene over twenty years ago.
It was in fact twenty years ago when I first saw Cullum live at this very venue, and tonight it is like no time has passed at all, still boundless energy and a cheeky impish smile that charms the audience with Cullum switching from front of stage to his beloved piano, leg kicks, jumps and punching the air with every other chord.
Cullum is superb showman, and hugely likeable, not to mention an incredibly talented musician. The set begins with ‘I Get a Kick out of You’ – done his way, with a beautiful Piano solo mid song that showcases Cullum’s talent and love and appreciation of these jazz classics.
Of course the set includes other classic covers from the likes of Scatman Crothers, Ray Charles, and Sinatra. Cullum’s original material is certainly of a high calibre amongst all these greats. The album that initially drew me in twenty years ago was ‘Twenty Something’ and especially ‘These are the Days’ an uptempo mellow number with carefully crafted lyrics and a gorgeous melody that emulates a perfect summer evening. The titular track is also a standout number, which laments the crucial years from growing up, school years and entering your twenty’s with that uncertainty that many of us encounter.
For anyone whoo perhaps considers themselves a music snob and has previously not appreciated Cullum or even witnessed his live show, I urge you to correct that because Cullum is not only a bloody talented musician, his knowledge of so many genres and his ability to tastefully cover his idols and create excellent chart topping jazz records (no easy feat) with hip-hop inspired elements means that this guy is going to continue in the mainstream market whilst advocating for the underground.
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