José James is a New York-based artist but he was born in and grew up in Minneapolis. On the date of the release of his new album, 1978, James stopped at The Current for a conversation with host Zach McCormick about the new record. Listen to the interview using the audio player above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Zach McCormick: Right now, I'm incredibly pleased to be joined in studio by Minnesota-born jazz luminary José James, whose new album 1978 comes out today. José, thank you so much for joining us in studio today.

José James: It is my honor. What's good, Twin Cities!

Zach McCormick: Great to have you back, man. So you just wrapped up a in store performance and signing event yesterday at the Electric Fetus. What was that experience like? Did you ever shop for records there growing up in the Twin Cities?

José James: I spent every single dollar I had all through high school. At one point I bought the entire Nat King Cole collection, it was like $500 box set, 18 CDs. I was that kid, buggin Jon Jon [Scott], and Slug [from Atmosphere] used to work there too. I would go to him for all my hip-hop stuff, and Jon Jon for everything else, and between the two of those guys, I got my music education.

Zach McCormick: Jon Jon's fantastic, a Minnesota music legend there, too. Listening to your new album, 1978, kind of feels like a trip through your record collection and in little bit of a way; you've got your inspiration points from artists like Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Stevie Wonder, along with some world music too. So you're obviously a composer with a great listening ear. How do you approach filtering all your sonic influences into an album that still sounds cohesive?

José James: Man, I just love all of those people you dropped. And I think for that era, it was all about having a good time, making people dance, and making people think, too. And that, to me, that's what Prince did, so I'm just trying to keep that legacy alive. 

Zach McCormick: Totally. That's great. You know, speaking of making people think, jazz sometimes can be a genre that adheres pretty rigidly to a tradition, but you made a point to kind of stretch those genre confines throughout your career. Do you feel like it's important to lead by example there, to show other like younger jazz artists that their careers don't have to exist in a box?

José James: Absolutely. Thank you for saying that. I think that's probably my biggest contribution to jazz. You know, showing I was talking to Cécile McLorin Salvant about this, and she was like, "You gave me permission to do other things," you know? And I think, yeah, if Quincy could do it, why can't we?

Zach McCormick: Totally. That's great. The record includes two really cool features from international artists, Brazilian rising star and recent Latin Grammy nominee, let me see. Let me get this right: It's Xênia, you said.

José James: Xênia. 

Zach McCormick: Xênia, as well as Congolese Belgian rapper and filmmaker Baloji.

José James: Baloji.

Zach McCormick: How did these collaborations come together? And what do these artists bring to your new album? Why was it exciting and important for you to work with world music artists?

José James: Yeah, I just feel like I wanted to present a global Black perspective, you know. A lot of times, American artists, we say, "OK, you know, this is our thing, and this is our music," which is true, but it's like, in the late '70s, there was music happening all over, man: Africa, you know, down in Brazil, Cuba, like, wow! So I'm a crate digger, too, and I love that. So I wanted to bring their perspectives and have them perform in their own languages, because, you know, I think it's important to, again, expand people's minds musically and culturally, you know, like, go to Google Translate and try to figure out what they're talking about, you know? And they're just huge artists. Baloji is making incredible films; he's highly, highly celebrated right now. And Xênia is like, she's got next, so if you guys don't know, Xênia França, go check her out.

Zach McCormick: You were saying off mic that she was a fan of yours prior to you to working together.

José James: Yeah.

Zach McCormick: That's gotta be kind of cool and flattering for you. Yeah, totally.

José James: It was amazing because I love her music. She was the first Brazilian artist to be on that COLORS series, I don't know if you know that. It's a cool series. And yeah, my friend was down in Sao Paulo saying, "Hey, I work with José James." She was like, "Oh, my God! José James? I've been listening to him since high school." And that's how we started working together. And it's a powerful piece called "Place of Worship." You know, for me, it's inspired by growing up by the Mississippi River, you know, the mythology, and knowing that it connects all the way down, you know, to the sea, and down through Panama, where my dad is from, through the Caribbean, back to Africa. You know, that's a big spirit of this. So I had to get African artists in there, too.

Zach McCormick: That's awesome. That's really, really cool. Last question here. We're going to talk about your new single "Saturday Night (Need You Now)," what can you tell us about kind of the creative process for this song on a record that sometimes deals with some pretty heavy themes at times, this song feels just kind of like a ton of fun, like it's a dance number. Why was it important to have a fun song like that? And how do you balance it throughout the rest of the record?

José James: I saw Michael Jackson in Minneapolis on the Bad tour, I must have been 10 years old.

Zach McCormick: Awesome.

José James: It changed my life. And I've always wanted to kind of do a song like that, and when I was touring Lean On Me, the tribute to Bill Withers, we did "Lovely Day" as the encore. And I was like, you know, whatever anybody day had, everybody's having an amazing day now because of this song. So I said, "Let me let me try to write something like this." I wrote it with my partner Talia Billig and Kaveh Rastegar, a great producer in L.A. And this is slapper, man. I love it. I love it. It goes!

Zach McCormick: Absolutely. Well, we're about to hear it right now. José, thank you so much for coming in studio, man. Your new album, 1978, out now, today. Congratulations on a great release for it.

José James: Thank you so much.

Zach McCormick: Thanks for joining us. This is José James with "Saturday Night (Need You Now)" on The Current.

External Link

José James – official site