(EMI) Jose James will make his national TV debut on December 18 when he appears on the TBS late-night show Conan. James will be performing "Trouble" from his forthcoming Blue Note Records debut, No Beginning No End, which will be released on January 22
While in Los Angeles, James will also be taping a live session for KCRW's Berkeley Street Sessions, an intimate concert series at Apogee's Berkeley Street Studio that has featured such artists as Ryan Adams, Death Cab for Cutie, Little Dragon, Janelle Monae, The Shins, Patti Smith, Regina Spektor, and St. Vincent. The session will air later on KCRW's signature music show Morning Becomes Eclectic.
James has also announced an album release show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City on January 23, as well as March 23 show at The Del Monte Speakeasy in Los Angeles. James will be presenting songs from No Beginning No End, an album that influential UK DJ Gilles Peterson has called "a landmark" likening it to "Smokey Robinson for the new generation."
"It's not nearly enough to say that a musician mixes jazz, soul and funk, because so much has been built around that intersection since the 1970s," wrote Ben Ratliff in The New York Times earlier this year. "The singer José James lives around that intersection too. He's a romantic baritone with a deep-funk band, stretching out songs, evoking both the '70s of Roberta Flack and Gil Scott-Heron and the '90s and oughts of J Dilla." Ratliff continued, "But Mr. James, who has revealed himself in stages over the years, is a very different kind of singer than D'Angelo. He's a little more acoustic singer-songwriter, a little more delicate. He's clearer, more disciplined and lower key; he can move you with silence and the pure strength of his vocal tone."
