All I want for Christmas is Jose James singing in my family's living room. We'll even have the piano tuned for his accompanist Christian Sands.
Sorry Santa. I had to revise my wish list after experiencing James' homecoming holiday show on Sunday night at the Dakota in Minneapolis. It was an evening that was warm, intimate and elegantly old-school — and just inventive enough to be refreshing.
Now based in Amsterdam, the Minneapolis-born and raised vocalist has been a frequent performer at the Dakota in the past dozen years. This was the first Christmas concert in Minnesota for the inveterate adventurer, who has recorded everything from original jazz-meets-hip-hop to tributes to Billie Holiday and Bill Withers.
This fall, James released his first yule disc, "Merry Christmas from Jose James," on a label he started with his wife, singer Taali.
On Sunday, his second of two nights at the Dakota, James limited himself to material from his secular holiday disc, which was just fine with the sell-out crowd.
He opened with "Christmas in New York," an original that felt familiar in a Nat King Cole/Mel Torme kind of way. "All I want for Christmas," he crooned in this enticing, slow-building ballad, "is your heart." James' arresting new entry was a thousand times more romantic than Mariah Carey's modern-day Christmas classic.
Later, he offered another original, the gently breezy "Christmas Day" about yearning about being together, but the 1 ¾-hour set mostly explored familiar material in unfamiliar ways. He'd change tempos, repeat a phrase here and there, elongate a syllable, sing in different voicings from his smooth baritone to his cuddly falsetto, and allow his three sidemen, especially the accomplished pianist Sands, ample opportunity to express themselves.
In short, James and company made Christmas chestnuts sound deliciously fresh, from the opening original to the encore, an exquisite voice-and-piano reading of "White Christmas" as a slow, quiet, reverent hymn complete with a dreamy, meditative piano break.
As he is wont to do at hometown shows, James, 43, who moved to New York City more than two decades ago, relished his Minneapolis roots, friends and influences. He gave shout-outs to attendees Denny Malmberg, his music teacher at South High School, and Nancy Andersen, who was his family's mail carrier when he was a teenager. He also acknowledged Minnesota musicians who weren't there but inspired him, including Dennis Spears, Connie Evingson, Bruce Henry and especially the late Debbie Duncan.
James said he's writing a book about jazz singers as well as teaching aspiring vocalists in Amsterdam. His take on being a jazz vocalist is that singing is 25 % and the other 75 % is acting cool onstage — and then the crooner in the red suit demonstrated by striking a few cool poses as if he was digging the music.
The chatty jazz man also explained that with him, "no show is ever the same. I want you to feel like we experience something together. Next time you come see me, this suit is going to be completely different. My dreads will be long. I'll be in sneakers and rapping."
Well, there goes my Christmas wish. We'll have to settle for listening to "Merry Christmas from Jose James" by the fireplace.
Twitter: @JonBream 612-673-1719
