Jamie Cullum (GB)

About

Also known as: Jamie Callum, Jamie Cullem

Jamie Cullum has a knack for making jazz feel urgent and alive, blending it with pop, hip hop and rock in ways that have earned him the crossover label without ever making it sound like a compromise. His third studio album, Twentysomething, recorded at London's Mayfair Studios entirely on analogue tape, went platinum and became the best selling studio album by a jazz artist in UK history. He covered everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Kanye West on that record, and his live shows lean even further into unexpected territory, with a looping machine, beatboxing and a stomp box he found in Melbourne all part of the act. He has played everywhere from Glastonbury to Coachella to the White House, and even co wrote the German Eurovision entry in 2012. Since 2010 he has hosted a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, bringing in listeners who might never have given the genre a second thought. With nine studio albums under his belt and a reputation for turning any song into something unmistakably his own, Cullum remains one of the more genuinely interesting figures in contemporary jazz.