Jamie Cullum

Jamie Cullum ist der erfolgreichste Jazzkünstler Großbritanniens und vielleicht ist er auch der mit dem meisten Temperament. Bei seiner Liveperformance jedenfalls zeigt der Jazzer gerne vollen Körpereinsatz. "I'm used to performing in rock bands and pop bands, so you don't just sit there and play, you know, you perform and you leap about and you sweat and you get your audience involved. And you create energy." Zum Jazz kam Jamie Cullum über Umwege. Denkbar dass er deshalb heute als Crossover-Künstler gilt. "I was such a music fan at school that I was listening to all the pop music of the day anyway. So it wasn't like I wasn't listening to Nirvana and The Housemartins and Ned's Atomic Dustbin and all that kind of stuff. I was an Indie kid but I was also a music fan. So I listened to everything, so it didn't surprise them that was listening to Jazz as well as listening to The Wedding Present as well as listening to Nirvana as well as listening to Dance Music. So I wasn't like the kid in the corner who listened to Cole Porter and wore suits to school, you know, thank god. Don't think I'd be alive." Jamie Cullum ist mit Musik aufgewachsen. Seine Eltern spielten in einer Band und schon als Kleinkind hämmert er mit auf dem Klavier. Später nimmt er Unterricht. Trotzdem behauptet Jamie, er sei Autodidakt. "I never believed in my talent. I believed in loving playing music. That's all I ever wanted to do was play. I never thought I'd be able to play for a living. It was something I enjoyed too much. It was like going out and getting drunk and partying with your friends. I loved doing it and I did it all the time but I never thought I could make a career out of it. So I would just play music. I was playing in bands. I was practicing, I was listening to records and writing songs and it was just for the fun of it. It was for the love of it and I did it all the time. I did it through university. I earned money that way. I made friends that way, I loved doing it. But it wasn't until the last couple of years of university that I really thought, right, I should make this a career, maybe I can make a living." Der Erfolg gibt ihm recht. Und trotzdem ist Jamie Cullum immer noch der nette Junge von nebenan, der einfach nur ein bisschen Musik macht.