Vocalist Jose James is at home in both jazz and R & B.
A solo career never really means going it alone, and José James embraces that idea. The 39-year-old Minneapolis native knows the benefits of surrounding yourself with talented people, and that is why he’s got two of his favorites in tow on his tour in support of his latest album, “Love in a Time of Madness.”
James will sing and play guitar accompanied by Nate Smith, his longtime drummer, during two local stops — Wednesday, March 29, at the Independent in San Francisco and Thursday, March 30, at the Guild Theater in Sacramento. Multi-instrumentalist Corey King, who has played trombone in James’ prior bands, opens the shows with a solo set.
“Since my school days, I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of amazing people,” says James, by phone in New York, where he lives. “And it’s always great to get back together with people who I share a long history with.”
The poly-stylistic vocalist studied at New York City’s New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music along with fellow genre-benders such as keyboardist Robert Glasper and jazz-influenced R&B vocalist Bilal. Since then, James has gigged with noted jazz pianists McCoy Tyner and Eric Reed and recorded with drum & bass pioneer Goldie and big beat purveyors Basement Jaxx.
James’ most recent album, “Love in a Time of Madness,” was released on Blue Note late last month and features staccato bass lines, icy beats and an overall late-night-drive aesthetic. This is in contrast to “Yesterday I Had the Blues,” his previous album from 2015, which was a well-received exploration of the Billie Holiday songbook with an all-star trio of pianist Jason Moran, double bassist John Patitucci and drummer Eric Harland.
“With this album, I wanted to present the songs as they are originally,” he says about his decision to tour as a duo. “I didn’t want to present a 10-minute version of a three-minute song.
“I also didn’t want to subject a bunch of amazing jazz players to playing parts, because that’s basically the antithesis of what jazz guys want to do. I love working with jazz musicians, and I want them to have that freedom because that’s the whole point.”
This approach is appreciated by drummer Smith, who says James reminds him of the late vocal and bandleading great Betty Carter.
“José’s not the guy who’s going to put a lid on it and say, ‘That’s enough,’ ” says Smith by phone from his home in the Bronx. “He lets us cats in the band stretch out and get into some really interesting territory.”
Teaming up with multi-instrumentalist Antario “Tario” Holmes, one of the two producers on “Love in a Time of Madness,” James took the tracks from the new album and converted them to Ableton, music sequencer software that’s particularly popular in live settings.
“And then working with Nate, I was able to kind of decide if he was going to play over some tracks or if we were going take the drums out entirely” and have him add color or more percussive aspects instead, James explains. “For me, it’s the best of both worlds: I still get my interaction, as a performer, with Nate, but the sonic impact of the album hits in a way that you just can’t get with acoustic instruments.”
That’s not to say that Smith won’t get to have fun during their upcoming shows. The set list is more predetermined than a typical James concert, where the bandleader might start a random song and have his band follow, but material from the new album that features Smith shows off different parts of the drummer’s aesthetic.
James is also incorporating a multimedia aspect to this tour, courtesy of Los Angeles artist Gavin Gamboa, who has worked on live concert visuals with artists like Erykah Badu.
“He creates a singular visual piece to accompany each track on the album, which is projected onscreen while Nate and I perform. So it’s really immersive,” James says.
His current tour, with all its collaborations for the album to the live show, is just one example of why James is such a success. Throughout his 10-year recording career, he’s worked with several artists on his own albums, from his New School classmate Becca Stevens to the French-Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra and gospel/ R&B star Oleta Adams, coming away from each experience inspired and reinvigorated.
“I’m fascinated by what can happen when you truly collaborate with somebody else,” he says. “If you’re going to really collaborate with somebody, it should stand apart from what either of you do.”