José James has tried out a number of guises over the course of his career. He’s been a jazz singer, an alt-soul vocalist, and a potential pop star. He’s recorded full albums dedicated to both legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday and famed singer-songwriter Bill Withers. And earlier this month, he released No Beginning No End 2, a sequel to a record he made seven years ago that was widely considered to be his artistic breakthrough.
Some history first: in 2013, James released No Beginning No End, a murky collage of nocturnal soul that quickly became his most popular work. Featuring contributions from pianist Robert Glasper, bassist Pino Palladino, and drummer Chris Dave, No Beginning radiated the same cool as D’Angelo’s Voodoo, the landmark LP that made the singer a superstar. Glasper, Palladino, and Dave were all big names in the neo-soul movement of the mid- to late-’90s, and their work with the likes of Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, and Common made them stars amongst both jazz heads and underground rap stans. James sang with the same verve as D’Angelo, in a smoky baritone fashioned after the likes of ‘70s soul-jazz vocalists Jon Lucien, Gil Scott-Heron, and Terry Callier. That No Beginning evoked Voodoo most likely aided its popularity; we hadn’t heard from R&B Jesus in a while, and some considered this a worthy placeholder.
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That’s not to diminish No Beginning’s charm, or the singer’s ascendance. In the five years that preceded No Beginning, James had earned critical acclaim for remaking both vintage and modern soul and jazz in his own unique image. Equally nostalgic and progressive, albums The Dreamer and Blackmagic—both released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label—were praised for nodding toward the past without indulging too much in it. Guardian jazz critic John Fordham likened James to “a 21st-century Leon Thomas,” the yodeling experimental vocalist and Pharoah Sanders collaborator. “James can improvise,” Fordham wrote about The Dreamer, “but he is coolly restrained, and puts the emotional message first.” In a review of Blackmagic for BBC Music, writer Louis Pattison praised James’s ability to draw on hip-hop and dance culture while presenting “its fusions with a blurry, down-tempo spin that should keep all but the most staid jazz heads onside.”
But it was No Beginning—James’s debut on Blue Note Records—that broke him into the mainstream and even landed him a spot as a musical guest on Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “We did everything except [Jimmy] Kimmel,” James said recently over tea at Cafe Serai in Manhattan. “It was a moment, you know? Without sounding like a total asshole: it wasn’t a big deal to me, because I was so about the music. The music meant so much more to me than any of the accolades. In my heart of hearts, I’m still a jazz-minded, jazz-trained person.” Nonetheless, No Beginning No End is the album his fans connected with the most. “I was frankly surprised,” James continues. “It’s like, ‘Wow, this actually meant something to you.’”
In the years following the success of No Beginning, it seemed like James wanted to do anything but recreate that album: his follow-up album, 2014’s While You Were Sleeping, ventured into alt-rock, and is his bleakest LP to date. “I needed an outlet from the hell of going through a divorce and that’s what came out,” he once wrote in a Medium post. As for 2017’s Love In a Time of Madness—its sleek pop was a bridge too far for his die-hard listeners. It was as if he were trying to fit in with what was popular instead of following his own sound. “I definitely left people behind, and I think that was a point where I realized, ‘Okay, I have gone too far for my core of fans,” James told me. “I reached a point where they couldn’t go with me. I was like, ‘You know, am I doing this for my ego?’ I heard a lot of my fans say, ‘Man, I wish you’d just go back to doing your thing.’”
So while No Beginning No End 2 revisits his most celebrated album, it’s broader and more communal than the original, leapfrogging through electronic and acoustic soul, the blues, swing jazz, and dance-pop in a tight 51 minutes. The first No Beginning was a calm meditation on new love and its splendor; the sequel moves quicker and is equally optimistic. “It’s the second piece of this story,” James said. “It’s the same spirit of independence and the same spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.” Released through Rainbow Blonde Records, the independent label he co-owns with fellow artists Talia Billig and Brian Bender, No Beginning No End 2 feels like a compilation record where rising singers Cecily and J Hoard get to share feature spots with Ledisi, Aloe Blacc, Laura Mvula, and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. “I think a lot of my bands and projects end up being a catalyst for the people involved,” James said. “It’s like: put a bunch of creative people in a room, and it’s time to shine. There’s no halfway, and people step up. So it was important to have a mixture of big names with people that may be new. It goes back to the crate-digging vibe of it, like, ‘You didn’t know Cecily? Oh you didn’t know J Hoard? Well, you late, but welcome.’ I still like that little piece of it. Because it’s loving.”
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The new album also marks a new beginning for James who, after more than a decade as a working musician, admits that he’s still trying to find his place in the industry. He’s spent his career as a chameleon; coming back to his Holy Grail LP helped him realize he can be everyone and everything without conforming. “I think I learned that my voice is important,” he says. “I don’t think I necessarily placed any importance on my artistic voice in the world until now. Between No Beginning 1 and 2, I’ve been married, divorced, and remarried. I have a daughter now. I went from being a total rookie at international travel to being on my seventh passport and having friends in Tokyo. I’m in a different place now. The world is in a different place now and it’s nothing to be afraid of, as long as you can claim your space within it.”
