José James - Lean On Me (2018) [Official Digital Download]

Singer, songwriter and lifelong fan José James honors the great Bill Withers with the September 28 release of Lean On Me (Blue Note), a loving tribute album that features 12 of the legendary singer and songwriter’s most undeniable and soulful songs in honor of his 80th birthday year. Lean On Me was produced by Blue Note president Don Was and recorded in Capitol's legendary Studio B with a dream team band: Pino Palladino (bass), Kris Bowers (keys), Brad Allen Williams (guitar), and Nate Smith (drums), along with special guests including vocalist Lalah Hathaway, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and trumpeter Takuya Kuroda.

James is often celebrated for his genre-blending— his prolific output over the past decade has crisscrossed jazz, R&B, soul, hip-hop and indie rock—but this project is different. “Bill wrote the songs you love your whole life,” he says. “I didn't want to put hip-hop beats under his music or deconstruct it with 10-minute bebop solos. There was only one right move here: show up with a killer band, run the tape, capture the vibe. We just played the songs.”

That's also how all of this began, over the past few years, with James adding more and more Withers hits to his live set until he wound up with a massive medley that felt “like the best kind of church—people crying, dancing, singing and shouting. It was powerful,” he says. At the same time, James was reeling from the deaths of so many of his musical heroes. He couldn't shake the urge that he ought to celebrate that living icon among us, Withers, whose influence is everywhere and yet whose name is too often left out of the canon. Along the way James' silken voice has only gotten richer, warmer, and more resonant—a perfect delivery system for Withers' humane wisdom.

TRACKLIST

1 Ain't No Sunshine
2 Grandma's Hands
3 Lovely Day (feat. Lalah Hathaway)
4 Lean On Me
5 Kissing My Love
6 Use Me
7 Who Is He
8 Hello Like Before
9 Just The Two of Us
10 Hope She'll Be Happier
11 The Same Love That Made Me Laugh
12 Better Off Dead



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