A guide to Jamie Cullum's career and albums so far

The Jazz FM Award-nominated British singer-songwriter and broadcaster Jamie Cullum has had a broad and successful career spanning over two decades and crossing the realms of jazz, pop and rock.

Drawing on his icons Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck, Jamie recorded and released his first album 'Heard it All Before' (1999) at just the age of 19, which quickly sprung him to recognition and fame through the guidance of jazz bassist Geoff Gascoyne and releasing his breakthrough album 'Twentysomething' (2003) through Universal.

Five studio albums later, Jamie has since gone onto become a multi-award winning and one of the UK's highest-selling jazz artists in history. Watch this 2014 archive session at the Jazz FM studios:

Jamie Cullum: Basic facts

Jamie is a British jazz-pop musician, mainly focusing on piano and vocals but is also able to play many other instruments including the guitar and drums. Born on 20th August 1979, Jamie is currently aged 41-years-old and was born in Rochford, Essex, and later grew up in Wiltshire.

Career beginnings

Despite being musical, Jamie studied English Literature and Film Studies at the University of Reading, graduating in 2001. During that time, he'd produced his first album 'Heard It All Before', which was released in 1999 and only 500 copies were made.

After his graduation, Jamie released his second album 'Pointless Nostalgic' in 2002 and was approached by Michael Parkinson to appear on his TV show. Shortly after being on Parkinson, Jamie signed a £1 million recording contract with Universal for three albums.

WATCH: Jamie Cullum performing 'I Get A Kick Out Of You' on Parkinson

How many albums has Jamie Cullum released?

He released his third album 'Twentysomething' in October 2003, which threw Jamie into the spotlight and contained original hits and covers like 'What a Difference a Day Made', 'Singin' in the Rain', 'I Could Have Danced All Night' and even a jazz-style cover of R&B artist Pharrell Williams.

The record has been certified 3x Platinum, as well as going to Number 1 on the UK Jazz & Blues Albums chart, and Number 3 on the albums chart.

His fourth album 'Catching Tales' was released in September 2005, featuring singles 'Get Your Way', 'Mind Trick' and 'Photograph'. Jamie's next record was 'The Pursuit' in August 2009, and had more of an experimental pop feel to it than his previous work. Featuring songs 'I'm All Over It', 'Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down', 'You and Me Are Gone' and covers of Rihanna's 'Don't Stop the Music' and 'Not While I'm Around' from the Sweeney Todd musical.

Jamie's sixth record 'Momentum' was released in May 2013 and followed his experience of judging on TV show Must Be the Music. It featured songs 'Everything You Didn't Do', 'You're Not the Only One' and a cover of 'Pure Imagination' featuring Roots Manuva from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

His next album 'Interlude' came out just over a year later in October 2014, made up entirely of covers like 'Lovesick Blues' and Randy Newman's 'Losing You', as well as 'Good Morning Heartache' featuring Laura Mvula and 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' featuring Gregory Porter.

Jamie's eighth and most recent album 'Taller' was released in June 2019, featuring songs 'Life Is Grey', 'Mankind' and 'You Can’t Hideaway from Love'. The album title was apparently a reference to the height difference between Jamie and his wife Sophie Dahl, telling the Belfast Telegraph that he'd "managed to completely break one of the laws of the universe by marrying a taller woman and it was quite interesting how much that was talked about". Sophie is thought to be around 5ft 11in, whilst Jamie is reportedly 5ft 4in.

Jamie has also announced his first Christmas album, 'The Pianoman at Christmas', which will be released 20th November 2020.

Jamie Cullum's family

Jamie is married to model Sophie Dahl, granddaughter of children's author Roald Dahl who named a character after her in his novel The BFG. They got married in January 2010, and have two daughters - Lyra, born in March 2011, and Margot, born in 2013.

Awards and nominations

Jamie has won plenty of awards throughout his career. He was nominated as UK Jazz Artist of the Year in the 2013 Jazz FM Awards, Rising Star at the British Jazz Awards in 2003 and Best British Male at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Awards in 2007. He also won an Ivor Novello Award for 'Best Song Musically and Lyrically' for his song 'Age of Anxiety'.

He's also been nominated for British Male Solo Artist at the 2005 BRIT Awards, Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards for 'Twentysomething' and even a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 2008 on the Gran Torino soundtrack.

Scroll through to see our highlights from the Jazz FM 2020 Awards with OANDA:

You can hear Jamie Cullum on the Jazz FM playlist.

Listen to Jazz FM on DAB nationwide, on our free app, online or via your smart speaker (“Play Jazz FM”).

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