Trust me, you’re going to like this one. I sniffed my nose when I first heard of it as well. Then I saw him in concert playing this stuff and not only does he play it, but he plays like he believes it. He mixes and matches with a big band and a hip little combo including regulars Mike Lovett/tp and James Allsopp/reeds, and his selection of tunes reveals a 52nd Street heart. The title track is actually “A Night In Tunisia” but more hip and subdued in the Sarah Vaughan sort of way, while “Sack O’ Woe” is the gospel driven groover by Cannonball Adderley with Jon Hendrick’s lyrics, and it’s a cooker.
He shows his Vegas Rat pack lapel on Richard Carpenter’s “Walkin’” and Hank Williams “Lovesick Blues and gets late late show foreboding with subtle brushwork and bass during Sufjan Stevens’ “The Seer’s Tower.”The big band with bassoon and strings have Cullum deliver a desultory “Good Morning Heartache” while the brass punches like Rocky Marciano as Cullum sounds convincing on “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood. “ Cullum goes past the mood of the last set, and you feel like the chairs are being stacked up on the tables as he coos an intriguing “Out of the World” and he turns out the last lights with just him and his piano on a gentle on my mind “Make Someone Happy.” He makes you remember why you liked this kind of music in the first place. Is Cullum doing another British Invasion by bringing our own music back to us?
Blue Note Records