James Torme Press Release
For Immediate Release
March 10, 2011
James Torme Releases Debut Love For Sale On eONE Music on May 31
James Torme examines time-honored pop and classic jazz standards with swinging big-band arrangements and an old-school R-B twist on Love For Sale, out on eOne Music/Torme Jazz on May 31. For his debut, Torme also premieres several original tunes reflecting a broad spectrum of musicality.
The son of legendary entertainer Mel Torme, James was literally born into the musical traditions he celebrates on Love For Sale. While Torme is his own man musically, he sets out to live up to the standards instilled in him by his father. Having performed around the world with his own jazz trio, Torme assembled the producing team of jazz composer/trumpet player John Daversa and veteran musician/arranger/producer David Paich for this release. Love for Sale features a number of James Torme originals alongside covers including the bigband jazz of Alan Jay Lerner’s “Come Back to Me”, the Cole Porter penned title track. He takes on the pop standards “Autumn Leaves” and What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” Torme also reinvents the Al Green classic “Let’s Stay Together” and Michael Jackson’s “Rock with You”. Torme taps into his family roots reviving one of his father’s biggest hits “Comin’ Home Baby.”
Torme’s musical history has long been intertwined with that of his family. “My dad was a hero to me, and his lifelong love affair with music inspired my own,” he notes. “My musical vocabulary was born out of the music of my dad and his contemporaries mixed with my own childhood loves like Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind and Fire.” He continues, “Growing up in England, things like Jamiroquai and The Brand New Heavies showed that it was possible to keep the jazz textures I grew up with—brass, strings and woodwinds—in my music, yet let it remain totally fresh at the same time.”
