Jamie Cullum plays The Pianoman at Christmas with his big band at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 and 11 December 2026, joined by Kansas Smitty's.
Jamie Cullum was born in 1979, made his first album independently, and then recorded Twentysomething in 2003, a record of standards and pop covers played by a man in his early twenties who treated the songbook as living material rather than heritage. It sold in numbers no British jazz record had managed, and it made him, at twenty-four, the most visible jazz musician in the country. He has stayed that: eight more albums, a long-running radio show, and a piano style that is happiest when it is slightly out of control.
The Pianoman at Christmas came out in 2020, an album of original Christmas songs written to sound like standards and recorded with a big band. It has become an annual fixture. He has now made eight more albums, and Kansas Smitty’s, the London band joining him here, are the kind of act his radio show has spent fifteen years putting in front of people who would not otherwise find them.
He brings it to the Royal Albert Hall with the big band on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December 2026, with Kansas Smitty’s, who play on the deluxe edition, and guest appearances the Hall is not naming yet. The songs are his own — ‘Beautiful Together’, ‘Christmas Don’t Let Me Down’, ‘Hang Your Lights’ — which is a rarer thing at Christmas than it sounds.