Jools Holland Announces Brand New Album 'The Golden Age Of Song' Out 3rd December 2012

The Golden Age Of Song is Jools Holland's first major collaborations record since 2007's Moving Out To The Country and will be released on 3 December by Rhino UK.

Backed by one of the most popular big bands in the world, Jools' Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, some very special guests popped into the recording studio to lend their extraordinary vocal talents: Jessie J, Tom Jones, Rumer, James Morrison, Paloma Faith, Paul Weller, Joss Stone, Mick Hucknall, Gregory Porter and Ruby Turner.

The album comprises twelve newly recorded studio songs and five unforgettable live performances from Jools Holland's popular BBC2 Hootenanny New Year's Eve show complement the album, making it a unique collection of timeless and beautiful songs.

From The Hootenanny: 'Don't Go To Strangers' by Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller from 2006, 'The Lady is a Tramp' by Lily Rose Cooper (née Allen) from 2008, Paolo Nutini with 'Lovin' Machine' from 2009, Florence Welch's sultry rendition of 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' (also 2009) and Cee Lo Green's bombastic take on Jackie Wilson's 'Reet Petite' from 2010.

The Golden Age of Song combines an array of wonderful performers with Jools' incomparable musicianship, and the instrumental support of his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. The inimitable soul style of Joss Stone on the adaptation of the 1920s Eastern European Folk tune 'Bei Mir Bust Du Schön', the powerful reach of Jessie J's voice on 'Get Here', the traditional gospel standard 'Get Away Jordan' from the superb Ruby Turner, the newly penned 'Sweet Country Love Song' from Jools himself and American jazz singer Gregory Porter, the country & western 'I'll Sail My Ship Alone' by the ever versatile Tom Jones sit alongside James Morrison's pop-soul take on Stevie Wonder's social commentary 'A Place In The Sun', the velvet vocals of Rumer on the 1940s pop standard 'Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive', the beautiful voice of Caro Emerald with Noël Coward's 'Mad About The Boy', and the uniquely wonderful vocals of Paloma Faith with Etta James' 'Something's Got A Hold On Me'.

All of this, plus the Duke Ellington jazz standard 'I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) featuring the distinctive vocals of Mick Hucknall, the uplifting poetry of 'September In The Rain' from Paul Weller, and the 1929 Louis Armstrong classic 'When You're Smiling' from Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, make this album an absolute must-have forfans of Jools Holland's impressive repertoire of musical collaborations.

"My orchestra and I have been very fortunate in working with an array of artists of different ages." says Jools Holland. "We've worked with people who are in their 90s, sometimes people who were born in the 19th century, but also very young talents who were born in the late part of the 20th century. The one thing we all plug into is certain old songs. Sometimes the artists will either come on a Hootenanny show with us on New Year's Eve, or maybe on a Later show or one of our live concerts, and say 'Can I get up and do this song?' And we've found, by doing it a lot, we can often get arrangements together quite quickly, because there's a certain gift that great songwriters have: beautiful simplicity. So we thought it would be great fun to make a record entitled 'The Golden Age Of Song.

The great thing about music is that it doesn't matter if it's five minutes old or 500 years old. If you can breathe life into it, you can make it brand new every time you do it. That's what we've hopefully done with some of these songs, and we've accomplished it by both with inviting some old friends and welcoming some very young ones."