British musician, who was known for jazz compositions that were heavily influenced by contemporary popular music.

Cullum grew up in Hullavington and—mostly self-taught—began playing in a rock band at age 15. He soon became attracted to jazz and began playing and singing it in bars and on cruise ships. He spent a year in Paris and then attended the University of Reading, Eng., where he studied film and English, composed music, and acted. In 1999 he fronted his own money to record his first album, which he pressed in small quantities and sold from the bandstand. His second album, recorded two years later by a jazz label, became such a favourite on British radio that the major labels Sony and Universal fought a bidding war to sign him.

Cullum signed with Universal and recorded Twentysomething in 2003, which was followed by months of busy international touring. His singing and playing, which evoked swing and ballad moods rather than rock, were an anomaly in the pop music of the day, but the CD sold 2,000,000 units, 400,000 of them in the United States. His repertoire was an idiosyncratic mixture of standards, originals, and adaptations of songs by Jimi Hendrix (Hendrix, Jimi) and Radiohead. In 2005 Cullum released the album Catching Tales.