Jamie Foxx

A few short years ago, Jamie Foxx was the opposite of an award magnet — but that was before he won a Best Actor Oscar for the 2004 Ray Charles biopic Ray. Since then, he’s been nominated for five Grammys, including three this year: one for his contributions to “Georgia,” a Field Mob cut that also features Ludacris, and a pair of tracks from 2005’s Unpredictable, which attempted to reposition him as an R&B lover man. The latter accomplished its goal, more or less, and it’s certainly a lot more listenable than the typical movie-star-tries-his-hand-at-crooning opus — like, for instance, the abominations once foisted on a vulnerable public by Eddie Murphy, Foxx’s co-star in another trophy favorite, Dreamgirls. Despite the disc’s title, though, his determination to play things straight leaves many of Unpredictable‘s songs feeling more than a little (ahem) predictable. It’s fortunate, then, that Foxx’s current tour is envisioned as “a night of comedy and music” rather than one or the other. Awards are nice, but entertainment value is even better.