Songfacts®:

• This reflective 7-minute song in a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., who is the dreamer José James is singing about. King's "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered in Washington, D.C. to a crowd estimated at 250,000, is a landmark in the American civil rights movement. In the song, James pays tribute to King's legacy and his message of hope and possibility.
• José James is a blend of ethnicities, including Irish, African and Panamanian. MLK's message really resonated with him as he navigated different worlds.
  
  "I largely grew up in a white neighborhood but being black, so I've been able to have empathy for all levels of society, which I think is pretty rare," he told Songfacts. "And I think it's pretty needed. I don't think there are any answers, other than personal revelations of identity. What I've come to for myself is that identity is what you claim, what you feel, and that's been really empowering."
• "The Dreamer" is the opening song and title track to José James' debut album. Released on an independent British label, it got a lot of positive attention in the British press, which noted his progressive jazz stylings. He later signed with the impulse! label and then Blue Note before starting his own independent label in 2018. He made a name for himself with original songs and by putting his own spin on songs by artists that influenced him, like Bill Withers and Erykah Badu. The Dreamer includes his cover of "Park Bench People," a 1993 song by Freestyle Fellowship.
• James produced The Dreamer album himself with acoustic backing by various jazz musicians. On this song, the players are:
  
  Alexi David: bass
  Luke Damrosch: drums
  Omar Abdulkarim: trumpet
  Nori Ochiai: piano