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Jesse Harris takes things as they come
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Jesse Harris
guitar
Madeleine Peyroux
vocals
Melody Gardot
guitar and vocalsb.1985
Norah Jones
pianob.1979
Jesse was already well into his career when he met a young Norah Jones on a road trip through Texas and played his songs for her. He had already been signed and dropped from a major label with his band Once Blue?(a project he started with
Rebecca Martin
guitarb.1969
Ben Street
bass
Kurt Rosenwinkel
guitarb.1970
Kenny Wollesen
drumsBut that chance encounter with Jones, who was still a student at the University of North Texas at the time, was the one that would change the course of Jesse's career. They stayed in touch and began working together when Jones eventually moved to New York.?
Her debut album, 2002's Come Away With Me (Blue Note)?contained five of his songs including the now ubiquitous standard "Don't Know Why." He also played guitar on the record. Their partnership has endured over the years—Jones and Harris have written together on and off ever since then—but it was that first record that arguably redirected the sound of certain strains of popular music and jazz for a generation.?
The success of Come Away With Me?also opened new doors for Harris as a solo artist and a composer. Ultimately he started a label (Secret Sun, named after a solo album of the same name) to put out the projects that he produced for himself and others, and recently has been dividing his time between New York and Paris. Jesse is a relentlessly prolific songwriter, someone for whom songs are like air and water; they are simply a fact of life.?
Here he talks about Paper Flower, his most recent album recorded in Paris with American and French musicians, his approach to songwriting ("writer's block is a choice") and production, taking things as they come, confession versus craft, and venturing into the unconscious through writing.
Tags
Radio & Podcasts
Jesse Harris
Leo Sidran
madeleine peyroux
Melody Gardot
Lana Del Rey
Norah Jones
Once Blue
Rebecca Martin
Ben Street
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kenny Wollesen
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