Jesca Hoop: A Leap Off the Musical Grid
Jesca Hoop- The New Weird American
Jesca Hoop was brought to the attention of the prestigious jazz & folk label by no less than Tom Waits, who became a career mentor for Ms. Hoop after hearing her rather unconventional musical approach when she was a nanny for his children. AMG lauded Jesca Hoop's off the grid approach calling her one of the "New Weird Americans" along with other musical iconoclasts like Devendra Banhart, Faun Fables & Joanna Newsom.
In a world where the Katie Perrys & the Lady Ga Gas work overtime to cultivate the image of weirdness, Jesca Hoop is the picture of authentic weirdness that isn't defined by haute couture fashion or shameless posturing for the paparazzi.
Jesca Hoop's first major label release
Hunting My Dress was released late last month and copy fell into my hands a couple weeks ago & I've been playing it non-stop every since. On the song
The Kingdom you can hear how she's thrown together her own musical operandi from scratch with nods to artists like Björk, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey & Tom Waits.
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Big Fish is from an 2007 indie release
Kismet. At the time Jesca was still the Waits family nanny & Tom Waits offspring & their playmates are featured in the video. There's a definite Waits/New Orleans 2nd line jazz musical influence in this song.
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My final selection is a radio performance of
Seed of Wonder also from the 2007
Kismet album. Notice how she effortlessly navigates the ever changing themes, key changes & tempos of this dark serpentine song.
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Hunting My Dress, Jesca Hoop's latest album was released on July 27, 2010 & it gets a 8.5 rating on a scale of 10.
Jesca Hoop- A Complete Discography
Silverscreen Demos (2204)
Kismet (2007)
Hunting My Dress (2010)
