Jesse, Norah Jones, Richard Julian, Sasha Dobson, and the Little Willies all played at The Living Room this week to celebrate the club's 10th Anniversary.
Here's a snippet from the New York Times' review of the show:
"Mr. Harris, who also played banjo throughout his set, observed that it marked a reunion of the Ferdinandos, an old Living Room staple. Along with Mr. Scherr, the bassist Tim Luntzel and the drummer Dan Rieser, he delivered a strong batch of old and new songs... And his originals, among the best of the evening, whisked the set along. Mr. Harris is another of this scene’s successes, having written “Don’t Know Why,” the sleeper hit that introduced Ms. Jones. But he wasn’t afraid to knock the songs around. Twice he ventured something the band had never touched before. He did this, he said, “in the spirit of the Living Room.” Both times, the results were impressive."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
#6 "THE HOTTEST STATE" For the soundtrack from the Ethan Hawke movie, a host of stars - from Willie Nelson to the Black Keys - interpreted the songs of Jesse Harris. Each cut is more painfully beautiful than the one before it.
Jesse and his band recently played to a packed house at Joe's Pub to celebrate the release of "Feel." Check out this clip of "After All" from the show.
CNET's Pick Of The Day
The NYC-based artist has been known primarily as a songwriter--he penned Norah Jones' smash "Don't Know Why"--but his latest release, "Feel," should make him known as a singer. It's pristinely crafted bedroom pop, mature and lush as David Grey with a smart spate of world-music snippets.
Working with Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux earned New York City's Jesse Harris a lot of recognition, but that sound is only part of what he does. Tonight he talks with Claudia Marshall about the evolution of his own music, on the new album 'Feel.'
'You and Me,' Baring Jesse Harris' Soul: Poppier than his usual sound, the country-tinged coffeehouse waltz "You And Me" follows a similar formula. Harris' wistful croon sounds restrained and even pensive, yet the soul-baring mood fits with the straightforward atmosphere. Though it's built around little more than a stripped-down guitar, bass, drums and violin, the sound seems fully realized. Harris' voice touches upon a Paul Simon-like timbre, adding a simple but singable melody well suited for introspection.
In December of '06 Jesse produced the debut album, "You," of the amazing young singer Jessie Baylin. Recorded in LA with the great session players of the West Coast, both veteran and young - Jim Keltner, Leland Sklar, Anthony Wilson, Larry Goldings, and Van Dyke Parks - "You" is now out on itunes and will get a retail release later this year. Jesse played guitar and co-wrote eight of the songs with Jessie, who also covers his song "How." Check it out!!
In March of this year he went to Japan and produced the new album of Miyuki Hatakeyama, an established artist there with a sultry voice. Miyuki translated several of his songs into Japanese, "While The Music Lasts," "This Is Goodbye," and a new one called "Glass Tears," which has the Japanese title "Mabaroshi." The album also features her originals and a diverse list of covers, from Neil Young to Marisa Monte. With only Jesse on guitar or banjo, overdubbing light percussion, harmonica and background vocals, the album has an intimate in-the-room kind of sound. Titled "Summer Clouds, Summer Rain," it comes out this summer on Avex Records in Japan.
Jesse co-produced vocalist/songwriter Sasha Dobson's most recent album "Modern Romance." Harris and Richard Julian co-produced the record and both contributed guitar work and songwriting. Tony Scherr (Bill Frisell, Willie Nelson) plays electric bass and Mauro Refosco (Bebel Gilberto, David Byrne) percussion. Sasha will be on tour all summer and fall. www.sashadobson.com
Hottest State Soundtrack out now!
The soundtrack to Ethan Hawke's new film "The Hottest Stete" is availlable now. The CD features all new versions of Jesse's songs by performed by Willie Nelson, Cat Power, M Ward, Bright Eyes, The Black Keys, Feist, Norah Jones, Rocha, Brad Mehldau, and Emmylou Harris.
When Ethan Hawke was in the process of adapting his novel The Hottest State into a film, the writer/actor/director turned to longtime friend Jesse Harris to assemble its all-important soundtrack. Rather than merely write an orchestral score and compile an assortment of other artists' songs, Harris wrote the soundtrack in its entirety and enlisted a star-packed roster to perform it.
State of the art: Ethan Hawke's movie debut has the 'Hottest' soundtrack
Most pop soundtracks rally around a few reliable cliches. They'll recycle known hits, round up available songs that conform to a given genre, or act as a clearinghouse for B-material from beloved artists whose name value they can milk. Either that, or they'll just toss together a haphazard salad of songs they can get cheap.
Songwriter Jesse Harris and actor Ethan Hawke wanted to avoid every one of those pitfalls with their forthcoming film, "The Hottest State."
United State: Songwriter Jesse Harris enlists top artists for Ethan Hawke's soundtrack.
August 5, 2007 -- As Ethan Hawke prepared to direct "The Hottest State," the new film based on his novel, he sought to meld the soundtrack with the lives of his characters. So he asked Grammy-winning New York singer-songwriter Jesse Harris - who penned Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why" - to lay open the riches of his song bag.
"I gave Ethan all of my albums, and he started sifting through as many as 70 or 80 songs," says Harris. "He picked out the ones that best fit the film."
June 25, 2007
New Feist - "Somewhere Down The Road"
Songwriter Jesse Harris is carving out a place in the pantheon of notably covered artists with his latest record of tunes, the soundtrack to the upcoming Ethan Hawke written/directed film The Hottest State. Known well as the man who penned much of Norah's Come Away With Me (grabbing the Grammy for "Don't Know Why"), Jesse was asked by good friend Ethan to provide songs for the flick, and the resulting crop of tunes inspired Ethan to get all conceptual:
From our first conversation, I was overwhelmed by the quality of Jesse's songwriting and how perfectly matched it was to my aspirations for the tone and mood of the film. An idea began to develop: What if we scored the film entirely with original songs written by Jesse and performed by contemporary artists hand-picked to match certain scenes? To my mind this would give the entire film a continuity of authorship while still providing massive shifts in energy.
Sounds like a cool idea, and it got a lot cooler once Willie, Bright Eyes. M. Ward, Cat Power, Brad Mehldau, et al signed on. Now Ethan's got a buzzy soundtrack and Jesse's looking even more like a songwriting treasure. And of course, no collection of indie rootsy-ness is complete without reigning queen of sultry acoustic meanderings, lovely Leslie.
June 28, 2007
Stream M. Ward & Bright Eyes' Contributions To The Hottest State
Earlier this week we got a listen of Feist's take on the Jesse Harris-penned "Somewhere Down The Road," part of the Harris-in-covers project hatched by Ethan Hawke for his upcoming big screen novel adaptation The Hottest State. Now you can head to myspace.com/thehotteststate for more listens, including M. Ward and Conor Oberst's takes on Jesse tunes "Crooked Lines" and "Big Old House," respectively. Really feeling the Bright Eyes cut, one of the soundtrack's absolute highlights -- no small feat considering the artist list (Willie, Emmylou, Mehldau, and Chan). Plus, you can hear Harris's interpretation of his own tune ("One Day"), how quaint. They guy's looking better by the second. Haven't given his new one Feel a spin yet, but that'll change soon. (Ethan, Jesse ... your plan is working.)
New Music: Bright Eyes / Cat Power: "Big Old House" / "It's Alright to Fail" [Stream]
Hearing footsteps, Zach Braff? Training Day and Before Sunrise/Sunset star Ethan Hawke does the Garden State director one better for the soundtrack to The Hottest State, an upcoming film based on Hawke's debut novel. Not content just to curate established songs, Hawke asked artists to record tunes penned by singer/songwriter Jesse Harris, whom Hawke knew even before Harris wrote Norah Jones hit "Don't Know Why". Everyone from Jones to Feist to Willie Nelson answered the call for the disc, which arrives Aug. 7 via Sony/ATV Music Publishing imprint Hickory Records. [ READ MORE ]
Hottest State Featured on Pitchfork
"NYC songwriter and Norah Jones/Bright Eyes collaborator Jesse Harris wrote all the tunes to accompany Hawke's cinematic vision, and a fine little corral of performers helps bring them to life. Bright Eyes and Jones turn up, as do Cat Power, Feist, M. Ward, the Black Keys, Willie Nelson, and Emmylou Harris."
