Jessy Wilson - Phase

Solo debut by the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter

Years before she toured the world alongside Alicia Keys, wrote songs with John Legend, belted the Southern rhythm and blues with Muddy Magnolias and kicked off a solo career with 2019's Phase, Jessy Wilson grew up in Brooklyn, listening to the diverse sounds that filled her family's apartment.

Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Curtis Mayfield were on the stereo. Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z and Biggie were on the radio. It was a mix of melody and movement, of soul and hip-hop. For Wilson — a Grammy-nominated songwriter whose past includes musical theater, international tours as an R&B backup singer, and songwriting collaborations with everyone from Usher and Kanye West to Faith Hill and Macy Gray — it made sense that such a wide range of music would be compelling.

"I feel like I've lived nine lives," she says. "I started out on Off-Broadway as a kid, then began singing backgrounds. From there, John Legend became my mentor. I toured the world with him before concentrating on being a full-time songwriter. I moved to Nashville, explored and experimented, and now I'm here."

Written and recorded with producer Patrick Carney — drummer for the Black Keys, as well as the driving force behind that band's percussive stomp — Phase brews up its own storm of soulful sound. It's a modern album rooted in everything that made the old stuff good: the R&B melodies of the late 1960s and '70s; the pulsating grooves of hip-hop; the urban commentary and subtlety of Curtis Mayfield; fuzz guitar inspired by the crème de la crème of psychedelic rock; the irresistible, genre-bending of artists like The Beatles. Gritty and progressive, Phase reintroduces Jessy Wilson as we've never heard her before: undiluted, unaccompanied and unleashed.

 

1. Oh, Baby!

2. Love & Sophistication

3. Clap Your Hands

4. waiting on…

5. stay cool

6. moving through your mind

7. LOVE me

8. cool one

9. cold in the south

10. What’s Wrong?

11. LA night

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