Album Notes

Since before breathing, Jess has been swept up and devoured by the music around him. Pictures of his mother with a 10lb bass guitar strapped around her neck while still pregnant with Jess are about as common in the family photo albums as baby pictures. It was only inevitable that it became a crutch for his life even while he was still learning to walk. Jess was always easily occupied as a kid. Dancing around in the crib until he passed out, otherwise known as the baby-rush, was needless to say an exciting routine during his parents practice nights. After witnessing this enthusiasm, his parents bought a toy drum set & guitar to fuel his delirious attraction to music.

However, performing music wasnt a love at first sight deal for Jess. It was more like an inner obsession with a puzzle that flourished each time he made pieces fit with one another. His father tried showing him guitar, but that was about as successful as Brussels sprouts. By age 8, he began plucking out notes on the keyboard to songs from his head like the X-Files theme or Ray Charless Tell Me What Id Say. He took up alto saxophone in elementary school. He began learning songs by ear from The Beatles, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and other classic rock tapes lying around the house. He tried piano lessons but it stuck to him like 40yr old gaffers tape. Mundanely interested in the classical approach to playing, Jess went back to teaching himself anything he could get his ears on, including jazz, and began to let his own original ideas teach him his way around the piano.

By high school, Jess was able to step back and see an image unraveling from his scattered puzzle. He wrote songs more than he wrote school essays, and did more with his 4-track than he did with his friends. He decided to let other talents, like drawing, take a back seat to music. Finally, Jess chiseled away at learning guitar, drums, and singing certain that singing was his biggest weakness. During his junior year, a spot in a local tribute band with his father opened up and fell into his lap. So he learned all the Beatles vocals and guitar leads he could in a 3-month span and landed the steady gig. With this, he earned the money he needed for college and numerous musical tools, and toys, to compliment his growing love, and more importantly, he learned to perform.