While this “alternative music” exists mainly to expose fops to truly original music—as opposed to New Orleans’ glut of blueprint-reading throwbacks—there are also cases where progressive-minded fans might need to be pointed in musical directions they might not go voluntarily. And surely, more alt music aficionados would attend the Hookah Café’s weekly Nina Simone tribute by soul singer and New Orleans transplant Jhelisa Anderson, if they knew her amazing history. “I try not to think about the wow factor,” Jhelisa humbly asserts. “But these experiences have been my greatest teachers.”
Jhelisa’s story begins in rural Kentucky, where as a kid she was limited to mainstream radio. “I got Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire and, I’m not ashamed to say, the Doobie Brothers,” recalls Anderson. “But I had no exposure to jazz, no exposure to reggae or dub music.” All of these she discovered—along with Art of Noise, Thomas Dolby and other electronic outfits—upon escaping to Los Angeles mere days after high school graduation.
In L.A., Jhelisa, “worked at a fucking gas station. I sold whoopee cushions door-to-door. Then I got a job as a receptionist at Motown Records. I worked on Berry Gordy’s floor—under the premise that I was not a singer.” After a short but exciting stint (“You never knew who was gonna come off that elevator!”), Jhelisa’s secret passion was found out and she was canned from Motown, but not before landing a job as vocal arranger for an R&B group signed to the label.
One of Jhelisa’s subsequent L.A. bands included Jeff Buckley on guitar, before he went on to become the greatest male singer of our generation. Buckley was also the first person in Jhelisa’s life to suggest Nina Simone, whose “Lilac Wine” Buckley precisely imitates on his classic Grace album—unfortunately, this was all after, “my life brushed up against Nina Simone’s,” Jhelisa relates. “I met her at an Eartha Kitt show in L.A. and exchanged numbers without really knowing so much about her. Then one day our drummer didn’t believe me, so I dug her number out of the bottom of my purse and called her. She’d just twisted her knee or something and needed a ride to the hospital, so I went and picked her up and took her. But I didn’t really know, and that’s a crime.”
Then there was the time her idol, Chaka Kahn, called her, wanting Jhelisa’s assistance writing and recording. “She had just finished working with Prince and Larry Graham on Prince’s independent stuff,” Jhelisa recalls, “and Chaka wanted to do something indy, didn’t want to sign to a major label.” And what did she learn from working with her biggest influence? “That she fucking does it. No matter what the circumstance, if she’s tired and it’s the end of the night, she can make that sound come out of her mouth, whatever intricate melody pattern, whatever level or force loud or soft. That experience was better than any award; her nod gave me extra tits, extra balls.”
With her new extras, Jhelisa moved to London, where she fronted Soul Family Sensation, “A band of indy rock guys, classic British songwriting, like, slit-your-wrists music, with a Soul II Soul backbeat.” SFS were signed by Sony before Jhelisa left to front chart-topping dance group the Shaman. “That was my exposure to London rave culture, ecstasy culture.” An influence that soon fueled her two solo albums of non-traditional dance music for Dorado records—1995’s Galactica Rush and ’97’s Language Electric. Non-traditional meaning live instruments mixed with the requisite electronics for a more rootsy hybrid. “That’s when I feel like I’ve done my job,” says Jhelisa, “When I make a track and I can’t tell you what style it is.”
London also led to Jhelisa’s singing backup on a TV show duet between Johnny Cash and Pop Staples, working with trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack, and recording with our generation’s greatest female singer, Icelandic imp, Björk. Of the song “There’s More to Life Than This” from Björk’s Debut album, Jhelisa remembers, “I was really into layering my vocals, stacking the harmonies, which I learned from studying Chaka Kahn. I heard the track, knew what I wanted to do, and just went in the studio and did it without collaboration. I’ve since heard remixes in shopping malls based around my backing vocals.”
Between her subsequent solo albums and EPs, plus the dance-music scene’s passion for the re-mix, amazon.com lists Jhelisa as appearing on 48 releases—with number 49 on its way; she’s currently at Mid-City’s Paradigm Park studios, shedding her electro-diva skin for a hybrid soul sound that will include some post-production dub reggae elements, but no electronics. “I wanted to break away from London style,” Jhelisa asserts. “Electronics take too much time. It’s too complex. I’m like a three-year-old; I just wanna play. I just wanna jump in and play a song and sweat and have a drink. I wanna crystallize a moment, not sit there for weeks and tweak and tweak, searching through 10,000 electronic bass drums.” To that end, her new album will feature drummer Terence Higgins (Dirty Dozen Brass Band) and mega-bassist James Singleton, among other notable locals.
But along with appearances at this year’s Essence Fest and Jazz Fest, Jhelisa is best known locally for her weekly Tuesday night Nina Simone tribute at Hookah Café—and it is a tribute, not an imitation. While, aside from Jhelisa’s ability to dive into low, husky vocal registers, the tribute doesn’t sound like Nina Simone, the show definitely captures Simone’s spirit and dynamic. “Live, Nina moved energy,” Jhelisa explains. “She created a potent atmosphere, whether it was really delicate or really angry.”
Jhelisa’s tribute best attains this goal when joined by co-star James Singleton. When speaking of Singleton, Jhelisa sounds (justifiably) taken aback: “I saw his string quartet last week and just cried all the way home. I mean, how can I just come to New Orleans and play with this guy?” For the Simone gig, Singleton utilizes more loops and effects, kicking on the distortion pedal then wrenching subtle feedback from the stand-up with a bow. “What a force of fucking nature!” Jhelisa gushes. “James is up there with any all of the other influences and people I’ve worked with. This is the best live situation I’ve ever had.”
If you would like to call me out and say, “Hey, you run sound at Hookah Café where Jhelisa performs; it doesn’t seem fair that you’d write about her,” and have me respond “She sang with Björk and Johnny Cash, you moron!” (or if you have a truly original musical project) write to [email protected].
