Author: Thomas Schryver
Jesca Hoop, singer, songwriter, and guitarist extraordinaire is just five feet away from me when she steps out of her silver pickup truck in front of the alleyway entrance of the Hotel Café. Carrying a black acoustic guitar case, and wearing a billowing off-white dress with drapes of cloth hanging from her arms like wings, she looks like she’s stepped out of a sepia photograph of 19th century Bourbon Street. My palms sweating, I try to think of something to say, something I’ll look back upon proudly afterwards. Something like, “Hey, uh, Jesca, need any help carrying your gear?” As she turns in my direction, I opt for the cowardice of the all too well known fake text message check.
Maybe I just chickened out because I couldn’t anticipate her reaction. If her music is any indication of her personality, she’s as unpredictable as they come. The former nanny of Tom Waits’ children, Hoop seems to perpetually walk a thin line between an innocent schoolgirl and a coquettish femme fatale. She’s like a nurturing kindergarten teacher’s assistant who moonlights as a waitress in downtown dive-bars; like a Chuck-E-Cheese that turns into a speakeasy at night; the kind of girl who might either ask for a Shirley Temple or a shot of whiskey on a date.
As Hoop and her band begin to set up onstage, the crowd attempts to subdue their enthusiasm. Some old dudes in the corner give her a timid wave, friends come up to hug her, and others talk excitedly about what songs they hope she plays. At full size, her touring ensemble consists of about eight members, including a drummer, a music production device known as an MPC player, and four backing vocalists. But Hoop is willing to eliminate the unessential elements of her complex music just like the excess syllable from her name, and appeared at the Hotel Cafe with but three accompanying musicians.
Hoop began by playing solo with her song “Whispering Light,” save for the sparse accompaniment from her incredibly vocally dexterous backup singer, Nikki. When singing, she often chooses to create her own unique accent: rolling her R’s and stretching her lips forward like an orangutan until it begins to sound like she’s speaking some lost and ancient European dialect.
By the third song, the band was ready to join in for the fan favorite, “Seed Of Wonder,” in which Hoop stitches together elements of Eastern European folk song and Gypsy mystique along with Caribbean accented Dancehall music. Prodigy guitarist Blake Mills peppered the song with gently skanky upstrokes of reverb-drenched guitar, adding a decidedly Reggae feel.
If there are any doubts as to whether Hoop prizes artistic experimentation over accessibility, they quickly disappear after hearing “Seed Of Wonder,” which – in one song – employs more musical switch-ups than an entire Coldplay anthology.Next came the playful interplanetary folk-pop song “Intelligentactile 101,” in which Hoop toys with imagery of reincarnation and “swinging from the stars from an umbilical cord.”
Hoop and the band then introduced the audience to the recently crafted “Murder Of Birds,” which flightily and unexpectedly alters its pacing and time signature in a frolicking folk ballad.
After yielding to repeated audience requests, Hoop readied her band for the song, “Money,” which some may recognize as the theme song to the television show, Dirty Sexy Money.
Audience intimacy climaxed during the sultry “Out The Back Door,” a Hip Hop and Victrola Jazz inspired piece in which Hoop coaxed the audience to replicate Michael Jackson’s anti-gravity lean as performed in the “Smooth Criminal” music video.Hoop ended with a fully stripped down version of “Love And Love Again,” a sleepily nostalgic throwback that sounds like it was born in an after-hours 1920s ballroom. The audience stood entranced as guitarist Mills translated the piano and strings arrangement into a solo guitar composition, and Jesca crooned and hummed.
As Hoop’s former employer, Tom Waits, says: “Jesca Hoop’s music is like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch, or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.” Or you can make up your own analogy. Go see her play, and you will.
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