I first met Jesse Futerman at a Red Bull Academy intimate and interactive event with Flying Lotus. I was alone and he sat beside me. We soon started talking and was amazed at this 17 or 18 year old kid who talked about jazz like a 40 year old man but with the rambunctiousness of well, a teenager. I turned out that he lived in Cedervale, the same hood that I grew up in, a five minute walk from where my parents still lived, on a street integral to my own childhood. I took a shine to the kid, regardless of the fact that he kept telling me that the BBC’s Gilles Peterson has been paying his songs since he was 15. I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but It didn’t matter, he’d won me over already.
It’s been an interesting friendship and I can say that after Sunday’s set at the New Toronto’s overstacked bill (BNJMN, Kevin McPhee, Sybian & Faun) he will soon be hitting his prime. Jazzy breaks are a hard sell for the night life scene these days, but by bringing soulful, shuffling, bass-heavy house to the mix, a tangible alchemy has been born. A year after his first taste of press thanks to Denise Benson’s nightlife section in The Grid, Toronto, and with the sensational “Fuse The Witches” EP release on Jus Like Music with a live stream on OkayPlayer.com just a few weeks ago, I think that Jesse is now ready for the world, and the world should be ready for him.
But getting back to the night, despite the presence of some huge names in todays bass-driven scene like BNJMN coming all the way from France via Mutek, and Kevin McPhee, one of the most undervalued Toronto dj/producers of the moment (Resident Advisor, Rinse.FM) only a handful of the crowd of 40 stuck around when Jesse was done. This night belonged to him. In the immortal words of Bob Ross from the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job’ “I had a chance to listen to your album on the internet. Really good! Your going to do quite well!”
