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Meet Jesse Maclaine

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Introducing Jesse Maclaine:

Mezzo soprano-pianist-composer Jesse Maclaine is not normal. Never mind her beautiful renditions of top 40 hits, this woman is a weirdo! Piano poetry and siren song are the specialty of this purple haired songstress. Classically trained, rooted in jazz traditions, and holding an expansive love of music, you can find her in Denver and around the country (most recently NYC!) performing an array of rock, pop, folk, jazz, and her own diverse compositions.

“Since 1992, I’ve been performing as Aural Elixir but last year I decided things were getting too far from that original vision of Frank Zappa inspired unusual music, so I decided to branch out with my nomenclature into two new projects.

My solo work is listed as Jesse Maclaine. I do all sorts of music at public venues and private events. I enjoy the variation of both scenery and material! You are invited to join me Sept. 22 at the Mercury Cafe, Sept. 25 at Armando’s Ristorante, or Sept. 28 at Crowfoot Crowbar.

Jesse Maclaine and the Scotch is the name of my band, now centered around a core duo that can easily expand into a trio or quartet. Why the name? Because I’m Scottish-American and I like to drink scotch!

For the last six years I’ve been playing regularly with an excellent musician and good friend, Denver drummer Ryan Elwood. This collaboration has organically evolved into an upbeat, versatile, pop-rock duo that plays current hits and classics from the last five decades. So far, the audience feedback has been phenomenal!

Jesse Maclaine and the Scotch performed our first concert in January at the Walnut Room and we have been playing steadily ever since. We even did a few festivals this summer, good times! Next Friday, Sept. 20, we’re headed up to play at Funkwerks in Fort Collins. Our debut EP is coming soon, for now we have a bootleg on Soundcloud and a Facebook page with live videos, pictures, updates, etc.

In addition to performing, I also teach voice, piano, and songwriting/composition lessons to all ages and levels of students. I feel voice lessons in particular are relevant and important for everyone, singing is good for the body, mind, and soul! I approach lessons holistically and cover a range of material based on my students’ interests and skill levels.

Teaching is such a key aspect of living plus it’s fun to connect with others and do music together. Where would we be without teachers? I’ve had many outstanding teachers in my life and I feel it’s important to pay it forward by sharing the knowledge and skills I’ve acquired with an eager community of musicians of all ages.

Lifelong learning is perhaps one of the secrets to happiness.”

Background:

“When I was younger, I wanted to be a triple threat – a singer, dancer, and actor. I studied and performed in choirs and musical theater groups and took 4-5 hours of dance lessons every week. This creative space was where I felt I most belonged.

I had no interest in learning piano but thanks to my Mom’s insistence, I began taking classical piano lessons in 1986 with Juliard alumni, Marlene Woodward. I happily spent a lot of my time as a teen rehearsing and performing music. Senior year in high school I started improvising songs when my friends played their acoustic guitars, this continued into college and was my gateway into songwriting.”

During her early college years, she began studying jazz and the music of Frank Zappa while continuing to study theater and dance. In 1993, a drunk driver crashed into Jesse’s car and this accident devastated her dream of being a “triple threat” but inspired her to start practicing piano again and focus on developing her musical skills.

She sang in multiple bands, including one group that recorded demos at Nashville’s RCA studios and was courted by Warner Brothers Records. Although deals were offered, signing over music rights and joining the mainstream industry didn’t feel like a fit. Legend has it, while Jesse was in Nashville for a session, the ghost of Frank Zappa appeared and warned her not to sign! After that, instead of relocating to Nashville with the band to pursue record deals and live that rock-n-roll lifestyle, in 1995 she moved to New Orleans… just her and her black cat Leetle, she didn’t know anyone! Luckily NOLA was full of new friends and soon she started working as a singer in & around the French Quarter while she studied jazz piano.

After seven years of gigging in NOLA and doing a few national tours with Aural Elixir, she fell madly in love with Colorado and relocated to Boulder in 2002. She continued to tour and record as Aural Elixir, spending a lot of time playing solo and with others at small and medium sized venues across Colorado’s front range.

In 2013 Jesse recorded “Partially Domesticated Amazon” with legendary New Orleans drummer Johnny Vidacovich and bassist Andrew Wolf; that record was mastered by Boulder based Grammy winner David Glasser. Three years later, Jesse released the live EP “Better,” a duo with drummer Ryan Elwood. During the spring of 2018, she opened for Melissa Etheridge at the International Church of Cannabis!

In 2018 Jesse founded the Musical Women Show to help increase visibility of women in music by collaborating with the local community of female and female-identified musicians. She hosts a Musical Women Facebook Page and organizes multiple concerts throughout the year.

During the course of her career in music, Jesse has written 150+ songs, performed over 2000 shows, toured extensively across the US, self produced 4 LPs & 1 EP, had her songs featured on radio and podcasts, supported other musicians in concert and in the studio, and collaborated with theater companies to score original musicals.

In her non-music time, she enjoys hanging out with her husband, cats, dogs, and friends- indoors streaming movies/shows (you’re never too old to enjoy Scooby Doo!), outdoors communing with Mother Nature, and around town enjoying the fine cultural offerings and fascinating places in Denver’s metro area. Six years vegan and over a decade gluten free, Jesse and her husband especially enjoy exploring new vegan/gf friendly cafes, food trucks, and restaurants in the city.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’m not sure anyone experiences a smooth road but for me, the road has never been bumpy enough to knock me off my path. As a woman in the music business for 25+ years, I’ve certainly encountered my share of challenges and with any type of long term creative work, one must adapt, reevaluate, shift direction, evolve, discover innovative ways of connecting, and develop content which meets artistic aspirations and works in the commercial realm as well.

Not to say all my art is commercially viable but as a professional musician making a significant amount of my living from performing music, some of my art is by necessity meant to please others. In the last few years I’ve become intrigued by this connection. I love the idea of service leaders and try to represent this concept as a bandleader but only in the last five years have I come to see some of my music as being in service to the listener.

My ears are weird (Frank Zappa and Thelonious Monk are two of my prime inspirations for becoming a composer!) and my inclination in music is often a bit more avant garde than mainstream. Alas, this approach didn’t work too well for my bank account so I began to temper my strange music with popular songs that resonated with me. The more I researched, the more mainstream songs I found that felt “right” and I altered some of the ways I perform to suit that aesthetic.

This flexibility of sound opened up opportunities! I began expanding my genres and set lists and as I built my repertoire and expanded my musical offerings, more employers were interested in hiring me. Hence my business as a performer and as a teacher began experiencing significant growth. Essentially I varied from my original vision and diversified into more popular and appealing products (songs), and instead of seeing my music as a pristine, unmalleable art form, I allowed myself space to reinterpret my art as my music as my business, interconnected, parts of the same puzzle.

Being a music business entrepreneur certainly takes considerably more effort than most full-time jobs; I work 7 days a week, 8-12 hours a day, sometimes even more. My time is consumed with an array of responsibilities: music practice, song research, rehearsals, admin, promo, creative development, social media, composition, lyric writing, management, bookkeeping, concerts, band organization, booking shows, traveling,…the work literally never ends, and I love it!

We’d love to hear more about your work.
Most of my public work is in the Denver area playing music for a variety of interesting places. I perform at all sorts of private events and I offer music lessons at my studio in the Santa Fe Arts District. I also work as a singer/pianist with other local groups including a Fleetwood Mac tribute band and an upcoming performance of Tommy…I’m the Acid Queen of course!

You can always find my current schedule online at www.auralelixir.com.

In addition to gigs, I’m super excited about my work doing songwriting and pre-production for 30+ new songs to be released by Jesse Maclaine and the Scotch, Aural Elixir and my solo projects this year and next – it’s a lot of jugging ideas at this point. The thrill of endless options combined with the pressure of making decisions feels like a delicate balance, and trying to get it all right…as if that’s a thing. “It’s art, how do I know if I’m doing right?!”

Speaking of the musical arts, for the past few years I’ve been doing spontaneous compositions at CU’s Grusin Hall, a project I call Instant Octopus. This is my first foray into recording solo piano music and I’m quite pleased with the outcome. Recently I pre-released the premiere song “Mother Octopus” on Soundcloud along with a bootleg playlist of the debut Jesse Maclaine and the Scotch concert.

Beyond my website, you can find new videos on my YouTube channel every month and new songs on Soundcloud somewhat regularly. If you’ve got a few extra dollars and enjoy being a patron of the arts then please visit my Patreon page and find all sorts of exclusive content and behind the scenes special videos, pictures, and blogs!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
In my teens and 20’s, my communication skills were unrefined so in retrospect, I wish I had more education around communication skills as a youth. It’s important to just say what you mean, speak up with questions or explicitly ask for what you want… instead of being vague or passive-aggressive. Be brave enough to communicate clearly and in thorough detail, don’t be shy or get mired in self-doubt! Direct communication is such an important part of relationship building which is essential for a successful career in any field as well as other key realms of daily life.

Pricing:

  • Music lessons: $65/hour, $50 for 45 mins, $35 for 30 mins…discounts and scholarships are available.
  • Live music and commissioned composition rates vary. I’m open to bartering or collaborating with small businesses, local artists, charities, and non-profits.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Photo credit Charles Gammill (1,2, 5, 7, 8), Hubie Vigreux (4), Dylan Stansbury (3), logo artist credit Alishia Bigelow Wolf (6).

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