Jesse Futerman is Bringing Jazz Back

I first met Jesse Futerman a few years back at a Red Bull Music Academy lecture with Flying Lotus, where we just happened to sit next to each other. It turned out we were from the same hood, albeit half a generation apart, but I couldn’t believe some of the shit coming out of his mouth. Who was this 19-year-old kid from Cedarvale who claimed to have been played by the BBC’s Gilles Peterson (the man who coined acid jazz) at 16, and could talk jazz music like an 80-year-old black man from Harlem?

Controversy may have dogged him in the past, but he’s coming into his own at 22 with a top charting remix on Resident Advisor for "Betrayal (Love Is Misery) (Shield Re-edit)", releases on Jus Like Music and Local Talk, consistent play on the BBC, and recent collaborations with up-and-coming ‘gloom’ Brooklyn rapper, Haleek Maul. He’s also just released a remix and b-sides of his album, Super Basement, called Hidden Basement with remixes from Ryan Hemsworth and Kid Kanevil.

Tell me about how you started making music.
Jesse Futerman: I learned how to improvise on the piano when I was six. I also had a really good ear for music and I would often cover my mom’s mouth when she would sing to me because she was off key. I could never really understand music theory then but in my head I started sampling radio tracks and mixing, say, rap acapellas with instrumentals I’d hear from R&B radio tracks. I was also hearing my own music. My mom got nervous and thought I was schizophrenic because she thought I was hearing people. Then I went to do turntablism after piano and clarinet until I was 12. Through that I got into records and hip-hop sampling thanks to people like Madlib. I just kept doing it with intent to make music that is true to myself and not trying to sacrifice any elements to it for public.

How were you influenced by jazz from an early age?
I heard John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk as a kid and it was pretty amazing. I really liked it but I never gravitated to that kind of jazz. Although I did listen to Fats Domino and Chubby Checker — that sort of 50s boogie-woogie blues music. But everything really opened up when I started listening to Madlib. I realized how connected everything was to hip-hop and sampling. I started listening to a lot of sample sources. Collecting at first but eventually becoming a real fan of the records themselves, which propelled me to make the music I’m making today.

What was it about jazz?
I find it the most stimulating genre out there, it requires a lot of focus and a degree of patience. The songs are very long, dense, thick, and you can listen to them over and over and over again. Sure, you can do that with most tracks in most genres but I found that there was so much to hear and listen to in the jazz records.

How old were you then?
I was around 16 when I got obsessed with it. It’s important to mark that I wasn’t listening to your dad’s jazz, or stuff on the radio, it was spiritual jazz with funky and psychedelic elements.

How did you get in touch with Gilles Peterson?
When I was 16 I hit him up saying “Hey I’m 16, and I make bad music and I like jazz.” He played one of my tracks and gave me his number and address to Brownswood. I flipped out and he was shocked when he found out I lived in Toronto, not England. He didn’t believe that I was 16 either but he continued to support me. He gives me radio time at least once or twice a year and he always has encouraging things to say about my music on air. He’s been a huge support and I definitely wouldn’t be making all these EPs without him. He also gave me my name. I used to go by SuperPoaster but he said it was no good and I should just stick with Jesse Futerman.

Tell me about making Super Basement?
I made that when I was 17 or 18. It’s all samples, no synths. I had just started smoking weed and taking my music very seriously at that time. The lead track "I Love You So" was made during a sleepover at my friend’s mom’s house on my birthday. Not a lot of vinyl was sampled, a lot of shit quality mp3s were used, but some have vinyl, and some have higher resolution samples. I made the whole thing on the floor with no monitors.

What kind of gear do you use now?
I have a Little Phatty Moog synth plugged into an Apogee Duet, along with a Rhodes 73 with a vibrato function. I have a couple thousand records that are mainly jazz, a sample section and my computer. My other gear goes to band mates. I have someone on koto, trumpet, and piano.

What’s the coolest tune you’ve heard so far?
I like the new Max Graif's “Journey To The River Of The Red Planet”. It blends heavy deep jazz with rough abrasive Detroit techno with the weirdness of Wagonchrist. He’s so young and the album is phenomenal. I also just listened to the infinite sound, an Afro-centric psychedelic jazz record.

I heard you’re also working with Haleek Maul.
Yeah, I know some of the stuff will be released on the Yours Truly blog pretty soon. I heard him on Hot Sugar’s song “I Don’t Wanna B Judged”. Out of all the artists on that album, his work grabbed me the most, so I got in touch. It took time but we’ve worked on six tracks so far. They’re rough and more aggressive and on the darker side of my production, but it’s still jazz. He even tweeted all surprised how he had just recorded five jazz tracks. Some are almost drum & bass style drums.

We’re also working on some live music together, and I have my own LP on the go where I’m working with musicians like Jacob Damelin from Berklee, who is the brother of the piano player who taught me as a kid. He does the horn arrangements and plays a Fender Rhodes. I played a few solos too but he mostly runs the chords. Skratch Bastid is also a big part of it; he really helped tie things all together with his studio that he shares with Grandtheft. Leland Whitty from BADBADNOTGOOD is also helping with arrangements. He did an insane arpeggiated sax solo as well.

Where would the world be without BADBADNOTGOOD? This young emerging jazz scene is very intriguing.
I don’t know! I’d say they are more progressive than me though. They’re more like, shoegaze, progressive jazz, with splashes of rock and hip-hop. Don’t get me wrong, they listen to jazz but they have a lot of trap, rock and intense stuff that really translates. I think that a lot of my work is not progressive or hard hitting for the most part. My stuff is more like stoned out hip-hop jazz with some other elements cinematic influences.

So about a year ago, you caused a stir on a bunch of music blogs that mattered claiming to be working with Earl Sweatshirt. What exactly happened there?
I was in a really bad headspace at the time. A lot of things weren’t working out for me both in my personal and professional life. I hit up this guy Thebe, he hit me back, and while I was a bit naïve and overzealous, he made the first official post of us collaborating which went to a number of online magazines. But the dude turned out to be a 17-year-old kid on house arrest that was also pretending to be a member of Al Qaeda in California, along with a member of Odd Future. It sounded like the real Earl, we had all these phone calls even. It sounds like a bad thing but it taught me a lot and I’m a much humbler person as a result.

Who else out there do you want to work with?
Jeremiah J from Warped records. He has an interesting style of stream of consciousness rhymes. I also think that Moonchild are great. I’m working with an artist they produced for, Nick Price. He’s a soul/jazz/adult contemporary vocalist which is a bit different from my current work, but I think it will work. I’m currently looking for a female vocalist as well.

Is age ever a factor in music?
No, I think age can mean experience, but it doesn’t necessarily have to equate all the time. I’m not trying to be a wise guy, but I don’t think my music translates to someone who’s 22. At the end of the day, it’s just music and I hope it’s enjoyed equally by everyone.

Jesse Ship is a writer living in Toronto - @jesse_ship

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