Robert Jesse
Robert Jesse learned his craft over the past 14 years in the hills of Somerset, an attic in St Ives, the depths of Spain and, more lately, the heart of London. Brought up on a diet of nothing but eggs, progressive English folk-guitar, assorted west-coast psychedelia and Band of Gypsies-era Hendrix, he journeyed on horseback from the sticks to the smoke with no more than song in his heart and a guitar in his hands. He was prompted to make this grand and journey by a beautiful, strong and fearless girl he met one day in the wild and heavily forested valleys of fair Somerset.
Overwhelmed by the sheer scale and ferocity of our fair capital, this gentle soul very almost turned on his tail. Who should appear though, but the very vision of hardened city psychedelia. As fate would have it, he fell into the hands of Boedekka. Findlay Brown, James Mathe and Carl Alty taught him what it was to cope with the noise and fug and how to play guitar with drums. He taught them the secrets of old style fingerpicking and the art of spilling drinks. 18 months later Boedekka was no more. It had become Robert Jesse, Findlay Brown, Barbarossa and Carl Alty. Robert, Findlay and co. set up the Moon Music nights in Shoreditch and later created Robert’s sometime backing band and independent musical entity The Moon Music Orchestra.
Robert, already established as the group’s folk guitar guru and recognised by those in the know as a very special performer, has now set about expanding his own musical landscape. Aided by the Holy Moon Music Orchestra, the show is now well and truly on the road. If you keep your eye out you might catch him around London baffling you with his crazy fingerpicking and lulling you with his funny lovely voice. If this wasn't enough, once a month the MMO comes home to The Gladstone (the MMO HQ) and puts on a wild homecoming party.
Between shows Robert is back in Simon Lord's Hackney Wick studios- the very ones that are becoming the centre of a branch of this little scene (Barbarossa, Findlay Brown, Daniel Orcese, Garden and Nancy Wallace have all become regular visitors), Robert is carefully piecing together the next steps in this little story. Stopping off along the way to add a little banjo to one of Barbarossa's tracks and one of Findlay Brown's, Robert's forthcoming recordings promise to be special.
Though we don't know whether this new musical child will be a boy or a girl, the name has been decided and it's features are pretty much fully formed. The day of it's birth is approaching but is, as yet, unknown. More news will surface as and when the gods choose to grant it us...
"Deeply English Stuff"
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