Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Festival co-founder Jesse Selengut was a ubiquitous presence, most visibly as leader and trumpeter of a fusion sextet called Noir. Their frenetic Galapagos set preceded saxophonist Chris Potter." - Nate Chinen - The Villiage Voice
"There's something in the way he closes his eyes when he plays; when his cheeks puff out like a hamster as he blows the trumpet, you know the music is taking Jesse Selengut to another place. Like the energy that Jesse exerts when playing his trumpet, his dreams too have plenty of power behind them."
- Becky Wicks - Block Magazine
"If the Manhattan jazz scene offers the likes of Joe Lovano or Winton Marsalis, the Williamsburg jazz scene could certainly match up to it with the likes of saxophonist Joey Johnson and trumpet player Jesse Selengut." - 11211 Magazine
"[Selengut] honks and skronks through a challenging, aggressive set of avant-jazz, a genre mash that is both psychedelic and primal...It's all good for the head, good for the heart."
- The Boston Globe
"Everyone knows about Williamsburg as the hipster home for New York rockers, but there's a burgeoning jazz scene there as well. And Jesse Selengut, a jazz trumpeter and composer and Billyburg resident, wants to spread the word..." - The New York Post
Discography
Radiate - 2004
Jesse also appears on -
HUGE VOODOO - Affordable Magic
THE BOGGS - Stiches
BUTZ - NYC
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Jesse Selengut is a Brooklyn-based trumpeter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He has had success as a bandleader, film scorer, producer and sideman on over a dozen albums, most noticeably, Huge Voodoo's Affordable Magic ('03). His band NOIR has opened up for acts such as Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, George Garzone and Joe Lovano.
Recently, Selengut has been splitting time between the Williamsburg Jazz Festival (which he founded) and Noir, a quartet blending electronica and groove-infused jazz. Noir is cutting-edge jazz, fusing samples, found sounds and simple but deadly melodies into a penetrating memetic experience.
Selengut's conception has made him a sought-after film scorer. Fin, which he wrote all music for, won "Best Short" at the Santa Fe (NM) and La Boca del Lobo (Madrid) International Film Festivals, "Honorable Mention" at the Hamptons Film Festival and praise from Independent Film Monitor for its "excellent sound design."
He had the good fortune of studying with Joe Lovano, Ted Nash, Don Friedman, Tim Hagins, Laurie Frink and Eddie Henderson. Selengut cites influences enveloping 20th century improvised music, from Armstrong, Miles, Lee Morgan and Eddie Henderson to Nils Molvaer, Sly & Robbie and Ornette Coleman.
Selengut's rich background has forged a sound at once hard to pin down - yet truly his own. He combines the best of avant-garde and remains influenced by the masters; creating music with an intellectual edge, and that inspires foot tapping. As the Boston Globe said, playing "both psychedelic and primal...It's all good for the head, good for the heart."
Links
