13 QUESTION METHOD: JESSE HARRIS

Jesse Harris is a Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and producer from New York City, best known for having written "Don't Know Why" for Norah Jones. He has released 10 albums, most recently Through The Night and an instrumental album Cosmo. His songs have been recorded by Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Bright Eyes, Feist, Willie Nelson, Cat Power, Solomon Burke, Smokey Robinson, and many others. He is currently recording a new album in Rio de Janeiro, due out in 2012.

1. Which was the first record you bought with your own money?
It probably wasn’t my own money, but I think it was the Who’s Face Dances.

2. Which was the last record you bought with your own money?
Marisa Monte’s O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade.

3. What was the first solo you learned from a record — and can you still play it?
I didn’t start out learning solos, but songs. Later I learned some solos. I think the first might have been Dexter Gordon playing the theme from Black Orpheus. I don’t think I can play it anymore — but I haven’t tried.

4. Which recording of your own (or as a sideman) are you most proud of, and why?
Always the latest thing I’ve done. Everything else seems flawed, and I always think I’ve gotten it right this time.

5. What's the difference between playing live and playing in a studio?
The studio is a controlled environment, in which one can try to perfect things. However, one aspires to the magic that can happen when playing live.

6. What's the difference between a good gig and a bad gig?
A good gig is when I enjoy playing and singing, no matter how many people see it. A bad gig is the opposite.

7. What's the difference between a good guitar and a bad guitar?
A good one stays in tune, feels good to play, has character. A bad guitar not only has none of those qualities, but makes one want to put it down.

8. You play electric and acoustic. Do you approach the two differently?
Definitely.

9. Do you sound more like yourself on acoustic or electric?
Probably on acoustic, but I try to sound like myself on electric too.

10. Do you sound like yourself on other people's guitars?
Yes, I think so.

11. Which living artist would you like to collaborate with, and why?
Harry Hosono.

12. Which dead artist (music, or other arts) would you like to have collaborated with, and why?
Jeff Buckley.

13. What's your latest project about?
I’m recording and mixing an album of new songs in Rio, with a mostly Brazilian band — including Bill Dobrow on drums, Dadi on bass, Maycon Ananias on keys, and Guilherme Monteiro on guitar.