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Jesse Maclaine

Music makes everything better.

About Me

Offbeat magazine describes Aural Elixir's unique sound as “...Joni Mitchell’s sly and perceptive confessional meets Fiona Apple’s confrontational doomed romantic, with little hints of Tori Amos’ gonzo earth mother and Carole King’s practical warmth.” Aural Elixir is an eclectic musical experience from Jesse Maclaine and the rich sonic tapestry of New Orleans. Pulling from a diverse catalog of distinctive originals, popular covers and obscure classic songs, Aural Elixir delights dancers and music lovers of all ages. While Jesse Maclaine's style is clearly influenced by classical training and jazz sensibilities, she has created a unique sound that is elegant, upbeat, quirky, clever and enchanting. Aural Elixir is popular on radio stations from Florida to Alaska, including New Orleans' 90.7 WWOZ and Denver's 90.5 The Mountain as well as on internet radio like Spotify and Pandora. Past performances include numerous music halls, listening rooms, private parties, bars, coffee shops, restaurants and festivals such as All Folks Fest, Crestone Summer Music Festival, New Orleans' Tipitina's, The Howlin' Wolf, House of Blues, Blue Nile, 711 Bourbon Street, Fort Collins' Lincoln Center, Denver's Herman's Hideaway, Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, Boulder's historic Chautauqua Dining Hall, Lyons' Planet Bluegrass, Nederland's Pioneer Inn, Oklahoma City's Classic Rock Cafe, Santa Fe's Cowgirl Hall Of Fame and many more. Aural Elixir has performed for such luminaries as Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, the Ambassador of Turkey and our premier TV performance from Louisiana Jukebox (2000) is preserved in Tulane University's Jazz archives.

Jesse Maclaine's Aural Elixir lends new flavor to indie rock with innovative, eclectic piano-vocal centric mixtures of originals and songs from the 60's to the present including covers by such icons as Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell & Frank Zappa. Jesse Maclaine is currently composing new music, playing limited engagements across the United States & Europe, producing the seventh Aural Elixir CD, and connecting with friends and fans in person and online as well as producing an irreverent video series on YouTube entitled Aural Elixir Piano Ninja. Please visit us on Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, Bandcamp, Instagram and find our other links for more information, songs, pictures, videos and merchandise. Peace, Love & Music! *** The long version: Jesse Maclaine comes from a musical family, her grandmother was a Jazz Singer & Composer, Her Great Grandmother a Pianist & Her Great Grandfather was a professional saxophone and clarinet player for a number of groups including the Grand Ol' Opry. Jesse's musical diversity was encouraged early on, her Scottish father listened to a variety of classical music, from Bach to Gilbert & Sullivan, while her Floridian Mother preferred listening to Elvis, the Beatles and other popular music of the 60's and 70's. In the 80's Jesse continued studying classical music and exploring the world of musical theatre. In the 90's, she delved into the world of blues and jazz and ultimately began composing her own multi-genre original songs. Aural Elixir has been evolving ever since Jesse Maclaine created the concept in 1996. Jesse moved to New Orleans in 1995 to study Jazz and spent a year singing and playing jazz standards at various French Quarter venues. As she was absorbing the sounds of New Orleans, she was also studying the music of Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell and feeling her own inner songwriter coming to life. Inherent in Aural Elixir are the roots of today's popular music: classical, jazz, rock, blues, world and musical theatre music. Critics applaud the innovative, poetic vent of Aural Elixir but most music lovers are simply mesmerized by the lyrical voice, rhythmic piano and elemental feel of this unique music. Aural Elixir played their first gig as a trio with Jim Ankar and James Clark at a New Year's Eve Party (96-97) in a Chinese Restaurant which randomly had a baby grand piano & dance area. Later, we were blessed with the guitar talents of Tim Robertson and drum skills of Pete Braddish, THE FOOT! In 1997, Jesse, Jim, Pete and Tim played together on the first ever Aural Elixir recording session at The Mermaid Lounge. When Pete was too busy with his other bands (Irene Sage, The Creatures Of Habit & many others) we were lucky enough to get a tip from the great Johnny Vidacovich to call his new student Dylan “Sticks” Hicks. Soon thereafter, the infamous Lynn Drury came into the picture (early 1998) and Aural Elixir was complete. From 1998-2002, Aural Elixir performed in many fine venues in New Orleans such as Tipitina's, The Howlin' Wolf, Carrollton Station, The Old Point Bar, The Dream Palace, The Funky Butt, Blue Nile, The Tricou House, Dragon's Den, The Mermaid Lounge, Checkpoint Charlie's, Buddha Belly, Banks Street Bar, Wit's Inn, El Matador and even at a private party for the Mayor of New Orleans and the Turkish Ambassador!

In 1999, engineer Chris Munson invited us up for a recording session at the historic RCA Studio B and that was where we recorded Love & Grappling (available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/auralelixir). 2000 brought the official release of Love & Grappling at the iconic New Orleans venue Tiptina's and another CD release party in the upstairs room at the Funky Butt! Later that year, Jesse & Lynn traveled across America, and received an especially warm reception in AZ, NM, CO, WA, OR & CA for the Aural Elixir Girls Only Tour. Aural Elixir's Love and Grappling was celebrated in New Orleans with frequent airplay on local radio station WWOZ and WTUL as well as a number of excellent reviews in the local papers and even a feature story in Offbeat Magazine by Bunny Matthews entitled “Aural Sect.”

In 2001, in support of Love and Grappling, we toured again but this time with Jim & Dylan alongside for that full band sensation! We impressed audiences from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Northwest, NOLA to CO to AZ to LA to OR (recorded most of Anomaly in one day) to CO to OK & home to N'awlins.

During the spring of 2002, Jesse & Lynn recorded the acoustic section of Anomaly at Word Of Mouth Studios in New Orleans. Then in 2003 Jesse, Lynn & Jim did another US tour and recorded the Bedspread Jumpsuit album, which was released in 2005. 2002 also brought Jesse to Colorado where she has been singing and tinkling the keys all across Boulder, Denver and the front range area. She has steadily been expanding Aural Elixir's audience and preparing new material for recording and a barrage of regional tours.

2007 enjoyed many live recordings & a solo US tour “Jesse & the plastic piano” and 2008 saw the beginning of the video series, Aural Elixir Piano Ninja on you tube. 2009 continued with more new songs, videos, blogs and other online outlets. 2010 featured two tours across the central and southern United States, including the highly successful “Color Changing Tour.” 2011 featured the recording of a new cd with New Orleans luminaries Johnny Vidacovich and Andrew Wolf, more regional touring and plenty of new songs, videos, photos and blogs for your entertainment. 2012 was spent working diligently on producing the new cd, “Partially Domesticated Amazon; Exposed!” and traveling on a few regional tours starting with February's ”Leap Into Lundi Gras” solo tour and ending with an autumn jaunt through the southwest. 2013 saw a performance filled Mardi Gras in New Orleans with Lynn Drury, regular engagements across Colorado's Front Range and then in April the digital release of the long awaited new CD! The CD is available on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, Bandcamp and in select record stores. In 2014 Jesse continued composing and producing Aural Elixir music and began solidifying the “Rozz Fop” duo with popular Denver drummer, Ryan Elwood. In the winter of 2014, the live recording “Bootleg Extravaganza” was released on Bandcamp. 2015 is full of exciting new music as Aural Elixir performs across America- solo, duo and in larger formats and continues making playing classic covers, originals and new music at live venues and in the studio. A new CD should be available before the end of the year. As ever, a myriad of singles & bootlegs are available online, including free downloads and fan exclusives! Wishing you an abundance of blessings! Thank you for your support,

Jesse & Aural Elixir