Home » Jazz Musicians » Jessica Ackerley

Jessica Ackerley

During the past decade, Jessica Ackerley has established themselves on the Canadian and American music scenes as a unique and versatile guitarist, composer and bandleader. Born in Alberta, Canada, Jessica now resides in Honolulu after almost decade of being located in New York City. They have worked alongside notable musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Daniel Carter, Marc Edwards, Luke Stewart, Patrick Shiroishi, and Jason Nazary, to name a few. Notable performance venues include John Zorn’s The Stone, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Blue Note, and tours both as a bandleader and side musician throughout Canada and the United States. Their musical palette is diverse, split between highly refined compositional structure, free improvisation, and Black American Music, as well as noise soundscapes derived from experimental rock, as explored in the collaborative band, ESSi.

In 2017 and 2019, Ackerley released their debut and sophomore albums as a bandleader - Coalesce and A New Kind of Water - to much acclaim, making critics’ year-end lists on Jazz Right Now, Avant Music News, Free Jazz Blog and Jazz Times Magazine. In 2019, they founded The Brink Guitar Festival, a four-day event featuring some of the most innovative players on the instrument such as Miles Okazaki, Elliott Sharp, Wendy Eisenberg, and Dan Lippel, among others. They has been commissioned by Adult Swim to compose and record a track for their 15-song Jazz compilation entitled New Jazz Century alongside other tracks by notable artists Matana Roberts, Anna Webber, and Jaimie Branch. As a recording artist, they have performed and released 11 albums as a side musician and bandleader to date. As an educator and mentor, they have lectured at Grant MacEwan University and University of Toronto, as well as guided many aspiring musicians in private study throughout the years. Jessica continuously expands their musical horizons with various projects, never setting boundaries or compromising their limits as a guitarist and artist.


Tags

4
Album Review

Jessica Ackerley: A New Kind Of Water

Read "A New Kind Of Water" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Guitarist Jessica Ackerley operates in roughly the same semi-abstract realm as Joe Morris and Mary Halvorson but her playing covers more ground, bouncing between folk lyricism, spacey abstraction and fierce prog-rock riffing. The other members of her group, alto saxophonist Sarah Manning, bassist Mat Muntz and drummer Stephen Boegehold, are adept at blending with her varied styles and making sinewy, challenging music. On several tracks Ackerley's thick, percussive picking creates a simmering jumble of sound along with Muntz's ...

20
Album Review

Jessica Ackerley: Coalesce

Read "Coalesce" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The contemplative and captivating Coalesce is guitarist Jessica Ackerley's debut release. On it Ackerley, with her trio, interprets seven of her engaging originals with intelligence and passion. The intimate atmosphere is well suited for both the collective musical expressions and individual melodic embellishments. This results in a cohesive album that thrills and intrigues. The dramatic “Snakes in the Grass" opens with drummer Nick Fraser's unaccompanied galloping beats. Ackerley contributes sparse angular lines giving the tune an expectant edge. ...

Read more articles

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A New Kind Of Water

Self Produced
2019

buy

Coalesce

Self Produced
2017

buy

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.