Loading details…
Artist
Jess Harlen
12+ albums
soulacousticrootsaustralianKiwi
about
Jess Harlen is a New Zealand-born Australian Maori (of Ngati Porou and Nga Puhi decent) soul vocalist now based in the USA. Harlen moved to Australia with her family at a young age and spent her school years growing up in Brisbane where she began singing and was taught to play the guitar by her family. Her influences include blues artists such as John Lee Hooker and Nina Simone, Motown greats such as Otis Redding and Gladys Knight, moving into soul and roots musicians such as Bill Withers, Robert Flak and Tracy Chapman. An early love for these icons mashed with later influences such as Lauryn Hill and Meshell Ndegeocello, led to her style of soul. Her first recording success came with the Kool Skools interstate project where her first original song written at age 16 won ‘Best Female Vocalist’ and ‘Best Acoustic Song’ for Qld 2000. After moving to Melbourne in 2005 to pursue her music career, JHarlen independently released her first EP Street Level Soul (2006) which won her ‘Best Unsigned Artist’ at the Urban Music Awards for Australia & New Zealand (2007). Harlen performed her original works acoustically around Australia and along the Caribbean coast of Mexico. On a trip to New York where she collaborated with keys player Kwame Brandt-Pierce (Saul Williams). Harlen has worked with other artistic outfits including touring nationally and internationally with the acclaimed Blue King Brown as a backing vocalist and supporting the likes of Easy Star All Stars and the Cat E
