If sex were a genre of music, Jette Kelly might be the John Lennon, Madonna and Etta James of the style all rolled into one. The 27-year-old songstress has the song-writing prowess, sex appeal and voice to back both of them up.
Last year, Jette teamed up with local electronic producer Holmes Ives for a Frou Frou meets Massive Attack meets Goldfrapp one-off project under the name Jette-Ives. An Emerson graduate, Jette spent most of 2005 and 2006 bouncing back and forth between her hometown of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, an apartment in Manhattan and DC for gigs and recording.
After releasing the Jette-Ives disc “In the Deep,” Jette decided it was time to strike out on her own and pursue a jazzier and less synthesized route for her music. She brought together a new group of backup musicians that reads like a who’s who of the DC music scene including Alexia Kaufmann from Soft Complex, Kathleen Thomas from The Sentiment and Will Waikart from Politicks, among others. Jette has spent the last few months working on new material with the band and just performed her first two shows with the new lineup this past month, one of which was at The Rock and Roll Hotel.
At first glance up on stage, Jette looks like a red dress-wearing femme fatale straight out of a Humphrey Bogart movie. Her dark hair is bobbed and wears a piercing gaze. The only reminder that you’re still in 2007 is the flowery purple dress. When she looks into the crowd, you follow her eyes and expect to find Dick Tracy sitting at a dark table in the corner watching her over the collar of his bright yellow jacket. What gives Jette away, however, is her smile. She smiles and laughs to herself mid-song and between songs, revealing a generally carefree attitude. This is not a lady who takes herself too seriously.
The music, although as sexy as it was during her tenure in Jette-Ives, is markedly different. Out with the synthesizers and drums loops and in with the soothing cello, viola and bass. Although the instrumentalization is tight, they fade a bit into the background as Jette begins to croon, intoning what borders on the sounds of physical pleasure into her vocalizations.
