To listen to more of my collaborative work, go to:
https://soundcloud.com/cutleri
https://soundcloud.com/littlebones
https://soundcloud.com/plasticshores
https://soundcloud.com/the-grind-4/sets/carpe-diem


“Engages with discourses of memory and nostalgia...a relationship to history, and to artistic tradition, is a central factor in the way the music means. Shaffer chooses to employ a well established, ‘folk’ creative lexicon. She combines its signifiers according to a grammar of her own making, however, one of a decidedly modern, culturally self-aware cast. This applies equally to her musical materials, her performances and her lyrical content. She plays mandolin, some violin...and she sings; stylistically, it is clearly located in a folksong tradition, but it’s a curiously mid-Atlantic one. There are obvious elements of Americana, but a lot more than a nod to European sounds, and there is a gleeful affinity for the expressive potential of dissonance (as in the keening ‘Keen’). Her words are mysterious, delicately balanced possibilities of meaning, often clearly yearning in character, but also disturbing (‘I lost my limbs/ while you were sleeping’), and not without humour (‘Keeping my bloomers on for now’). ‘Pinwheel’ applies cut and paste techniques to Shaffer’s materials, in a brief outbreak of experimental folktronica. For me though, the creative highlight is ‘Gnarled’, where a simple, austere, unaccompanied vocal arrangement is shot through with astringent harmonies that remind me of the arresting opening to Rose Kemp’s Golden Shroud (although it’s a lot less mental, unsurprisingly). This is a lovely, thought-provoking set of recordings.”
-Oliver Arditi (www.oliverartditi.com)


"Ms Shaffer is based in Brooklyn/USA and records with mandolins and violins along with nice harmonies. It is the perfect music for rainy days in autumn! If you're listening to her music, you will not think that she is from the USA. The sound is in the tradition of Scandinavian singers and songwriters! Lean back and enjoy!" 
-KALTBLUT Magazine (http://www.kaltblut-magazine.com/)

"Om jag hade fört någon slags geografisk statistik över hamnarna vi besökt är jag ganska säker på att Brooklyn skulle hamna i topp. Den här gången åker vi med på en vegetationstät och akustisk resa, där vindarna från mandolinen och violinen styr farten."
-Skogsgospel (http://skogsgospel.blogspot.com/)

As SoundClouder of the Day, 10/7/11 !!! :
http://www.facebook.com/soundcloud/posts/202913026447241
https://twitter.com/soundcloud/status/122402383560056835
http://soundcloud.tumblr.com/post/11149579423/scotd-jessie-shaffer

Collectif musical historique d'El Jadida (Mazagan), Heat Spirit fut fondé par le guitariste compositeur Chouaib Bendagha en 2007. Au palmarès du groupe, on note qu'il fut lauréat du 2ème prix lors de la 10ème édition du Tremplin du Boulevard des jeunes Musiciens, ainsi que qualifié pour la finale de la Génération Mawazine en 2008. Heat Spirit avait été remarqué notamment pour les trois singles YA LALALI, BOUSTANE JAMIL et BELLAREJ.
En 2017, Chouaib Bendagha et le percussioniste Sohaib Benrrahal ont décidé de réactiver le groupe afin de se lancer dans une nouvelle aventure résolument africaine, enracinée au Sud comme au Nord su Sahara, grâce à un métissage Maroco-Ivoirien réalisé en compagnie de Patrick Guy Kouassi à la batterie, César Sampayo Djebi à la Basse & André Djahman aux claviers. Pour couronner ce cocktail au potentiel prometteur, tout en demeurant fidèle à l'esprit qui avait guidé le groupe au cours de sa précédente incarnation, la voix chaleureuse & envoutante de la talentueuse Loubna Afak, native de Casablanca.

Damian Robert Nesta Marley, also known around the world as “Junior Gong” and more recently as “Gongzilla” was born in 1978 to parents Bob Marley and Cindy Breakspeare, Miss World 1976.  As a young adult, he developed a passion and a gift to speak for those who cannot always speak for themselves. A self-proclaimed ‘Spiritual Revolutionary’, Damian has worked assiduously to carve his own niche in music history and to add a new perspective to the Marley legacy for the 21st century. 

At the age of 13, Damian began performing in a group called “The Shepherds” which comprised of Shiah Coore (son of Third World guitarist Cat Coore) and currently a member of his band, and Yashema Beth McGreggor, daughter of reggae singers Freddie Mcgreggor and Judy Mowatt and then began touring with his brothers, Stephen, Ky-mani, Julian and Ziggy. 

By 1996, Damian had already made his stamp as a different kind of Marley when he released his first solo album “Mr. Marley”, a heavily dancehall-influenced album produced by his brother Stephen Marley.  His second album “Halfway Tree” was released in 2001 by a major record label and showcased Damian’s unique gift for blending dancehall, reggae and hip-hop styles.  This album won Damian much recognition and remained on the Billboard Top Reggae Album Charts for 158 weeks and earned him his first Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2002. 
While honored by this recognition by the global music fraternity, Damian continued to work in the studio, laying the groundwork for the tracks that would become his highly anticipated album, “Welcome To Jamrock”. The lyrics in this album presented Marley as a true spiritual revolutionary, as he used his talent to evoke a spiritual change while trying to enforce a better way of thinking.  He is described as “rhyming with the conviction of a street preacher with the intellect of a university economist”.  

Damian’s hit single “Welcome to Jamrock” was listed as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Decade by Rolling Stone, and at the 2006 Grammy Awards, he won Best Reggae Album and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for Welcome to Jamrock. Damian is the only Jamaican reggae artist in history to win two Grammy Awards on the same night. He is also the only reggae artist to win in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category at the Grammy Awards. The New York Times called Welcome to Jamrock the “best reggae song of the decade.” 
Welcome to Jamrock led the pathway to Damian’s critically acclaimed collaboration with Nas for 2010’s much lauded album “Distant Relatives” – a project which explored the relationships between reggae, hip-hop and Africa. The album title refers not only to the bond between the artists, but the connection to their African ancestry, which inspired the album both musically and lyrically. USA Today referred to the album as a “potent and often provocative collaboration” and by Rolling Stone as “an Afrocentric winner.” The album debuted at Number 5 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and Number 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Rap Albums and Reggae Albums charts, with Billboard heralding the album as “a dynamic hybrid.”    

The Distant Relatives Tour kicked off in 2011 and saw Damian traveling and performing for thousands of fans all over the world, including South America, Europe, The United Kingdom, The Caribbean and North America.  

Damian continued to cross musical boundaries in 2012, as he went on to partner with Skrillex for their groundbreaking track “Make It Bun Dem”, which Rolling Stone called “a monster mash up of dubstep and dancehall” and has led to several remixes of the original version.  Damian recently released two other singles; “Set Up Shop” and  “Affairs of the Heart” which both received widespread airplay. 

Damian continues to tour with his band all over the world as a way of entertaining and healing as he continues to spread the message for those whose voices cannot be heard. He is working with his brothers Stephen and Julian under their Ghetto Youths International Label, to discover, develop and sign gifted artistes by applying their musical talent and vast experience to create new and different styles of music.  

Damian is currently in the studio working on his upcoming solo album.

City Slang is an independent record label founded in 1990 with offices in Berlin, London, Paris and New York. Artists: Caribou, José González, Boy Harsher, Noga Erez, Roosevelt…

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