Jessy Wilson is an American singer from

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and former member of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

duo Muddy Magnolias.

Early life and education

Wilson was born in Brooklyn and graduated from

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, often referred to simply as LaGuardia or "LaG", is a public High school (North America), high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, near Lincoln ...

Career

Muddy Magnolias

After

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Wilson began to sing backup for

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs at the age of 12 and was signed by Columbia Records at 15. After d ...

on her albums and tours. She then moved to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

in 2013 to get her music career started. This is where she met her other band member Kallie North, and was mentored by

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He began his musical career working behind the scenes for other artists, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Every ...

. Muddy Magnolias performance with large media coverage was at the CMA Music Festival 2014, when the

Rolling Stone magazine ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known ...

compared Wilson's vocals to

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

. The group was later signed by Third Generation Records and released their album ''Broken People'' in 2016. Kallie North later left the band in 2017 due to unspecified reasons, which led to the group disbanding.

Solo career

After the breakup of Muddy Magnolias, Wilson began making artwork very similar to art made by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. On January 15, 2019 Wilson released her new single " Love & Sophistication," along with a lyric video with French captions. The song will be featured on her first studio album ''Phase'' which is set to be released on May 3, 2019 and was produced by

Patrick Carney Patrick James Carney (born April 15, 1980) is an American musician and producer best known as the drummer of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. Early life Carney stated in an interview with '' Modern Drummer'' that he never t ...

The Black Keys The Black Keys are an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, Singing, vocals) and Patrick Carney (Drum kit, drums). The duo began as an Independent music, independent act, record ...

. Wilson says "In a way, like Dylan or Picasso, I feel like I’m going through these different phases as an artist, that's what inspired the title, ''Phase''. This album fills the gap between everything I’ve been and everything I’m becoming. It's the piece that's been missing." The album will be released through Thirty Tigers Records. "Love & Sophistication" was released as the first single of her debut album ''Phase'' on February 15, 2019. Wilson describes the song as a 60's or 70's R&B track. Wilson said to V magazines that she did not just want to write the song about a love relationship, but about an evolving relationship with sophistication involved in it as well. The music video to the song debuted on V magazines website on February 15, 2019, and features Wilson in a dark room singing to the song with French Captions. The song was produced by

, who is the drummer of

Discography

Albums

*''Phase'' (2019,

Thirty Tigers Thirty Tigers is an American music marketing, distribution and management company for independent artists, based in Nashville. History The company was founded in 2002 by David Macias and Deb Markland and is distributed by The Orchard. In 20 ...

)

Singles

* " Love & Sophistication" (2019)

Track listing

Digital Download

# "Love & Sophistication" – 3:17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Jessy Living people American women singer-songwriters 21st-century African-American women singers American women rock singers American rock singers Year of birth missing (living people) Singers from Brooklyn Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni 21st-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American women singers African-American songwriters Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Thirty Tigers artists