Yves Jean

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'One for the Money' makes you want to run for a refund
Pittsburgh Opera's 'Hansel & Gretel' a sweet twist to old fairy tale
Violinist Inori Sakai, 16, moves ahead in competition


Local Scene: 12/01/11
Thursday, December 01, 2011
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Yves Jean Band.

Yves Jean gives it his 'Best'

• Yves Jean was born in Chicago and raised in New York, but as the son of Haitian immigrants, he couldn't help but address the tragedy that shook that country in 2010.

The singer-songwriter addresses it in a surprisingly funky new song, "Live Up Your Life," that puts the disastrous earthquake in the context of an upbeat message about living for each day.

"The chorus for that song," he says, "was written for another song I was working on prior to the earthquake. The lyrics came to me instantly when I saw what was happening on the news and some of my family members that went missing for days. I had members from the band O.A.R. help write the song with me in the studio. Being a Haitian American, I needed to put that song on a album regardless if it was years later."

The album, "Hope for the Best ... But Expect Nothing," is the fourth from the artist who burst on the scene locally when the Yves Jean Band won the Graffiti Rock Challenge in 1999 with a style reminiscent of such popular jam bands as the Dave Matthews Band and Rusted Root.

This is the second album on which the soulful singer goes by simply "Yves Jean" and is backed by a more stripped-down quartet: guitarist Ryan Caldwell, keyboardist Jim Barr and drummer Brandon Pryor.

There's more creative freedom that way, he says. "I can explore any style of music and really own the lyrical content. In the studio, I can get any musician to play exactly what I hear, and the songs will always be no longer than four minutes, whereas writing for the Yves Jean Band, during the start of my career, was more of 'jam-band' stigma that I could not live down. I enjoy the writing for this new project, I have a young touring band that I can share my experiences with and truly become a leader. It's kind of like 'School of Rock,' " he adds with a laugh.

On this fourth record, he and the band set out to fuse rock, soul, reggae, world beat, hip-hop and even electronica into one big seamless, highly danceable blend.

"Taking all those genres and making them into pop-rock songs was a nice challenge to my creativity. I wanted to show the world that Haitians do rock!"

He opens strong with "The Sun," an upbeat rocker in the vein of Michael Franti's sunny recent work.

"It was the first song I wrote when I was out in L.A., that jump-started the idea for the album. The lyrics and melody came to me instantly while walking on a beach in Santa Monica. 'The Sun' is truly the most upbeat and happiest song I've ever written."

On the other end of the spectrum, there's a good deal of heartbreak, like on the bluer "Break the Spell," a song "about the self-fulfilling prophecy of having the universe work against you when you are trying to fall in love. It was my first attempt to write an alt-country tune, and the lyrics came to me naturally."

"Hope for the Best ... But Expect Nothing" arrives 12 years into a career in which he's enjoyed some national and international success but hasn't taken off in a big way.

"I've learned that patience and sacrifice is essential in this industry," he says. "You can't put a timeline or have a prediction on when you can be successful. This is an extremely tough business. I'm still the artist that wants to make music that will make me happy."

The CD release show is at 8 tonight at The Club at Stage AE. Admission is $12; all ages. He asks that you bring a non-perishable item for EECM Homeless Shelter and Food Pantry in East Liberty.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11335/1193622-388.stm#ixzz1kxVRwl4b
- Pittsburgh Postgazette

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Music

'One for the Money' makes you want to run for a refund
Pittsburgh Opera's 'Hansel & Gretel' a sweet twist to old fairy tale
Violinist Inori Sakai, 16, moves ahead in competition


Local Scene: 12/01/11
Thursday, December 01, 2011
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Yves Jean Band.

Yves Jean gives it his 'Best'

• Yves Jean was born in Chicago and raised in New York, but as the son of Haitian immigrants, he couldn't help but address the tragedy that shook that country in 2010.

The singer-songwriter addresses it in a surprisingly funky new song, "Live Up Your Life," that puts the disastrous earthquake in the context of an upbeat message about living for each day.

"The chorus for that song," he says, "was written for another song I was working on prior to the earthquake. The lyrics came to me instantly when I saw what was happening on the news and some of my family members that went missing for days. I had members from the band O.A.R. help write the song with me in the studio. Being a Haitian American, I needed to put that song on a album regardless if it was years later."

The album, "Hope for the Best ... But Expect Nothing," is the fourth from the artist who burst on the scene locally when the Yves Jean Band won the Graffiti Rock Challenge in 1999 with a style reminiscent of such popular jam bands as the Dave Matthews Band and Rusted Root.

This is the second album on which the soulful singer goes by simply "Yves Jean" and is backed by a more stripped-down quartet: guitarist Ryan Caldwell, keyboardist Jim Barr and drummer Brandon Pryor.

There's more creative freedom that way, he says. "I can explore any style of music and really own the lyrical content. In the studio, I can get any musician to play exactly what I hear, and the songs will always be no longer than four minutes, whereas writing for the Yves Jean Band, during the start of my career, was more of 'jam-band' stigma that I could not live down. I enjoy the writing for this new project, I have a young touring band that I can share my experiences with and truly become a leader. It's kind of like 'School of Rock,' " he adds with a laugh.

On this fourth record, he and the band set out to fuse rock, soul, reggae, world beat, hip-hop and even electronica into one big seamless, highly danceable blend.

"Taking all those genres and making them into pop-rock songs was a nice challenge to my creativity. I wanted to show the world that Haitians do rock!"

He opens strong with "The Sun," an upbeat rocker in the vein of Michael Franti's sunny recent work.

"It was the first song I wrote when I was out in L.A., that jump-started the idea for the album. The lyrics and melody came to me instantly while walking on a beach in Santa Monica. 'The Sun' is truly the most upbeat and happiest song I've ever written."

On the other end of the spectrum, there's a good deal of heartbreak, like on the bluer "Break the Spell," a song "about the self-fulfilling prophecy of having the universe work against you when you are trying to fall in love. It was my first attempt to write an alt-country tune, and the lyrics came to me naturally."

"Hope for the Best ... But Expect Nothing" arrives 12 years into a career in which he's enjoyed some national and international success but hasn't taken off in a big way.

"I've learned that patience and sacrifice is essential in this industry," he says. "You can't put a timeline or have a prediction on when you can be successful. This is an extremely tough business. I'm still the artist that wants to make music that will make me happy."

The CD release show is at 8 tonight at The Club at Stage AE. Admission is $12; all ages. He asks that you bring a non-perishable item for EECM Homeless Shelter and Food Pantry in East Liberty.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11335/1193622-388.stm#ixzz1kxVRwl4b
- Pittsburgh Postgazette

ves Jean - Indie Radio Success
This is the beginnings of a real indie success story. Last year i mixed an album for Yves Jean titled "For Love and Desparation". Yves is one of the hardest working indie artists in the game right now, period. Last summer he toured Europe playing festivals in several countries, and he's played all over America (he's based in Pittsburgh, Pa).

Yves recently launched a radio play campaign for his new album and so far 137 stations nationwide are playing his music!!! ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN. Just absorb that number for a moment. These are mostly college radio stations, as well as mainstream AAA stations. Yves Jean is currently unsigned, which just goes to show how much you can do on your own as an artist. Step one was making a great album, which i am very happy i was a part of. Congrats Yves!!
- Ken Lewis

ves Jean - Indie Radio Success
This is the beginnings of a real indie success story. Last year i mixed an album for Yves Jean titled "For Love and Desparation". Yves is one of the hardest working indie artists in the game right now, period. Last summer he toured Europe playing festivals in several countries, and he's played all over America (he's based in Pittsburgh, Pa).

Yves recently launched a radio play campaign for his new album and so far 137 stations nationwide are playing his music!!! ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN. Just absorb that number for a moment. These are mostly college radio stations, as well as mainstream AAA stations. Yves Jean is currently unsigned, which just goes to show how much you can do on your own as an artist. Step one was making a great album, which i am very happy i was a part of. Congrats Yves!!
- Ken Lewis

Yves Jean hopes for the best
Recording in L.A., he says, was like "going on a date with a woman who only wants to date wealthy guys. At first you're like, ‘I got this,' and then you check your bank account."
by Margaret Welsh
click to enlarge Inspired by the pretty people: Yves Jean

Inspired by the pretty people: Yves Jean

While in the midst of making his new record, Hope for the Best … But Expect Nothing, Yves Jean was at home getting ready for a date. Suddenly, he was hit with the first notes of what would become the album's closing song -- "My Mother" -- and began working the melody out on his keyboard. Before he knew it, it was the early hours of the morning, and he had four missed calls -- and some angry voicemails -- from his jilted date. "My reaction was just, ‘Wow, I just wrote a hot song!'" Jean says, laughing.

Such was the intense inspirational force that took hold of Jean, a 12-year music-business veteran, while making Hope for the Best …, his first release since 2008's For Love and Desperation. While that album was born from pain, inspired by the death of Jean's mother, his new album is considerably brighter.

Jean spent time working on the record in Los Angeles, where, he says, "I kind of got inspired by the sun, the beach, the pretty people." He met with various music-industry representatives, who expressed interest in what he had, and wanted to hear more. However, Jean was starting to run out of money.

"It's not your typical demo in the basement," he says of the record. After investing $20,000 himself, he was only half finished. Recording in L.A., he says, was like "going on a date with a woman who only wants to date wealthy guys. At first you're like, ‘I got this,' and then you check your bank account."

Jean started a Kickstarter campaign and, thanks to a national and international fan base cultivated through years of touring, he was able to raise $14,000 in under six months. "I almost gave up, but I hoped for the best," he says.

Musically, the record borrows from everywhere: from classical and club music to jazz, blues and world. "Live Up Your Life," a song that Jean, who is Haitian, wrote after the earthquake in Haiti, incorporates Caribbean festival music. The record carries most of its weight in the instrumentation -- the lyrics are sometimes overly literal -- but it's hard to deny the abundance of good vibes Jean has to offer.

Download the track "Last Forever" on FFW>>, City Paper's music blog at www.pghcitypaper.com as part of our MP3 Monday feature. - City Paper

Yves Jean hopes for the best
Recording in L.A., he says, was like "going on a date with a woman who only wants to date wealthy guys. At first you're like, ‘I got this,' and then you check your bank account."
by Margaret Welsh
click to enlarge Inspired by the pretty people: Yves Jean

Inspired by the pretty people: Yves Jean

While in the midst of making his new record, Hope for the Best … But Expect Nothing, Yves Jean was at home getting ready for a date. Suddenly, he was hit with the first notes of what would become the album's closing song -- "My Mother" -- and began working the melody out on his keyboard. Before he knew it, it was the early hours of the morning, and he had four missed calls -- and some angry voicemails -- from his jilted date. "My reaction was just, ‘Wow, I just wrote a hot song!'" Jean says, laughing.

Such was the intense inspirational force that took hold of Jean, a 12-year music-business veteran, while making Hope for the Best …, his first release since 2008's For Love and Desperation. While that album was born from pain, inspired by the death of Jean's mother, his new album is considerably brighter.

Jean spent time working on the record in Los Angeles, where, he says, "I kind of got inspired by the sun, the beach, the pretty people." He met with various music-industry representatives, who expressed interest in what he had, and wanted to hear more. However, Jean was starting to run out of money.

"It's not your typical demo in the basement," he says of the record. After investing $20,000 himself, he was only half finished. Recording in L.A., he says, was like "going on a date with a woman who only wants to date wealthy guys. At first you're like, ‘I got this,' and then you check your bank account."

Jean started a Kickstarter campaign and, thanks to a national and international fan base cultivated through years of touring, he was able to raise $14,000 in under six months. "I almost gave up, but I hoped for the best," he says.

Musically, the record borrows from everywhere: from classical and club music to jazz, blues and world. "Live Up Your Life," a song that Jean, who is Haitian, wrote after the earthquake in Haiti, incorporates Caribbean festival music. The record carries most of its weight in the instrumentation -- the lyrics are sometimes overly literal -- but it's hard to deny the abundance of good vibes Jean has to offer.

Download the track "Last Forever" on FFW>>, City Paper's music blog at www.pghcitypaper.com as part of our MP3 Monday feature. - City Paper

Yves Jean's pretty hard to miss in Pittsburgh's music scene -- you can't walk into just any rock bar around here and see a 6-foot-5 Haitian-American who combines mainstream pop-rock vocals and hooks with his rippling bass and African and Caribbean rhythms. Though you might find Yves himself working the door at Shady Grove -- one of his four jobs, he jokes -- and if you do, it's pronounced "Eve."

The workload is a means to two ends: First, to finance the professional sheen on his new record, for Love and Desperation, and, second, to keep him busy and upbeat in the face of some bleaker times.

Jean got started in Pittsburgh's music scene in the late 1990s, winning the 1999 Graffiti Rock Challenge with the Yves Jean Band, "a nine-piece jam band, basically," he says. "It was a world-beat, eclectic fusiony kind of stuff with great musicians." When the lineup proved too cumbersome for touring, Jean pared it back to a four-piece, and for 2004's Rise Above Your Surroundings, the songs became more concise and indie-rock-oriented. After a year-and-a-half of touring, Jean was primed for another go at the studio when things started to fall apart: He lost his mother, Georgette Jean, who had raised him alone in New York City, to cancer. With his only real family gone, he soon realized, "I'm alone in this motherfucker."

The process of grieving and finding new joys informs for Love and Desperation, giving it more weight and urgency than what he'd produced before. "After about eight months after my mom died, I was like 'OK, this is really all me. I need it to be done the right way,'" says Jean.

Instead of working with his old band, Jean got in touch with producer Ken Lewis and his assistant Cooper Henderson, industry pros located in New York, and began a collaborative effort that took place almost entirely through the ether.

"It was all through a cell phone and a laptop -- never met these guys!" Jean laughs. After several months of sending tracks back and forth over the Internet, "we finally had our meeting, and we sat down and had lunch -- they were like, 'Hi, Yves!' It was this relationship for nine months, and we would talk to each other every day."

Making music this way is a tradeoff: You gain access to great musicians and producers, but you lose the physical proximity that can mean so much. "You have to be very clear, and you have to have a vision, and you have to lay it out," Jean says. "Sometimes it's just dead on, like, 'Wow, you just read my mind.' Or like, 'Uh ... not sure.'" In addition to the studio musicians and backing vocalists, several locals also appear: WYEP favorite Jon Check, keyboardist Kent English and drummer David Hall.

The resulting album is polished to a high gloss, and continues Jean's interest in combining exotic grooves with pop, rock and soul -- a sound sometimes reminiscent of Paul Simon, as well as Dave Matthews and Santana's collaborations with Rob Thomas. The goal, Jean says, is to make music that feels universal without taking away its character and his own, personal lyrics.

"I think people who are into hip-hop music and R&B will dig the beats that I have, the rhythms I've used; anyone who's into ethnic music will dig that stuff; anyone who likes pop-rockish, I guess will dig my choruses, 'cause I'm direct and to the point." He adds, "I'm from Haiti, so that's gonna naturally come out in my music."

Just at this moment, as Jean and I discussed his music in a café, a song came on the stereo, in which he pointed out the Haitian styles zouk and kompa. The same off-beat dance rhythm kicks off his album's first song, "Find the Words." While many of the songs concern lost love, others are carpe diem exhortations -- "Happy," "Smile For Me," "Hold On" -- whose titles pretty much say it all.

But it's the darker, paranoid grooves of "We Know Who You Are" and "Stand Alone" that seem most satisfying. Over the Latin pulse of "Stand Alone," Jean sings: "These are the ways of our times / No one even cares / You extend your hand to be helped / But the undertow will drag you below." That's pretty different from the song two tracks later, which urges the listener to "do what makes you happy."

"If you're looking at the album as a person, we're not always the same person all the time," Jean says. "There's just different sides of us." And those different sides, for Jean, anyway, seem to arise from the collision of grief and groove.

"It's just all about 'God, life sucks.' But dance, though -- dance!"


- City Paper

Yves Jean's pretty hard to miss in Pittsburgh's music scene -- you can't walk into just any rock bar around here and see a 6-foot-5 Haitian-American who combines mainstream pop-rock vocals and hooks with his rippling bass and African and Caribbean rhythms. Though you might find Yves himself working the door at Shady Grove -- one of his four jobs, he jokes -- and if you do, it's pronounced "Eve."

The workload is a means to two ends: First, to finance the professional sheen on his new record, for Love and Desperation, and, second, to keep him busy and upbeat in the face of some bleaker times.

Jean got started in Pittsburgh's music scene in the late 1990s, winning the 1999 Graffiti Rock Challenge with the Yves Jean Band, "a nine-piece jam band, basically," he says. "It was a world-beat, eclectic fusiony kind of stuff with great musicians." When the lineup proved too cumbersome for touring, Jean pared it back to a four-piece, and for 2004's Rise Above Your Surroundings, the songs became more concise and indie-rock-oriented. After a year-and-a-half of touring, Jean was primed for another go at the studio when things started to fall apart: He lost his mother, Georgette Jean, who had raised him alone in New York City, to cancer. With his only real family gone, he soon realized, "I'm alone in this motherfucker."

The process of grieving and finding new joys informs for Love and Desperation, giving it more weight and urgency than what he'd produced before. "After about eight months after my mom died, I was like 'OK, this is really all me. I need it to be done the right way,'" says Jean.

Instead of working with his old band, Jean got in touch with producer Ken Lewis and his assistant Cooper Henderson, industry pros located in New York, and began a collaborative effort that took place almost entirely through the ether.

"It was all through a cell phone and a laptop -- never met these guys!" Jean laughs. After several months of sending tracks back and forth over the Internet, "we finally had our meeting, and we sat down and had lunch -- they were like, 'Hi, Yves!' It was this relationship for nine months, and we would talk to each other every day."

Making music this way is a tradeoff: You gain access to great musicians and producers, but you lose the physical proximity that can mean so much. "You have to be very clear, and you have to have a vision, and you have to lay it out," Jean says. "Sometimes it's just dead on, like, 'Wow, you just read my mind.' Or like, 'Uh ... not sure.'" In addition to the studio musicians and backing vocalists, several locals also appear: WYEP favorite Jon Check, keyboardist Kent English and drummer David Hall.

The resulting album is polished to a high gloss, and continues Jean's interest in combining exotic grooves with pop, rock and soul -- a sound sometimes reminiscent of Paul Simon, as well as Dave Matthews and Santana's collaborations with Rob Thomas. The goal, Jean says, is to make music that feels universal without taking away its character and his own, personal lyrics.

"I think people who are into hip-hop music and R&B will dig the beats that I have, the rhythms I've used; anyone who's into ethnic music will dig that stuff; anyone who likes pop-rockish, I guess will dig my choruses, 'cause I'm direct and to the point." He adds, "I'm from Haiti, so that's gonna naturally come out in my music."

Just at this moment, as Jean and I discussed his music in a café, a song came on the stereo, in which he pointed out the Haitian styles zouk and kompa. The same off-beat dance rhythm kicks off his album's first song, "Find the Words." While many of the songs concern lost love, others are carpe diem exhortations -- "Happy," "Smile For Me," "Hold On" -- whose titles pretty much say it all.

But it's the darker, paranoid grooves of "We Know Who You Are" and "Stand Alone" that seem most satisfying. Over the Latin pulse of "Stand Alone," Jean sings: "These are the ways of our times / No one even cares / You extend your hand to be helped / But the undertow will drag you below." That's pretty different from the song two tracks later, which urges the listener to "do what makes you happy."

"If you're looking at the album as a person, we're not always the same person all the time," Jean says. "There's just different sides of us." And those different sides, for Jean, anyway, seem to arise from the collision of grief and groove.

"It's just all about 'God, life sucks.' But dance, though -- dance!"


- City Paper