New QC visiting artist boasts varied background
Jesssica Fichot is a natural to be the latest Quad City Arts Visiting Artist. She’s just about got the whole world in her hands.
Accompanied by her accordion and fiery band, the friendly Los Angeles-based chanteuse and songwriter draws from her multi-ethnic French / Chinese / American heritage to create an intoxicating multilingual fusion of French chanson, Shanghai jazz, gypsy swing and international folk.
With three acclaimed albums under her belt, Fichot has brought her music to audiences around the world — regularly performing in China, Mexico, Canada and across the U.S and western Europe — backed by her talented musicians (on clarinet/sax, upright bass, and guitar) and singing in French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English.
Her music has been hailed as “enchantingly original” by the LA Weekly, and “a glittering testament to L.A.’s multiculturism” by the L.A. Times.
Born in upstate New York to a Chinese mother and French father, Fichot spent her youth in and around Paris.
Her parents are both engineers, and her mom was studying in Chicago. Her school had an exchange program with engineering school in Lyon, France for a year, where she met her dad, Fichot said in a recent interview with Our Quad Cities News.
Her parents got married in France, and she was born in the U.S. when they were both working in upstate New York. She spent nearly all her childhood in France, in a Paris suburb close to Versailles. Fichot moved back to the U.S., for college, after having studied piano from a young age. Her love for music was more in singing, she said.
“I play piano more to write songs,” Fichot said, noting she learned accordion after moving to L.A.
Moving to Boston after graduating from an international high school in France, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music. While in still college, she polished her songwriting skills by composing countless children’s songs for a local children’s theater, and later, for publishing companies specializing in educational material.
Over 100 of her children’s songs are featured as part of ESL programs published in over a dozen countries. Fichot’s songs have been used all over Asia, South America and Latin America.
She chose Berklee to study more modern music, including jazz and folk.
“I wouldn’t consider the music I play straight-ahead jazz, but the musicians I play with have that jazz background,” Fichot said. She’s lived in L.A. for over 15 years.
She was inspired by bands in L.A. that sing in different languages, such as Spanish. Fichot started writing songs in French for the first time, sometimes influenced by Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz style.
Growing up, she only listened to American music, and loved Tori Amos as a teen. After moving to L.A., Fichot discovered Lhasa, a singer from Montreal, and her family’s from Mexico. She inspired her to sing in other languages.
“My mom is from Shanghai, from China, and my Chinese is terrible, but I’m gonna learn a few songs in Chinese,” Fichot recalled, adding she speaks a little Spanish and does some Mexican songs.
“There’s English, French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and sometimes for a show, I’ll sing in eight languages, but I don’t speak in all of them,” she said. Fichot is fluent in speaking French and said she’s decent in singing Spanish and Chinese. “Everything else, I’m just singing phonetically.”
“There’s a beauty to languages that goes beyond content,” she said. “I’ve been told my voice is a little different in different languages — even on the same melody.”
Her French music is influenced by gypsy jazz, after listening to French bands that were influenced by that style. Some musicians she plays with come from that tradition as well.
She does a lot of call and response songs, making it very accessible and participatory. Fichot also includes video-game segments.
Even though some songs are in other languages, Fichot said the music is accessible, repeating simple words.
“I think it’s easier to learn any language with songs,” Fichot said. “We use it for adults too. I think it’s a great way to remember things. Sometimes, when I’m putting something in alphabetical order, the alphabet song is still going in my head.”
She has performed with a toy piano — after tiring of bringing a full keyboard to gigs — but that won’t be part of the QC concerts. “It had such a cool sound and I started incorporating it in my shows. I know people remember it, how unusual it is, and the slightly creepy sound it has.”
Fichot’s QC residency includes the following free community events:
Tuesday, Feb. 20 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Bettendorf Public Library, 2950 Learning Campus Dr.
Tuesday, Feb. 20 – 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St.
Wednesday, Feb. 21 – 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Clinton Community Library, 1000 Lincoln Blvd., Clinton.
Thursday, Feb. 22 – 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at DeWitt Community Library, 917 5th Ave.
Friday, Feb. 23 – Noon to 12:45 p.m., Theo’s Java Café, 213 17th St., Rock Island.
For more information, visit her website HERE.
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