Music has always been at the roots of the Anderson family tree. Mississippi-born Jhelisa Anderson grew up singing in church, and with her father on the piano and organ. When she was small, she joined the family would tour throughout America’s South performing in churches and gospel events, where she stood on a chair so the audiences could see the little girl with the big voice. Jhelisa was just 5 years old, when The Anderson family made their first record.
At the age of sixteen, Jhelisa left Louisville for Los Angles and landed a job at Motown Records, then later with Capitol Records as a receptionist. A car accident and subsequent insurance pay-out bought Jhelisa her freedom, and with it, a one-way ticket to London.
By the age of 20, Jhelisa was thriving in London’s music scene and became a stalwart of 1990’s London. She joined The Soul Family Sensation, releasing the critically acclaimed ‘New Wave’ album on One Little Indian Records. She went on to join labelmates The Shamen, recording two top ten hit singles for their 1993 double platinum album ‘Boss Drum’. She then collaborated with another labelmate Björk on her celebrated album ‘Debut'.
Though much of her previous work had portrayed her as a singer, Jhelisa developed into an accomplished solo artist, singing, writing and producing. In 1995, she released her debut recording ‘Galactica Rush’ on Dorado Records, where label boss Ollie Buckwell had afforded her complete creative freedom. It was a hauntingly beautiful album with shades of soul and jazz, with electronic flourishes featuring Greg Osby on saxophone, it received widespread critical acclaim spawning the hit ‘Friendly Pressure’, which became remixed, re-released and bootlegged to the max.
In 1997, Jhelisa released her follow-up album ‘Language Electric’. An altogether darker album, it established her as an outrageously gifted vocalist, a formidable songwriter and an eccentric musical maverick.
The Times described Anderson's singing as "simply glorious... a world of lazy beats, where unhurried funk meets cool jazz, a world where evil lurks but where music will help you through". Time Out described her albums as "important precursors to more widely acclaimed debuts by D'Angelo and Maxwell", and GQ described her as "the cosmic princess of soul".
Live, Jhelisa has toured with the likes of James Brown, The Roots, Herbie Hancock, Nitin Sawhney and Sting, and has recorded with Bryan Ferry, as well as Massive Attack on their 2010 album, ‘Heligoland’, while Chaka Khan has recorded Jhelisa’s song ‘Death Of A Soul Diva’. Besides her musical activities, Jhelisa was featured (both acting and singing), in the 1999 Italian film The Protagonists, starring British actress Tilda Swinton.
In 2004, following her travels through Africa and Brazil taking inspiration from their rich musical cultures, Jhelisa moved to New Orleans to record her third solo album ‘A Primitive Guide To Being There’. Whilst there she was the subject of a documentary ‘One Week With Jhelisa’ and held a weekly residency performing the music of Nina Simone - showcasing another aspect of her broad musical background. It was during the recording of this album that the largest hurricane in recorded history struck New Orleans. She evacuated the city and moved closer to family in Atlanta. She regrouped, rebuilt, completed her album and began the next stage in her career.
Initially recorded as a side project, Jhelisa recorded vocals in her home studio and reconnected with Dorado Records in 2021 to release her esoteric, sonic experimentation concept album ‘7 Keys Vol I & II’.
Released in June 2022 on Dorado Records, Jhelisa returned with a remarkable new project. ‘Oxygen’ is a breathtaking, expansive, unapologetic 11-minute opus taken from her forthcoming album, but is very much a stand-alone piece. The sound is an exciting sonic assault underpinned by a masterful band that includes Greg Osby, whose piercing sax brings an intensity that takes the track to another level.
‘Oxygen’ is, as Jhelisa admits, “my outpouring of growth; my influences, perceptions, my angles and transitions that began with surviving Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to navigating the hyper-polarised fragments of American politics over the decades”. ‘Oxygen’ has breathed life into these once suffocating events, so that she now looks back with a broader eye and is able to observe, as she says, “clarity through the chaos”.
Gilles Peterson called ‘Oxygen’ "extraordinarily brilliant... well worth the wait".
Through the course of four solo albums, Jhelisa has journeyed through soul, trip hop, jazz, avant-garde, gospel, modal jazz and sonic experimentation, underpinned by her glorious, deeply seductive voice, remarkable in its intensity and spiritual force. She’s a true original, always exploring new ground, producing thrillingly daring music.
In 2024, 30 years since Jhelisa released her original version of ‘Friendly Pressure’ and 26 years since Sunship remixed it, the 'In The Sunshine' remix of 'Friendly Pressure' became a TikTok phenomenon. In May 2024, the track has achieved 110,000 video creations and 300 million views on TikTok, with 500k streams a day across all digital platforms.
