Jesse Palter

Jesse Palter’s blazed a lot of trails in her life. Growing up she performed musical theatre, played piano, trumpet and oboe, and created tracks with legendary musicians Andrew Gold and the Grammy winning Bass Brothers. Establishing herself as a jazz singer, she studied at the University of Michigan School Of Music, won Outstanding Jazz Vocalist at three consecutive Detroit Music Awards, shared the stage with genre legends and headlined at legendary clubs like NYC’s Blue Note. Honing her chops as a singer-songwriter, she recorded and toured as half of Palter Ego with keyboardist Sam Barsh. All of these musical trails laid the foundation for her emergence as a solo recording artist in her own right with her full-length debut album on Artistry Music (a division of Mack Avenue Music Group), featuring her most vulnerable, brave and brutally honest songs yet.

Palter comes from a long line of creative genetics. Her great-grandfather invented iconic award-winning shoe designs including the platform, the slingback and the peep-toe. Her great-grandmother was Estée Lauder’s interior decorator, and her grandmother was a notable New York opera prodigy. It comes as no surprise that all of the songs on Paper Trail, with ten tracks of aggressive, piano-pounding pop/rock, were written by Palter. Like an open book, she’s working out snapshots of her life through song and lyric.


By the time she signed to Artistry Music (a division of Mack Avenue Music Group) as the label’s first pop artist, she’d already written an astounding number of songs. Every time she sidles up to the piano to pen a new one, the Detroit born and bred/Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist, commits to the discipline of perfecting her craft. She focuses on strengthening her creative muscles to explore what melodies, lyrics and chord changes work best to tell the story.


Paper Trail was produced by veteran keyboardist Doug Petty (Céline Dion, Britney Spears), who agreed to produce Palter’s music, regardless of whether she had a label deal or not, shortly after they first met. His meticulous, mad scientist approach to production allowed her to keep the integrity of her songs from demo stage through the various layers and textures brought forth to compliment her artistry. Testament to this artistry is the caliber of studio musicians who were invited to play on the project – including bassists Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie’s Blackstar) and Alex Al (Michael Jackson) and drummers Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Pearl Jam) and Aaron Sterling (John Mayer).

“Paper Trail reveals an artist of soul, vision and songwriting that is both joyfully infectious and heartrending” – Music Connection

“Jesse Palter's powerful performance showcased her vocal versatility, expressing a range of mood and emotion while seamlessly blending musical genres with nuance, attitude and style.” -Veteran music journalist, Laurel Fishman