Josee

Josée Hurlock was born in Den Haag, Holland, her mother German and her father born in Curacao, an island in the Dutch East Indies. After living in Germany until the age of 7, Josée and her family moved to England. She initially wanted to be an artist like her father. However, while attending art college, she realised that in composing songs she could express herself more easily than through visual means. Leaving home aged 18 she was soon singing in bands, and writing and recording. During this time she also did a Music Technology course and learned how to create songs using a computer, keyboard, sound module and a little imagination! In 1996 she relocated to Bristol and was singer in groups like CCQ, Statik Sound System and The Eff word. Due bands like Massive Attack, Portishead , Tricky, Smith and Mighty, Alpha and Goldfrapp, a lot of acts (including those Josée was involved in) were to a greater or lesser part influenced by the “Bristol Sound” or as it was better known “Trip Hop”. It was also at this time that she started taking an interest in Jazz. The catalyst being her singing teacher at the time- a Jazz singer... When Hefner a.k.a producer Lee Jones needed a singer for his first album, Jose knew this was something for her. Lee´s unique feel for a groove and the ability to create mood fitted perfectly with Josée´s voice, as heard on the album Residue (Inertia 2000). After getting together with Chris Johnson on drums and Seth Benet on bass, Hefner played live across the U.K and mainland Europe. Highlights being a live performance on DJ Giles Petersons´ BBC Radio 1 show “Worldwide” and the North Sea Jazz Festival in her birthtown Den Haag. After moving to Stuttgart, Germany in 2002, Josée once again concentrated on writing solo material and worked with various artists and acts including Dub in a Nutshell,Good Men Gone Bad,Jeff Cascaro,Orbit Experience and Funkbrüder.In 2004 the second collaboration between Jones and Hurlock was released, this time under Josée´s name- Lost Souls Dancing (Inertia). Around the same time, wanting to perform her solo material live but in the simplest way,she got together with guitarist Johnny Park. The duo gig regularly in and around Stuttgart. Since living in the city, she´s become involved in the regions Jazz scene and in a short space of time played with a varied spectrum of musicians all around Germany. Together with pianist Gee Hye Lee she formed the aptly named Jazz project “Gee + Josée”. As duo and often with rhythm section backup,the two have being playing together succesfully ever since meeting winter in 2004. Josée is currently writing and recording material for a new 4 piece band from: http://www.josee-music.com/biography.htm Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.