Jesse Has Passed Away
Jesse Younan
21.5.1973 - 22.7.2008
On Tuesday afternoon 22nd July, 2008 singer songwriter Jesse Younan died in hospital in Sydney with his family at his side. Jesse was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2008 and had been receiving treatment in hospital since that time.
Jesse leaves behind his mother Nadia and father Tony, his brother Emad and his daughter Ella from a previous relationship.
On Friday 25th July 2008 Jesse was laid to rest at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
A self-taught musician, Jesse Younan started playing the guitar when he was
six years old. His early memories of playing the guitar involved recording music off the radio and then playing along with his favourite bands. As he learnt to play by improvising, it was a natural progression to start writing his own songs. His playing has been compared to guitarists such as Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and John Martyn. However, Jesse Younan’s sound is unique - a gorgeous fusion of folk, blues and the music he heard as a young boy.
Likewise, Jesse is more likely to cite John Denver or Prince as infuences
rather than artists such as Nick Drake, Devendra Banhart and Elliot Smith to
whom he has been compared.
A gifted lyricist, his heartbreaking songs of love and struggle are carried by a distinctive, deep voice full of emotion. Listening to A Good Day for a Migraine, his 4th release, you get the sense that Jesse lives it as he sings it – a nomadic existence on the fringes, his experiences channelled through guitar and voice – or perhaps that is just the finesse of his art.
"An introspective piece of art, ‘A Good Day for a Migraine’ is one of the most emotional and frankly real albums I’ve heard for a long time. "
Dom Alessio, The Brag 2008
"Sydney singer-guitarist Jesse Younan has a percussive fingerpicking style reminiscent of sharpening knives, and he sure knows how to use them. His huge, impeccably calibrated voice is never less than brutally truthful, but what begins as a generic prayer for healing (Medicine Man) unfolds into an intense journal of a damaged life. The centrepiece, Whatever Floats, counts the cost of domestic abuse in devastating strokes that cast a grim pall over later songs of addiction, illness and separation. The tonic is the miraculous beauty of his music, unembellished but for violin or other simple colours, ringing clear and strong in the unassailable refuge of song"
Michael Dwyer, The Age 2008
"Jesse Younan has a lot going for him. a wonderfully mellifluous voice that is the perfect vehicle for his moody, moving songs. a masterful guitarist, reminiscent at times of the great English guitarists such as Bert Jansch or Davy Graham"
The Age 2005
"Younan could have the most intricate guitar playing of Sydney's talented singer-songwriters"
Sydney Morning Herald, METRO 29/4/05
"this is a brilliant, near-perfect album. It's an all-acoustic showcase of a man with impressive guitar chops, a fine ear for a chord change, and a lovely, tender voice. Above all it proves that, most importantly, Jesse Younan can write a bloody song"
www.fasterlouder.com.au, 13/5/05
"Ecelctic as it is technically impressive, Younan is just at home playing moody-middle eastern tinged fingerpicking ditties as he is a sweet lovesick ballad or dirty acoustic blues"
Yuri Koskov-Koskov, Scene Magazine May 2005
CD Review - Sydney Morning Herald 24/5/08
Queeny Video - produced by John McAloon (2004)
Black Market (Live) - recorded by Paul McQueen (2006)
Mud Honeymoon (Live) - recorded by Paul McQueen (2006)
