Ella Jet once sang this dark chorus to a Rock The Park Tampa audience out for a nice Thursday evening by the river: “Are you dead, are you dead, or are you just sleeping? Are you dead, are you dead? Did you drink too much this evening?” The song — “Dreamer (Are U Dead)” — was delivered without pretense or any air of that gimmick where songwriters feign an obsession with the macabre to grab attention.
Jet, now 20 years old, has been pushing the limits of the “singer-songwriter” tag ever since, and her band Future Soul — which features the extremely talented Levi Foe on bass helping create a sound that teeters towards neo-soul — is set to release a debut album, Black Wave Diary, sometime this year. The groove-centric cuts — which deal with teenage pain, addiction, abandonment and family dysfunction — are raw, very personal, fragile and intense, according to Jet, and find the band refusing to be boxed in by musical or societal standards.MUSIC ISSUE 2018
Meet 30 young Tampa Bay musicians who are (re)making a scene
Next show: Perpetual Groove Acoustic Trio w/Ella Jet & Future Soul. Sun. Aug 5. 5 p.m. $12-$15. Crowbar, 1812 N. 17th St., Ybor City. facebook.com/ellajetmusic.
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Ella Jet, who grew up in front of Tampa Bay’s eyes, plays a farewell concert on Thursday
It’s fitting to see her close the door on Tampa Bay at Ruby’s Elixir.
This article appears in Jul 19-26, 2018.