“Her musical diversity can be traced to being born and raised in New York City. Growing up on the Lower East Side in the 1980s and early 90s, Jessie Montgomery was in the heart of an artistic ferment of which her parents were active participants.

‘My parents are both artists, my dad a musician and my mom an actress,” Montgomery said. “I grew up in an avant-garde community, you could say. It was a political art scene with free jazz and new music. My dad is a saxophonist and he ran a music studio on Avenue A until 2008. Now he lives in Berlin and he still has a small, underground music house that he runs, and it’s all new music.’

Montgomery says that growing up she listened to A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, alt-rock bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and 9-Inch Nails, as well as ‘grunge, drum and bass, house music and trance music.’”