Jesse Malin has been building and nurturing the music scene in the five boroughs for over forty years. He is essentially the New York Mayor of Rock and he makes friends wherever he goes. Through the decades he’s played countless benefit shows and spearheaded more than a few efforts to try and get help where it’s needed. He embodies the idea of community through music so naturally we’ve had a long and rewarding relationship with him at WFUV. Eighteen months ago, Malin suffered a rare spinal stroke that left him without the use of his legs. All the compassion and empathy that he has shown throughout his career is now coming back around in the form of a tremendous new tribute album and a pair of benefit shows coming up in December that will be his first time on stage since then.
It was an honor to visit Jesse in his East Village apartment and create a one-hour radio show to celebrate the new collection, preview the concerts – featuring full sets from him and his band – and get an update on his situation. It was a rare opportunity to have a freewheeling conversation that touched upon everything from spitting ketchup Gene Simmons style at a talent show in Whitestone to being at the Saturday Night Live performance of Fear to having Bruce Springsteen congratulate him on a good review in Rolling Stone to combing through lyrics at a kitchen table with Lucinda Williams. At the same time we got to play some of his great tunes and hear some of the marvelous new interpretations of his songs. Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin does what great tribute albums do: It’s a reminder of a lot of great songs and an introduction to a bunch of new versions of them. See you at the Beacon Theatre on December 1st and 2nd.
