

Years later, Jessi Zazu has made more noise in Nashville than most of its rockers can even dream of. She was going to play that guitar like ringing a bell. Though she was the tiniest creature in her remarkable family of drawers, painters, players and all-around makers, Jessi knew she was destined to make a sound that was bigger than all of them. When Jessi Zazu was just a little girl, her mother Kathy says, she would wrap her fingers around the neck of a guitar and strain to play.
#Jessi zazu wariner full
Powers, who lives in Nashville, has written a tribute, which we've published in full below. Ironically, the song's lyrics mention "a tumor growing on my body" - in a song written years before Zazu received the cancer diagnosis.Ī crucial figure within the Nashville music scene and a mentor to the city's younger musicians, Zazu was also a personal friend to NPR's Ann Powers and her family.

In the video, she wore a T-shirt bearing the phrase "Ain't Afraid" - a Those Darlins song title that became her rallying cry. In the YouTube video in which she announced her medical diagnosis and ensuing chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Zazu shaved her hair off, saying that it was a way to "celebrate this new chapter." The original diagnosis was cervical cancer caused by papillomavirus, or HPV, which then metastasized. In December 2016, she first publicly shared her diagnosis, which had come shortly after Those Darlins disbanded at the end of 2015. Zazu's battle against cancer was widely chronicled, including in a long profile published in the weekly alternative Nashville Scene. Like her former bandmates in Those Darlins, Zazu (whose legal name was Jessi Zazu Wariner) used "Darlin" as a last name before the group broke up. Zazu and her original bandmates Nikki Kvarnes and Kelley Anderson formed Those Darlins when Zazu was still a teenager - and their heated music acted as a forceful argument that straight-ahead country wasn't the only style that Nashville had to offer. Nashville-based singer and songwriter Jessi Zazu, formerly of Those Darlins - or "wild one Jessi Darlin, the top singer and writer in a band where everybody sings and writes," as Robert Christgau described her on NPR in 2011 - died at Centennial Hospital in Nashville on Tuesday afternoon following a public battle with cervical cancer. The group's co-frontwoman, Jessi Zazu (center, facing camera) has died, age 28. Rest easy queen of the underground a hero to all women musicians (men, too) you will live on forever ? band Those Darlins. The world lost a brilliant human yesterday. We will miss you terribly, Thank you for the music, the art, the smiles, the good will, and the inspiration you left behind. Molly Rocket is Sweaty (All The Time) September 13, 2017 Nashville lost one of the greats today, but her inspiration will live on in our hearts and our music #jessizazu #aintafraid /4xaNggkgfB

If you are lost in life, be more like #jessizazu. Kristen Chapman Gibbons September 13, 2017 My daughter got to Southern Girl's Rock Camp with because of She was always pulling people in. Jack White’s Third Man Records also shared their condolences, tweeting: “We will miss you terribly, Thank you for the music, the art, the smiles, the good will, and the inspiration you left behind.” See those and more tributes below. Nashville musician Molly Rocket shared a note about Zazu, captioning her post: “Nashville lost one of the greats today, but her inspiration will live on in our hearts and our music.” One woman recalled how Zazu had affected her daughter, writing: “My daughter got to Southern Girl’s Rock Camp with because of She was always pulling people in. If you are lost in life, be more like #jessizazu.” And shout-out to all of you who have supported her until the end.”įriends, fans and musicians have begun paying tribute to the musician online. Shout-out to the dreams we made and the ones left to come. Shout-out to the ridiculous van rides and the fights and to the fact that we never turned our backs on one another over the last decade. Shout-out to all the little triumphs over the last 16 months. Shout-out to the creative dynamo who continued to flourish even against insurmountable odds. “Shout-out to your contagious spirit that inspired all who crossed it. She was in the company of those who cared deeply about her and who she cared deeply about. “She maintained a sense of humor and a commanding presence up until and through her final moments. “Yesterday I said goodbye to my best friend, long time partner in crime and hero, Jessi Zazu Wariner,” she wrote. Zazu’s former bandmate Linwood Regensburg has issued a statement on her friend’s passing.
