Jetty Swart never intended to be a musician. But when the self-proclaimed “introvert” arrived in New York for a graphic design internship in the early ’90s, her need to connect tipped her path in a totally unexpected direction.
“I didn’t know anyone, but I had this accordion.” Shy with foreigners, the young Dutch girl discovers that she has no problem performing and singing in front of an audience.
” I do not know where it comes from. Maybe when we were kids we weren’t able to let all these things out because we were too shy,” she speculates. “But then we found a way to scream all that kind, hey, here I am! So what, oh it works.”
Soon, Swart was drawing crowds to Manhattan street corners and local bars.
In 1992, Jetty Swart was a shy intern, struggling to find her place in a big foreign city. Then she picked up an accordion.
Courtesy of Jetty Swart
After earning a design degree, Swart moved to France and began learning both the local language and creative collaborators. She introduced her act as “Yeti,” a playful nod to the silent “J” in her first name.
“The French are very fond of musicians. So first I started on the streets, then I started to have enough repertoire to play in bars and then from there on stage. I had a band and then we started touring. I have an agent, a booker. I just had to open my emails and get on the train and play.
In 2010, Swart was performing at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, when she met her husband, Louis Pearl, an American, who performed as “The Amazing Bubble Man.”
“We fell in love and I started playing music for the bubble show.” Playing accordion and flute, Swart relished the freedom of not being the center of attention and the looser style of performance that child-friendly bubble shows allowed.
“I improvised a lot, obviously because bubbles never last and kids do impromptu things, so you have to deal with it. It was great.
The couple landed in Portland in 2014 and soon found themselves embedded in the fabric of circus acts and bohemian arts collective that make Portland so “weird”.
Accordion Diva Jet Black Pearl
Courtesy of Cornicello
Swart changed the name of his act to “Jet Black Pearl– a free translation of his name Jetty (Jet), Swart, which means “black” in Dutch, and Pearl, his married name. In its new incarnation, Jet Black Pearl began appearing at local venues such as Miz Kitty’s Parlor and the Alberta Rose Theater, and providing musical accompaniment for popular bubble shows at the Clinton Street Theatre.
“It’s not easy to make a living here, certainly not. I was a bit spoiled in France,” admits Swart. “But there are good musicians and they showed me around and I was like, Well this is a nice place, nice, good community.”
Swart and Pearl settled into an annual routine of local venue shows and more lucrative European tours, playing up to 100 shows at festivals and venues across the continent.
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The work of performers dried up and the couple’s extensive European tour which was due to begin in April 2020 came to an abrupt halt.
“We were there (with) nothing to do. But you know what? There was something, like knowing that everyone was in this together and something big was going on and there was nothing we could do about it. In a way, I was really inspired by that,” she recalls. “I started drawing, I started making little videos, I started painting furniture. It was a sad time, but at the same time, being creative really helped me.
One of Swart’s creations is “Aunt Gertrude”, a pinched-faced middle-aged blonde in heels who just wants to be loved. Maybe a little too bad.
“In some ways, she’s the opposite of Jet Black Pearl. She usually behaves very well. But sometimes when people go out of their way to behave very well all the time, there’s this part of them that doesn’t come out enough, so when it comes out, it comes out explosively. It’s Aunt Gertrude.
An example is Swart’s video of Aunt Gertrude covering “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer. The character’s buttoned-up stiffness, combined with her eerie, beady dance moves conjure up laughter reminiscent of Liz Lemon.
During the pandemic period, Swart also improvised dances in an empty room and created a lively redhead singing the mysterious lyrics “Ooooy Valyawhich, when played backwards, becomes “I love you”. The resulting videos were posted on social media and quickly attracted many subscribers.
“Honestly, I did it just for myself, for fun and for my own purpose, not to get depressed. But then people started emailing me like, hey, thank you very much. You brighten up my days.” Swart was surprised but also inspired by the reaction.
“It’s just silly stuff, you know I put out there, but apparently stupidity and stupidity can take over life.”
Jet Black Pearl performed with “The Amazing Bubble Man” at Alberta street pub in Portland on Sunday, October 17 at 12 p.m.