About
D. D. Jackson Trio
Label: Justin Time
Canadian-born, New York-based pianist/composer D.D. Jackson recently re-signed with Canadian label Justin Time after two critically acclaimed CD's on RCA Victor (BMG). His new CD, "Sigame", is an acoustic trio set and features Jacky Terrasson bassist Ugonna Okegwo and young Cuban drummer wunderkind Dafnis Prieto, with special appearances by Freddie Byrant on acoustic guitar and Christian Howes on acoustic violin. This disc of all-original music is pared down, melodic and latin-tinged but with plenty of adventurous twists and turns, and will appear in stores Oct. 9th/01. Jackson also recently released a new album for Justin Time featuring World Saxophone Quartet founder Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax and AACM original member and master percussionist Kahil El�Zabar entitled �The Calling�. The disc, which All About Jazz called �a total and complete success�, runs the gamut from jazz�s African origins, to gutbucket blues, through world music and beyond.Jackson's RCA Victor (BMG) solo piano CD "...so far" was awarded the prestigious Canadian Juno Award for Best Contemporary (Instrumental) Jazz Album. Jackson was also named the 2000 Jazz Report Composer of the Year, and the 2000 Downbeat Critics Poll #1 Talent Deserving Wider Recognition for Piano. His follow-up RCA album, �Anthem�, featured an all-star lineup of legendary drummer Jack Dejohnette, saxophonist James Carter, percussionist Mino Cinelu, electric bassist Richard Bona as well as exciting newcomer Christian Howes on electric violin, and was chosen as one of the best jazz albums of 2000 by numerous journals, including the Boston Herald and Audiophile Edition. It was also the subject of a coveted Feature Review in Jazziz magazine.
Recent appearances for the 34-year-old Jackson include solo piano concerts in Berlin, Tel Aviv, Prague, Chicago, San Francisco, Italy and the JVC Jazzfest in Toronto in a double bill with pianist Brad Mehldau; trio in Guimaraes, Portugal; Skopje, Macedonia and Hong Kong; duo performances in the Yukon Territories; a duet with Hamiet Bluiett at Jazz at Lincoln Center recorded for National Public Radio broadcast; and appearances with James Carter�s Electric Project in Europe, Boston and at New York's Blue Note. The D.D. Jackson Group also appeared recently at the Newport Jazz Festival, the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival in Saratoga, throughout Japan on a successful tour, at various Canadian festivals and U.S. clubs including New York�s Iridium, and on BET on Jazz television in two separately broadcast performances. Jackson has also appeared on JazzSet with Brandford Marsalis and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz.
Jackson is a commissioned composer. He collaborated with storyteller David Gonzalez on the Broadway show �Mytholojazz" (the New York Times praised him for his �sophisticated and propulsive jazz� and deemed him �one hell of a jazz pianist�) before bringing the show on the road to performance venues throughout the U.S. and Canada. On July 1st, 2000, Jackson premiered his New York Suite, a major 80-minute large-scale work for jazz/classical ensemble, at Brooklyn�s Prospect Park Bandshell featuring such NY luminaries as drummer Ralph Peterson, trumpeter Jack Walrath, saxophonist James Spaulding, percussionist Bobby Sanabria, and violinist Marlene Rice. Jackson is also working on a new jazz opera with acclaimed Canadian writer George Elliot Clarke, and will premiere a solo piano composition at the new music �Festival Dancing in Your Head� in Minneapolis, MN this fall. And Jackson is a published writer: the September/2001 of Downbeat features an article he wrote on his major label experience.
Jackson also recently began re-exploring his classical roots, with a concert at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival devoted to 20th century classical piano duo repertoire, including an original work involving elements of both notation and improvisation he premiered for the occasion. In November, 2001, Jackson will perform and record Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the ProMusica Chamber Ensemble, in Columbus, Ohio.
As a sideman, Jackson has performed and recorded with some of the most important names in cutting edge jazz. He has toured Europe, Japan, the United States and elsewhere as a regular member of the David Murray Big Band, Octet, Quartet, and the David Murray/D.D. Jackson Duo, and has appeared on three David Murray albums: �Creole�, involving musicians from Guadeloupe released recently on Justin Time Records, �The Long Goodbye�, a tribute album dedicated to Jackson's former teacher and mentor, the late pianist/composer Don Pullen, and the �David Murray Octet plays �Trane�. Jackson also participated in a historic concert led by Murray and flutist James Newton at Paris' Cite de la Musique, dedicated to the music of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. The concert paired a big band comprised of such artists as trombonists Ray Anderson and Craig Harris, drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist Art Davis, violinist Regina Carter, the entire World Sax Quartet, and Bobby Bradford on trumpet with a 41-member string ensemble. For the past several years, Jackson has also participated in the development of a Broadway-bound stage musical involving Murray, blues great Taj Mahal, Grateful Dead member Bob Weir, and director Avery Brooks on the life of Negro baseball league pitcher Satchel Paige.
Jackson has also traveled to Senegal, West Africa, where he participated in Mor Thiam's debut CD for Justin Time Records �Back to Africa� featuring some of the greatest names in Senegalese pop music and drumming, including the legendary Dou Dou N'Diayerose and producer Cheikh Tidiane Tall. Jackson was also personally asked to take the place of Don Pullen in his last and perhaps greatest project: a collaboration between Pullen's African-Brazilian Connection, the Chief Cliff Singers (a Native American singing and drumming group), and the Garth Fagan Dance Company. This unique work made its debut at New York's Lincoln Center before going on tour.
Jackson has appeared numerous times at many historic New York area clubs including the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard, Sweet Basil with such artists as drummer Andrew Cyrille, alto saxist Carlos Ward, and trombonist Craig Harris. Other artists with whom Jackson has worked include: saxophonists John Purcell, Chico Freeman, Dewey Redman and Jane Bunnett; jazz vocalists Carmen Bradford, Jeri Brown, Carmen Lundy and Jimmy Scott; producer/conceptualist Kip Hanrahan; performance artist Meredith Monk; poets Amira Baraka and Tracie Morris; drummers Billy Hart and Dennis Charles; and bassists Anthony Cox, Mark Dresser, William Parker and Ray Drummond.
Jackson received his Bachelor of Music with High Distinction in Classical Piano from Indiana University in 1989, and his Master of Music in Jazz from the Manhattan School of Music in 1991. He is also an avid internet fan and maintains his own, detailed website at ddjackson.com
D.D. Jackson is a Bosendorfer Piano Artist.
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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
