MICHAEL GREGORY JACKSON — Michael Gregory Jackson Clarity Quartet : WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW (review)

MICHAEL GREGORY JACKSON — Michael Gregory Jackson Clarity Quartet : WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW album cover Album · 2019 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
kev rowland
To say that Michael Gregory Jackson is a well-known guitarist who has influenced many others is something of an understatement. Pat Metheny said, *"I have always considered him to be one of the most significantly original guitarists of our generation," while another guitar icon, Bill Frisell, noted, "I first heard Michael Gregory Jackson in 1975 when I moved to Boston. He blew my mind and influenced me a lot. I believe he's one of the unsung innovators." And legendary music critic Robert Palmer wrote of Jackson in Rolling Stone, "By the time he was twenty-one he was already the most original jazz guitarist to emerge since the Sixties." Here he has been joined by Niels Praestholm (bass), Simon Spang-Hanssen (alto & soprano saxophones) and Matias Wolf Andreason (drums), and between them they created an album based on jazz but moving in many different directions. Jackson states his influences are Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, Son House, Igor Stravinsky, and John Coltrane in equal amounts, not a mix of musicians one would normally put together.

Jackson isn’t content with playing “just” guitar, and there are times when it is blues harmonica which is adding the most important dynamics to a section. For the most part he is happy for Spang-Hanssen to take the lead role, just sitting behind him and then adding touches and solos when the time is right. Praestholm is the person who keeps it all tied together, while Andreason switches between keeping the perfect beat and creating dramatic percussion rhythms which takes the music into new directions. This is fresh, exciting, sometimes built around repeated melodies (such as on “Blue Blue”), while at others it is avant garde and extreme. Far easier to listen to than many albums which attempt to stretch boundaries, it is full of light and a joyfulness which is palpable. This is also available through Bandcamp, so why not have a listen and then decide for yourself.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Green Puma / Tropical Dandy Jazz Related Rock
THE LINK QUARTET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Vinny Golia Quintet : Can You Outrun Them? 21st Century Modern
VINNY GOLIA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Bow Code Fusion
SAMPO HIUKKANEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Anthem For No Man’s Land Jazz Related Improv/Composition
ANDREAS SCHAERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cabaret Eclectic Fusion
MARIUS NESET
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Paper Plane Pilot
MIKE DE SOUZA
js· 21 minutes ago
Green Puma
THE LINK QUARTET
js· 25 minutes ago
Heavy Cream
SAMPO HIUKKANEN
js· 2 hours ago
Sunday afternoon
FURIO DI CASTRI
snobb· 15 hours ago
Harmônicos
FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO
js· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed