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 | D.D. JacksonRhythm-DanceLabel: Justin Time | Jazz | September 21, 1996Format UPC Order # Unit Price |
TracksNo Title Duration Excerpts 04 Some Thoughts About You 00:08:27 05 Motion Sickness 00:03:09 06 Rhythm-Dance 00:06:32 07 Ayse 00:06:10 08 Dreams 00:05:45 09 Guitar Song 00:04:11 10 For Mama 00:07:54 11 Peace Of Mind 00:05:38 Liner NotesFew instrumentalists can boast as bountiful a debut as Peace-Song, the 1995 multi-Juno nominated album heralding the pianistic presence of D.D. Jackson, an ebullient yet deep-digging virtuoso leading tenor sax star David Murray and a hand-in-glove rhythm team through intense, expansive improvisations on nine of his original, rather classically dramatic themes.Fewer yet young artists are able to follow-up such stunning first recording bursts with second albums even more assertive and exploratory, as brimming with melody and irresistible grooves as Rhythm-Dance. But after a year in which he faced professional growth in counterpoint with personal loss, D.D. recorded eleven of his compositions, again with bassist John Geggie and drummer Jean Martin, in celebration of life on-going and commitment to all modalities of experience, success and adversity included. Rhythm-Dance it is! "You have to keep going," D.D. emphasizes-as does the momentum of his music: exploding like a brawl in a barrelhouse on "DD Blues"; flaring into a flame of passion on "Nueva Canción"; swirling with, pushing strong against, finally tearing through the pocket of "No Boundaries" (in 11/4, no less!); roaming back and forth for fresh perspective on "Some Thoughts About You." Where else does he go? Often employing a simple but effective organizing principle-"groove-oriented, with freer things in the contexts of ostinatos and irregular time signatures, classical gestures and what might be considered 'contemporary music' elements tossed in the mix"-D.D. probes Monkish "ugly beauty" on "Motion Sickness"; exhibits droll humor akin to Abdullah Ibrahim's on his title track; sketches a woman's mysterious aura in "Aye" [pronounced Eye'-sha]; lets fantasia lead to 7/4 funk revelry in "Dreams"; expresses primal rage amid reflection on "For Mama", and resolves the seemingly inevitable complications of artistry-or is it youth?-with confidence on "Peace Of Mind." All D.D.'s playing is infused with engaging intelligence and enlivening physicality (kudos also to Geggie's big, easy tone and Martin's in-touch, on-time drumming) that ought to draw fans from every side of the divides separating dance floor from jazz club from concert hall. As a New York-to-the-world player intent on addressing audiences that find music of quality, whatever category it falls into, vital, Jackson listens Besides touring the U.S. and his native Canada (Jackson was born in 1967 in Ottawa-coincidentally, home of Martin and Geggie), the childhood-prodigious, conservatory-educated pianist is currently a fixture on the New York scene, frequently heard in David Murray's big band, octet and quartet, and serving as right hand man for an upcoming theater collaboration between Murray, Taj Mahal and the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir on the life of Satchel Paige. D.D. has a Manhattan-based combo, and gigs with voracious saxist Chico Freeman, rough-jazz fiddler Billy Bang and hard-bop cornetist Nat Adderley, among others. In spring of '95 he earned special regard for taking on the piano role in Earth Eagle First Circle, Garth Fagan's dance suite to a unique score for the African Brazilian Connection and the Chief Cliff Singers of the Salish-Kootenai tribal Indian reservation by Don Pullen, a mentor to D.D. who died shortly after composing and recording the songs he entitled Sacred Common Ground. "Don called me to the hospital a couple of weeks before he died [April 22, 1995, at age 53, of lymphoma], and asked me to complete his final work; he went over it carefully with me there in his room. A couple of weeks later I performed it with the ABC quintet and the Chief Cliff Singers in Montana, and last summer at Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, and in Washington, D.C. "He told me the Indians would be reserved at first, but once they accepted me I'd be treated like family. That was true: we've become good friends. In fact, after we performed in Helena, Montana during our Canadian-U.S. tour my trio spent the night at the Salish-Kootenai reserve. Such shared experience accounts in part for Jackson, Martin and Geggie's impressive, unforced unanimity. Addressing audiences of every stripe and pale during their month-long '95 Norwest-to-'east tour, their bonds of interactivity were flexed, tested and strengthened nightly. "We became a real unit," Jackson explains, "with each person having his particular effect on the overall flow-the bass providing counterlines and interludes, the drums essentially soloing all the time. Jean and John have developed a unique approach, quite different from most New York rhythm sections." Martin and Geggie are keystones of the Canadian quartet Chelsea Bridge, and D.D. plans to tour with them again soon. "Perhaps what they share is an across-the-border sort of perspective," D.D. speculates. Both Jean and John listen to an almost absurdly eclectic array of the world's musics, so they may draw on anything when we come to work together As for me: I heard some jazz while I was growing up, and I improvised at the piano from a really early age on, but my focus was mainly classical until I got to New York-that's where I first started to more seriously absorb the jazz language." Yes, D.D. was fascinated with Oscar Peterson as a kid, and cites Abdullah Ibrahim, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Thelonious Monk and classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz as other formative influences. But more significant than how/where/when he was bit by the jazz bug is that his unquenchable curiosity and accept-all-challenges approach was nurtured by family models. D.D.'s father, a recently retired (but still writing) professor of Spanish and Afro-Hispanic literature, is African-American, born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. His mother-from mainland China, as a child given to an aunt to be raised, reunited with her birth parents at age 13 in the U.S., again disowned by them for her interracial marriage-had a professional career and raised four gifted sons. As well as D.D.'s musical efforts, she supported his brothers Shaw and Charley in all their endeavors, and suffered the death at age 22 of D.D.'s brother Chris. Lillian Jackson herself died of cancer in summer '95. "You go on," D.D. repeats. "There's nothing else to do. That was always my mother's attitude. At times her life was tough, but she remained a constant, joyful spirit. When she died only three months after Don Pullen I was devastated, going through many intense feelings again. "But my mother's awareness and response to the reality of what was going on-like Don's-made her death a little easier for me to deal with. I had musical engagements starting up; I was scheduled to perform in the solo jazz series at the Montreal jazz fest. During the days after her death I had this piece going through my head which felt like something I needed to work on, something I had to say." A week later D.D. introduced "For Mama' to open his Montreal fest concert, which he dedicated to her. It was recorded by the CBC, which recorded D.D. solo again in Ottawa, where the audience was full of his mother's friends and colleagues. "For Mama" delves to the core of D.D.'s somber tenderness, comes to rail at our impassive, universal fate, and subsides in sorrow that's moved on past anger. "Peace Of Mind," after a mere moment's rumination, shoots forward with the certainty of an irrepressible life force. The music leaps, twists, pulsates D.D, Jackson gambles, gets wild, regains his grace-the beat goes on, in fervent Rhythm-Dance. -Howard Mandel Contributor to Down Beat, National Public Radio (U.S.) |
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