D.D. Jackson

I am a two-time Emmy Award-winning composer, producer, and Juno Award-winning jazz pianist and educator. As a composer, I specialize in writing, arranging, and producing memorable, custom-made music for t.v., film & other media. I consider myself an "artistic problem solver": I strive to get to the essential conceptual truth of what the client is looking for - and to express it in a creative and supportive way. [READ MORE] or [BIO]

James Carter recording, Moonfest, & other recent activities...

October 04, 2007  /  D.D. Jackson

Lots of recent activity. Recently played piano on an upcoming James Carter CD coming out in the spring on the Michael Cuscuna-produced Mosaic Records (a division of Universal), with Victor Lewis on drums, James Genus on bass, and guest Rodney Jones on guitar (an old Manhattan school combo coach in the early 90’s!)…The session was remarkably efficient – internalize a tune, record a tune; internalize another, etc…., with some interesting twists and turns along the way…I’ve also started teaching (seemingly “of all things” :-)) a course on the Beatles at Concordia College near the Bronx as a last-minute sub for a musical colleague of mine, and have, incidentally, since discovered a lot of interesting connections between their music and the world of jazz (and of jazz writing, with at least one music-journalist colleague, Ashley Kahn, I’ve noticed, having contributed writings on the Beatles). I even in the course of my research stumbled upon the interesting fact that John Lennon once met with Canada’s former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (the subject of my current opera written with librettist George Elliott Clarke entitled “Trudeau: Long March/Shining Path”), and was so intrigued by this fact that I suggested that my librettist collaborator include a meeting between the two in our opera, something with which he will shortly be obliging me…So look for John Lennon (along with Mao, Castro, Mandela, and others) to make an appearance in our Trudeau opera in the near future :-)…I also recently participated in an interesting “Moonfest” concert in honour of the traditional Chinese Moonfest (an event which despite being half-Chinese I profess to never having previously known about!) It took place in Halifax, NS, and a review describing the proceedings appears here. A particularly notable occurence during the festivities (apart from the enjoyable servings of “Chinese tea and mooncakes” at intermission!) was the translation of my librettist colleague George Elliott Clarke’s poetry from English to Chinese, which made for fascinating comparisons in presentation and inflection….