Brian Jackson

“I’m well" says the legendary Brian Jackson. "Celebrated my 54th birthday yesterday, the 11th, and I even survived THAT!” says Brian Jackson.

“I’ve done a collaboration with some of my heroes, Ron Carter, Airto, Mike Clark and Linda Tillery. All put together by a young producer named Kentyah Fraser. There are some songs from the Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson catalog, a tune or two from Mike Clark (remember, he and fellow head-hunter, bassist Paul Jackson wrote God Make Me Funky, a tune by Pharoah Saunders and some improvisational pieces. The project also features some solo pieces by Airto. Vocalist Linda Tillery is the icing on the cake. I manned the keyboards (mostly Rhodes) and added a little flute work. There will be guest appearances by Digal Planets Ladybug Mecca, and possibly a verse or two by someone from the Hiero Crew. I’m also putting together a concept that will include many of my favorite artists of all generations to redo some of their favorite pieces from the Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson catalog, from their perspective. I’ll basically step out of the way for that to happen, except to A&R the thing, oversee production and of course maybe play a little”

“I was always trying to put together a band. All the way through High School I was jamming with who ever was interested. When I got to Lincoln University (mainly because it was the school that Langston Hughes and Kwame Nkrumah both went to), I met a young writer named Gil Scott-Heron (who had also decided on Lincoln because of Langston). We teamed up to write some songs after a failed attempt to win the Annual Talent show at Lincoln, by writing two hot songs for vocalist Victor Brown (who appeared on our first three Arist albums). We only came in second, but we decided to form a band called Black & Blues, which later became the nucleus for the Midnight Band. After having released a book of poetry, Small Talk At 125th and Lenox and a novel, The Vulture, Gil attracted the interest of producer Bob Thiele, (John Coltrane/Archie Shepp) and signed him as a spoken word artist. Bob was doing spoken word albums in 1970!" Brian Jackson continues, "By then, though, Gil’s interests had turned mainly to songwriting, and he and I were busy penning tracks almost dailey. For his second album of the three album deal, Gil asked if he could record these songs he’d been working on with Stickman. That was me. Named because we were inseparable back then. We were best friends and business partners"

"Musically, we completed each other, Gil with his deep relationship with the English language, and me with my fierce loyality to the principles of good music. Anyway, Bob Thiele agreed to having us record music for the second album, which became Pieces Of A Man. The third and last album for Flying Dutchman was Free Will. I made my singing debut, singing harmony with Gil on the title track. The musicians we had to support us in these efforts was like a who’s who of music: Ron Carter, Bernard Purdie, Hubert Laws, David Spinozza, Jerry Jemmont, Bert Jones. I was Nineteen years old. Somehow, I was able, with the help of conductors Johnny Pate and later Horace Ott, and with the encouragement of Theile, to make these very kind and very patient men understand our musical vision. The rest was magic. If you ever get a chance to listen to the title cut from Pieces Of A Man, where it’s just Gil, Ron and me. You’ll understand what I mean. After the Flying Dutchman deal was over, and down in Washington, DC now, we figured we could do this producing stuff ourselves. So we got four grand together and recorded Winter In America, on which the song The Bottle appeared. From 1976-1979 we recorded several albums for Arista Records. Over all I think it was something like Eleven albums. Gil used some unused tracks from those sessions on some of his subsequent albums as well”, says Brian Jackson.

Gil Scott-Heron is a well-loved African American poet and spoken word artist, his works with keyboardist Brian Jackson became house hold records across America and many other countries. Gil Scott-Heron wrote several books, as Brian Jackson explains...

“I was always trying to put together a band. All the way through High School I was jamming with who ever was interested. When I got to Lincoln University (mainly because it was the school that Langston Hughes and Kwame Nkrumah both went to), I met a young writer named Gil Scott-Heron (who had also decided on Lincoln because of Langston). We teamed up to write some songs after a failed attempt to win the Annual Talent show at Lincoln, by writing two hot songs for vocalist Victor Brown (who appeared on our first three Arist albums). We only came in second, but we decided to form a band called Black & Blues, which later became the nucleus for the Midnight Band. After having released a book of poetry, Small Talk At 125th and Lenox and a novel, The Vulture"

"Gil attracted the interest of producer Bob Thiele, (John Coltrane/Archie Shepp) and signed him as a spoken word artist. Bob was doing spoken word albums in 1970! By then, though, Gil’s interests had turned mainly to songwriting, and he and I were busy penning tracks almost daily. For his second album of the three album deal, Gil asked if he could record these songs he’d been working on with Stickman. That was me. Named because we were inseparable back then. We were best friends and business partners. Musically, we completed each other, Gil with his deep relationship with the English language, and me with my fierce loyalty to the principles of good music. Anyway, Bob Thiele agreed to having us record music for the second album, which became Pieces Of A Man. The third and last album for Flying Dutchman was Free Will. I made my singing debut, singing harmony with Gil on the title track. The musicians we had to support us in these efforts was like a who’s who of music: Ron Carter, Bernard Purdie, Hubert Laws, David Spinozza, Jerry Jemmont, Bert Jones. I was Nineteen years old. Somehow, I was able, with the help of conductors Johnny Pate and later Horace Ott, and with the encouragement of Theile, to make these very kind and very patient men understand our musical vision. The rest was magic. If you ever get a chance to listen to the title cut from Pieces Of A Man, where it’s just Gil, Ron and me. You’ll understand what I mean. After the Flying Dutchman deal was over, and down in Washington, DC now, we figured we could do this producing stuff ourselves. So we got four grand together and recorded ‘Winter In America’, on which the song The Bottle appeared. From 1976-1979 we recorded several albums for Arista Records. Over all I think it was something like Eleven albums. Gil used some unused tracks from those sessions on some of his subsequent albums as well”

Brian Jackson speaks of his record collection...

“Well in my house we’ve been listening to Damian Maraley, Donald Fagen, Moses Taiwa Molelekwa, Wayne Shorter, you know, good shit!”, admits Brian Jackson.

And on his keyboard set ups? “You’re a keyboardist? We have to talk about your set up. I’m always curious about keyboard set ups. But to answer your question, it was a lot of work! I had a four-keyboard set up, a Rhodes, Clav, an Elka String synth and a Mini Moog. The majority of these keyboards didn’t take to being banged around well, even being in cases, so I was always worried about tuning. I spent hella time trying to make sure everything was tuned. But it was a lot of fun. Later, I had to come up with ways to re-create some of the sounds that we created in the studio with T.o.n.t.o, Malcolm Cecils monster snyth matrix (used by Stevie, The Isley Brothers, Weather Report and Billy Preston to name a few, it can be seen in the background on the cover of our album 1980.). Siggie Dillard, and later Robbie Gordon, b ass players, hated me for having to copy some of the bass lines I laid down on tunes like Angel Dust or Racetrack in France. Really, we didn’t think about how amazing it was, we loved to play, it’s what we did, it was a high to get together and make music and to feel the connection with the audiences. We just knew we didn’t want to do anything else”

“Patience. My Family. Friends. Humility”, being the important things for Brian Jackson during his career. “I’ve learned that my life, after all, is not part of my music. Music is part of my life. When I realized that I saw how much of my life I had been neglecting. Friendships and relationships are way more important ultimately than music. Perhaps at the end of the day, it won’t be about what we’ve done but how we’ve lived and loved. Remembering that helps me get through the ups and downs of the music business. I now refuse to allow myself to be defined by what I have out right or if its selling. I went through that phase. The question I dreaded the most was, ‘what are you doing now?’ hell, I’m breathing! That’s a good fucking start! And a hell of an accomplishment in itself!”

“I’d love to see other sides of London", says Brian Jackson re London.

"I don’t mean to exclude the rest of London, it’s just the only part of town that I’ve been able to get to! In April I was scheduled to play at the Mau Mau Bar on Portobello Road and to do a gig up in York, but was detained by immigration for twelve hours and sent packing!”, says Brian Jackson. “Shit man, come get me! We’ll hang! There’s a bunch of folks I’ve been waiting to meet, too, like Robert Mitchell, Kaidi Tatham, and The Mondesir Brothers, Deborah Jordan of Silhouette Brown, Nanar of Break Reform, and a bunch of other folks whose work I love and respect!”

“Well, I grew up hearing that stuff being played for the first time, unleashed the teens of my generation. It was part of my life. It’s what I danced to, laid a rap to a girl to, slow-danced to, drank wine and smoked weed to. I was excited to hear the new Eddie Floyd song or the next Sam and Dave. James Brown got a new jam? Whaaaat? Already!??? Motown in its hey day, Watts/Stax, I used to go to sleep with a little transistor radio under my pillow, just so I wouldn’t miss anything! Soul music was the soundtrack to my adolescense, the background to the changes that were taking place all around us”, says Brian Jackson.

“Well, my car radio is fucked, so thats out, parties, yeah", replies Brian Jackson when asked about how he likes to listen to his music most.

"I like to hear music then because I get to see how a bunch of people are re-acting to different kinds of stuff. Live is great because well, its live! There’s nothing like live music but I sometimes get too technical analyzing shows and don’t really get to enjoy it. For example, if the sound is really band and it often is, I get really pissed off! So I often don’t go. At home, I listen to music sometimes, but a lot of times I like the quiet. It’s then that I hear music in my head”

“There are many, just visit my myspace page, myspace.com/itsyourworld. They are in the influence part. Whowever you don’t know on this list, do yourself a favor and check them out!”, on his main musical influences.

“Gil is currently doing a two year bid in Prison”, confesses Brian Jackson about his long time musical partner Gil.

“We haven’t spoken for a few years now. I’m not exactly sure why he stopped speaking to me. I think I was making too much sense. I dunno, I’d never rule doing another album out but unfortunately it just doesn’t seem likely. I had been trying to get him interested in that, and seemed to have been succeeding, prior to his second arrest, but a lot of things would have had to be straightened out for that to have happened even then”

Thank-you for your time to do this interview and it has been very insightful and interesting!

Email Interview by Matthew Daniel

Soulisms 2008