Guitarist
Michael Gregory Jackson is a maverick who’s not as well known as he should be. Part of the New York scene starting in the seventies and into the eighties, the axeman vacillated between mainstream soul/pop (including LPs for Island and RCA/Novus, the former produced by
Nile Rodgers) and avant-garde jazz (work with
Oliver Lake and
Wadada Leo Smith, recording the landmark
Clarity LP in 1977). That split personality may have sidelined him in the fame game, but it didn’t stop him from earning a place beside James Blood Ulmer and Sonny Sharrock as an innovator, and influencing future envelope pushers like Bill Frisell, Brandon Ross and Vernon Reid.