MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — MTSU School of Music faculty members, students and area jazz musicians will salute the late jazz drummer Duffy Jackson Wednesday, March 30, in a rescheduled concert that marks the second in this season’s three-event MTSU Jazz Artist Series. Tickets for the March 30 concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in Hinton Hall inside the Wright Music Building at 1439 Faulkinberry Drive, are $10 each. Admission is fr .
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Sometimes people become such a vital, valuable force within a community it seems they were always part of it no matter when they arrived, or where their previous stops might have been. That was clearly the case for the remarkable drummer, scat singer and bandleader Duffy Jackson, who became a cornerstone of Nashville’s jazz community from the day he arrived from Florida in the late 2000s until his death March 3 at age 67. Whether performing or teaching at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, playing residencies at Rudy’s Jazz Room and Acme Feed & Seed, or sharing his robust brand of rhythmic intensity and energy during dates with Western-swing heroes The Time Jumpers, Jackson brought vibrant and special qualities to every musical occasion and situation.
Duffy Jackson, with bassist Jim Furgeson, at Rudy s Jazz Room in Nashville.
Duffy Jackson, a drummer whose swinging exuberance propelled him from child stardom to a prolific career behind Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and many others, died on Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn. He was 67.
The cause was complications from hip surgery, Sandra Anton, his first cousin, tells WBGO.
Show business was a proud birthright for Jackson, who began to learn his craft before he was in grade school. His father, Chubby Jackson, was a bass player and bandleader who became a popular children’s television host, and Duffy earned a reputation as a boy wonder initially through his appearances on