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.
The Vinyl District
February 4, 2021
Part one of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for February 2021.
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Douglas Lee,
Themes for Falling Down Stairs (Self-released) This album, available on 180gm vinyl, CD, cassette and digital, was released back in October, but it just recently entered my consciousness, and since the entrance was an impressive one, here we are and here it is. This looks to be Lee’s first record, but it’s obvious he’s accumulated experience along the way, as the compositions are his, and he plays a variety of (often unusual) instruments together with leading a large band that’s immersed in a neo-lounge jazz/ soundtrack mode (of a sort) that’s a bit like a puree of Henry Mancini, Nino Rota, Combustible Edison, and Angelo Badalamenti, with Mike Patton and John Zorn giving slow nods of approval from the sidelines. This batch of references will hopefully establish that Lee’s approach
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