Joe Jackson

Joe Jackson is an English musician and songwriter from Burton upon Trent, England, born in 1954. He grows up in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and begins as David Ian Jackson. He starts on violin before switching to piano, and from the age of 16 he plays in bars. He also wins a scholarship to study musical composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, but turns away from a path as a serious composer and moves into pop and rock.

Early work and breakthrough

Jackson’s first band is Arms and Legs, which issues two unsuccessful singles before splitting. He then works the cabaret circuit to help finance his own demos. A producer hears one of these recordings in 1978 and signs him to A&M Records. His first album, Look Sharp!, follows in 1979, and he quickly releases I’m the Man and Beat Crazy in 1980.

He becomes known for the singles Is She Really Going Out With Him? and Steppin’ Out, which help establish him as a major figure in new wave and pop. The Joe Jackson Band tours extensively and is described as a successful unit in this period.

Stylistic changes and 1980s albums

After the first phase of the band, Jackson records Jumpin’ Jive, a set of old-style swing and blues material drawn from artists such as Cab Calloway, Lester Young, Glenn Miller and especially Louis Jordan. He then makes Night and Day, an album shaped by the wit and style of Cole Porter and, more loosely, by New York City. This becomes his last Top 10 album, reaching number 4.

He follows with Body and Soul, which draws on jazz, pop, jazz standards and salsa, and includes the hit You Can’t Get What You Want (‘Til You Know What You Want). Big World appears as a three-sided double record, with the fourth side left blank apart from a centring groove and a label saying there is no music there. Will Power is instrumental, and before moving further away from pop he releases Blaze of Glory and Laughter and Lust.

Later career

Jackson later turns to more classically oriented work and signs to Sony Classical in 1997. Sony Classical releases Symphony No. 1 in 1999, and he receives a Grammy award for it. He then issues Night and Day II in 2000, followed by Volume 4 in 2004, which reunites the original band. A promotional live CD bundled with the initial release is also noted. Rain appears in 2008, again featuring members of the Joe Jackson Band, though without guitarist Gary Sanford.

His discography also includes soundtrack and live releases such as Mike’s Murder, Tucker, Live 1980/86, Summer in the City: Live in New York, Two Rainy Nights, Afterlife, Live Music and The Duke.

Collaborations, writing and other work

Jackson collaborates with Lincoln Thompson on reggae crossover material. In 2004 he performs a cover of Common People with William Shatner on Shatner’s album Has Been. He also writes A Cure for Gravity, published in 1999, which he describes as a book about music disguised as a memoir and which traces his early musical life up to his 24th birthday. In 2005 he publishes The Smoking Issue, a pamphlet against smoking bans in the USA and the UK, and records the satirical song In 20-0-3 on the same theme.

He later lives in Kreuzberg, Germany.