D. D. Jackson
Encyclopedia
D. D. Jackson is a Juno-Award-winning jazz pianist/composer and composer for film, t.v. and media whose work spans 12 CD’s as leader or co-leader (including two for the major label RCA Victor/BMG and 10 for Justin Time Records
) featuring almost entirely original material. He won the Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album - Instrumental in 2000 for his BMG (RCA Victor) solo piano disc "...so far". His most recent CDs are Serenity Song (2006 Justin Time), Suite for New York (2003 Justin Time) (a meditation on the events of 9/11), and Sigame, a Latin-tinged work featuring Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto
. An alumnus of the prestigious Lehman Engel
BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, Jackson's theatre work includes the opera Trudeau: Long March/Shining Path on the former Canadian Prime Minister and the musical-comedy “Depressed, Depressed” written with Chicago City Limits
veteran Carl Kissin. Jackson performs all over the world with his groups and has also appeared and recorded with some of the most distinguished names in jazz and beyond including: saxophonists David Murray, James Carter
, Dewey Redman
, James Spaulding and Oliver Lake
; trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah
; violinists Billy Bang
and Regina Carter
; bassists Art Davis
, William Parker
and Ray Drummond
; drummers Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Jack Dejohnette
, Billy Hart
, Andrew Cyrille
, Cindy Blackman
and Dafnis Prieto
; and percussionists Mor Thiam
and Minu Cinelu. He is also an accomplished classical pianist and recently released a recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on Summit Records. For five years, Jackson also wrote a regular column for Downbeat magazine entitled “Living Jazz” and maintained the related “D.D. Jackson Living Jazz Podcast”. Jackson is also an alumnus of the Manhattan Producers Alliance, an organization of active producers, engineers and composers writing for film & t.v., and was one of the composers for the children's t.v. show "The Wonder Pets" (Nickelodeon), which recently won its 3rd consecutive Emmy for "Outstanding Musical Direction and Composition", and "3rd & Bird!" (BBC Worldwide), both produced by Little Airplane Productions. He also scored the entire 26-episode season of "The Ocean Room", a children's t.v. show produced in Canada by Sinking Ship Productions, which won the 2010 Gemini Award for Best Pre-School Series. His most recent score for film is "Hollywood Musical" (2011 Force Productions), directed by Alex. P. Baack, for which he also wrote songs with Baack as lyricist.
He is currently based in New York City
and teaches at Hunter College
.
Justin Time Records
Justin Time Records, Inc. is a Canadian independent record label based in Montreal. It was established in 1983 and specialises mostly in jazz and blues...
) featuring almost entirely original material. He won the Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album - Instrumental in 2000 for his BMG (RCA Victor) solo piano disc "...so far". His most recent CDs are Serenity Song (2006 Justin Time), Suite for New York (2003 Justin Time) (a meditation on the events of 9/11), and Sigame, a Latin-tinged work featuring Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto
Dafnis Prieto
Dafnis Prieto is a Cuban Drummer, Composer and Educator. He is a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.-Life:"His arrival in the U.S. has been compared by to that of an asteroid hitting New York."...
. An alumnus of the prestigious Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...
BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, Jackson's theatre work includes the opera Trudeau: Long March/Shining Path on the former Canadian Prime Minister and the musical-comedy “Depressed, Depressed” written with Chicago City Limits
Chicago City Limits
Chicago City Limits, at 318 West 53rd Street in Manhattan, is an improvisational comedy troupe in New York City, New York.It was founded by George Todisco and a number of actors and had its first show on Labor Day, 1977, and is New York City's oldest improv comedy club. It has had over 8,500...
veteran Carl Kissin. Jackson performs all over the world with his groups and has also appeared and recorded with some of the most distinguished names in jazz and beyond including: saxophonists David Murray, James Carter
James Carter (musician)
James Carter is an American jazz musician.Carter was born in Detroit, Michigan and learned to play there before moving to New York City. He has been prominent as a performer and recording artist on the jazz scene since the mid-1990s, playing saxophones, flute, and bass clarinet...
, Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....
, James Spaulding and Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer and poet. He is known mainly on alto saxophone but also performs on soprano saxophone and flute....
; trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah
Ahmed Abdullah
Ahmed Abdullah is a jazz trumpeter. He began playing when he was 13 years old. By the 1970s he was performing in New York's loft scene, and joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1976. Since that time he has played with Chico Freeman, Ronnie Boykins, Charles Brackeen, Steve Reid, John Hicks and Marion Brown...
; violinists Billy Bang
Billy Bang
Billy Bang was an American free jazz violinist and composer.-Biography:...
and Regina Carter
Regina Carter
Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of famous jazz saxophonist James Carter.-Early life:...
; bassists Art Davis
Art Davis
Art Davis was a double-bassist, known for his work with various seminal jazz musicians including Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Max Roach.-Biography:...
, William Parker
William Parker
-Sportsmen:* Tony Parker, William Anthony Parker II, , Belgian basketball player* Smush Parker , American basketball player* Sir William Parker, 3rd Baronet , British rower and Olympic medalist*Will Parker, rugby union player...
and Ray Drummond
Ray Drummond
Ray Drummond is a jazz bassist and teacher. He also has an MBA from Stanford University, hence his linkage to the Stanford Jazz Workshop...
; drummers Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Jack Dejohnette
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
, Billy Hart
Billy Hart
William "Billy" Hart is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.-Biography:Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C...
, Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
, Cindy Blackman
Cindy Blackman
Cindy Blackman is an American jazz and rock drummer. Blackman is best-known for recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz...
and Dafnis Prieto
Dafnis Prieto
Dafnis Prieto is a Cuban Drummer, Composer and Educator. He is a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.-Life:"His arrival in the U.S. has been compared by to that of an asteroid hitting New York."...
; and percussionists Mor Thiam
Mor Thiam
Mor Thiam is a Senegalese drummer, cultural historian, entertainment consultant and is the father of the famed singer Akon . His surname is pronounced "Chahm."...
and Minu Cinelu. He is also an accomplished classical pianist and recently released a recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on Summit Records. For five years, Jackson also wrote a regular column for Downbeat magazine entitled “Living Jazz” and maintained the related “D.D. Jackson Living Jazz Podcast”. Jackson is also an alumnus of the Manhattan Producers Alliance, an organization of active producers, engineers and composers writing for film & t.v., and was one of the composers for the children's t.v. show "The Wonder Pets" (Nickelodeon), which recently won its 3rd consecutive Emmy for "Outstanding Musical Direction and Composition", and "3rd & Bird!" (BBC Worldwide), both produced by Little Airplane Productions. He also scored the entire 26-episode season of "The Ocean Room", a children's t.v. show produced in Canada by Sinking Ship Productions, which won the 2010 Gemini Award for Best Pre-School Series. His most recent score for film is "Hollywood Musical" (2011 Force Productions), directed by Alex. P. Baack, for which he also wrote songs with Baack as lyricist.
He is currently based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and teaches at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
.