DAN’S PAPERS
danshamptons.com
September 21, 2012 Page 35
Joe Jackson Channels “The Duke” at WHBPAC on Sunday!
M
uch like the indefinable, circuitous nature of jazz, Joe Jackson’s creative musical process is a self-described mystery. “I never start off with a decision or a plan. I just see how it goes.” And that was the thinking that drew singersongwriter Jackson to create The Duke, his second non-original album, 30 years after the first. (“Has it really been that long?” he halfjokes, half-questions.) The Duke pays tribute to Duke Ellington, as Jackson interprets 15 Ellington classics over 10 tracks, but the album is very much Joe Jackson. “It’s reinventing and reworking already existing music and showing it in a different way,” says Jackson. “I certainly brought my own approach…otherwise, there’s no point in doing it.” Perhaps most daring and defining of the decisions on The Duke was to go in a direction that didn’t use horns. (Like any great jazz album, brass instruments dominated the original recordings.) “If you give yourself rules, it helps,” says Jackson, countering the notion that regulations inhibit the creative process. A five-time Grammy winner in his own right, Jackson is a fan of other musicians coming in and doing something similar: reworking his compositions. “I love it when people cover me,” says Jackson. “Even if the version sucks, I’m still flattered.” British-born Jackson studied composition at
London’s Royal Academy, and he released his Not that Jackson has much downtime. His first album, Look Sharp! in 1979. He found quick primary residence is “theoretically” in Berlin, commercial success, but Jackson was soon but he has spent the last three months in recognized for his adventurous decisions with New York and maintains close ties to the city, music, as he frequently shifted gears throughout particularly because his band is in Gotham. his career. His albums initially featured catchy, Though Jackson prefers Berlin for its hard-hitting tunes, but he soon took on a more concurrent buzzing energy and laid-back vibe, sophisticated approach, as he explored less one particular exclamation point that New York mainstream sounds. has is Jackson’s favorite venue—the Apollo Jackson’s eclectic career collection spans Theater in Harlem. (Not coincidentally, the jazz, Latin, pop and rock genres, famed stage has also hosted Duke with hit singles including “Is She Ellington.) Really Going Out with Him?” “You Jackson’s favorite locales are Can’t Get What You Want (Till You funky, older theaters that seat a Know What You Want)” and “Sunday relatively small crowd of 1,000Papers.” He also worked on several 3,000, and he’ll be able to experience scores for films, collaborating with another one when he comes to the Suzanne Vega for “Left of Center” Westhampton Beach Performing on the 1980s classic Pretty in Pink Arts Center on Sunday. East End soundtrack. audiences will get a taste of The He reveals that the worst advice Duke, Jackson classics and some he’s ever been given, obviously, was under-the-radar tunes. Jackson is to “stop messing around with music, particularly excited that Regina and get a real job.” Carter will be joining him on violin. Jackson’s projects are a Music man Joe Jackson “I get a great reaction to songs mysterious, creative process—“I that aren’t well known,” says Jackson. don’t think that anyone knows where ideas “The audience isn’t stupid…People want to be come from,” he states. In contrast, inspiration surprised by live music.” for lyrics can come from anywhere—a joke at a Much like Jackson seems to surprise himself bar, observations about an environment. when everything on an album is said and done. But outside of music, Jackson doesn’t stray Joe Jackson will be at the Westhampton Beach far from everyone’s typical hobbies of reading, Performing Arts Center on Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. watching movies and the like. And if he did, “I Tickets are $100, $125, $150. 76 Main Street, probably wouldn’t tell you,” he deadpans. Westhampton Beach. 631-288-1500, whbpac.org. Frank Veronsky
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