[9/6/24] D.D. JACKSON: POETRY PROJECT - Winnipeg Free Press Review [5 stars]
After releasing 13 wonderful albums up to 2007 before becoming disillusioned with major labels, D.D. Jackson left Canada for New York. There he established a career composing and arranging for various television shows, winning a number of Emmys in the process. He also performed off and on with the band the Roots and has been an educator at several institutions.
Many have been waiting for Jackson’s full return to jazz, and this project delivers wonderfully. During COVID, Canada’s former poet laureate George Eliot Clarke began a process to commission composers to write songs based on the poetry of a series of Canadian poets. From the curated poems sent to Jackson, he chose the one from each poet he believed would best lend itself to song. On various tracks they include eight vocalists, saxophonists Kelly Jefferson and Jane Bunnett, as well as a string quartet and the Czech Philharmonic.
This is an ambitious, complex and stunning album with an amazing attention to detail. The compositions are varied and fitting for the chosen poems. The album requires several listens, as the full meaning of the words grows each time through.
Jackson’s playing is a fabulous with melodic beauty and his familiar chord clusters driving the narrative. His singing on the poem by Giovanna Riccio, Daedalus’ Lament, is outstanding. The opening track, Mavety Street is a beautiful entree, leading to swinging and often dissonant tracks, including the wild scat-laden Daylight Shooting in Little Italy. From the intensity of The Father’s Dream to the funky blues of 2641 Fuller Terrace, there is an almost overwhelming depth of meaning and focus. Poetry and jazz in perfect harmony.
It has been hinted that this project is in a way a progress report on the totality of Jackson’s career to date. Whatever the case, a heartfelt welcome back D.D.
Five stars out of five
the Winnipeg Free Press