Biography
Musicians and DJs hold Brian Jackson in high esteem. His contributions helped shape contemporary jazz, jazz-funk, and neo-soul while inspiring successive generations of hip-hop and EDM producers. Though the Brooklyn-born keyboardist, flutist, singer, composer, and arranger never became a household name, millions have encountered his recordings. From 1969 through 1980 he served as Gil Scott-Heron’s songwriting partner and the musical architect behind the Midnight Band’s distinctive sound; he also emerged as a pioneering stylist on the electric piano. The two former schoolmates first recorded together for Flying Dutchman on the 1971 album Pieces of a Man and the 1972 release Free Will before moving to Strata East for Winter in America. After signing with Arista they issued a series of landmark albums—Free Will, First Minute of a New Day, From South Africa to South Carolina, It’s Your World, Bridges, Secrets, and the 1980 set—before parting ways. Jackson then worked extensively as a session musician and producer, collaborating with artists that ranged from Stevie Wonder and Roy Ayers to Earth Wind & Fire and Will Downing, whose chart-topping self-titled debut he co-produced in 1988. He issued his own independent debut, Gotta Play, in 2000. In 2013 he collaborated on Kentyah Presents: Evolutionary Minded, and the following year he appeared on Gregory Porter’s Issues of Life. Late in 2019 Jackson joined forces with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge; he recorded the first album for their Jazz Is Dead label, although it appeared as JID008 in August 2021. Less than a year later he released his BBE debut, This Is Brian Jackson.
Born in 1952 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Jackson is the son of Clarence and Elsie Jackson; his mother, an amateur pianist and librarian at the Ford Foundation, and his father, a New York State parole officer, were both devoted jazz enthusiasts who, according to an interview, kept music playing almost constantly in the house. His parents separated when he was five, and he moved with his mother to Crown Heights, where they lived in a one-bedroom apartment until her remarriage in 1968. During those years Jackson began piano lessons with his mother’s teacher, Hepzibah Ross. When financial constraints forced his mother to end the lessons, the instructor awarded him a scholarship in recognition of his talent. Between 1965 and 1969 he attended Brooklyn’s Erasmus Hall High School, participating in school music programs, meeting fellow musicians, and performing in his own early bands.
At seventeen Jackson enrolled at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University, chosen because poet Langston Hughes had studied there. One afternoon in a music-department practice room he met Gil Scott-Heron, then a nineteen-year-old English major who had likewise selected Lincoln because of Hughes. Scott-Heron was already a published poet working on his first novel, Vulture, and he also played piano. He had composed a piece for fellow student Victor Davis, a future Midnight Band member, to perform at a talent show. Davis asked Jackson to accompany him on the standard “God Bless the Child.” That same afternoon Jackson heard Scott-Heron’s original song “Peace” and was struck by its lyrics. He asked the composer whether he might add words to his own compositions; the two forged a decade-long partnership on the spot.
In 1970 Scott-Heron released the live spoken-word album Small Talk at 125th & Lenox on Flying Dutchman to accompany his poetry collection. As he and Jackson began writing together, they approached label head Bob Thiele about recording with a band. Thiele consented and assembled a first-rate ensemble that included bassist Ron Carter, saxophonist and flutist Hubert Laws, and drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie; Johnny Pate handled arrangements and conduction. Jackson co-wrote more than half of Pieces of a Man, among them the title track and the song many regard as the first neo-soul recording, “I Think I’ll Call It Morning.”
Jackson had long been drawn to the Fender Rhodes electric piano after hearing Herbie Hancock employ it with Miles Davis and the Mwandishi band. Intent on cultivating his own voice, however, he initially resisted the instrument and instead acquired a Farfisa Professional. While tracking the song “Speed Kills” for 1972’s Free Will, he moved to the Rhodes and discovered its singular possibilities for his music; from that point forward he embraced the instrument alongside his acoustic piano.
The pair recorded the landmark Winter in America for Strata East in 1973. Their first jointly billed project, it was cut in a Maryland studio and self-produced for artistic reasons; the album marks the true emergence of the sound they would refine and tour with over the next seven years. Although distribution remained limited in the United States, the single “The Bottle” received national airplay, propelling the album to number six on the jazz album chart. It sold more than 300,000 copies and secured them a contract with Arista. Despite sharing writing and production duties, label chief Clive Davis viewed Scott-Heron as the principal artist, yet Scott-Heron successfully insisted that Jackson’s name appear alongside his own. First Minute of a New Day appeared in January 1975. Its fusion of neo-soul, funk, and spiritual jazz addressed spirituality, oppression, revolution, and personal transformation; the album reached number five on the jazz albums chart and entered the pop Top 100. Following a promotional tour, the Midnight Band returned to the studio in June and, over the next month, recorded From South Africa to South Carolina. Also self-produced, the set yielded the hit club single “Johannesburg,” crossed the jazz charts, placed in the upper half of the Top 200, and earned the group a December appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Two-thirds of the double-length It’s Your World, released in November 1976, was captured live in Boston the preceding July; the remainder was recorded in a pair of studios. Although it did not register on the jazz album charts, the album capitalized on its Bicentennial theme, reached the Top 200, and is widely regarded as one of the duo’s finest works. Jackson again wrote the title-track opener. After worldwide touring, the Midnight Band re-entered the studio that summer and completed Bridges. Issued in September, it featured the single “We Almost Lost Detroit,” drawn from John G. Fuller’s book-length account of a nuclear incident at Michigan’s Fermi II plant. The album placed at sixteen on the jazz albums chart and also entered the Top 200. The track became an international hit and an anthem for the no-nukes movement; the band performed at numerous No Nukes concerts until their 1980 split. Together with It’s Your World, Bridges remains one of Jackson’s personal favorites from his years with Scott-Heron.
The Midnight Band maintained a relentless touring schedule, and whenever they were off the road Jackson and Scott-Heron continued writing. In April they entered a Santa Monica studio and emerged a month later with Secrets. Released in September, its funky lead single “Angel Dust” charted on the R&B list, as did the album, which also achieved the group’s highest Top 200 placement at sixty-one and reached number eleven on the jazz album charts. Throughout 1978 and all of 1979, Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson and the Midnight Band performed at venues ranging from the Hollywood Bowl to the Montreux and Tokyo Jazz Festivals. The extended tours intensified creative, business, and personal strains between the two men.
In August 1979 Scott-Heron and Jackson entered the studio with co-producer Malcolm Cecil and an all-star cast that included drummer Harvey Mason, trombonist Bill Watrous, and guitarist Marlo Henderson. Tensions mounted as Scott-Heron claimed additional songwriting credits, leaving Jackson primarily in the roles of multi-instrumentalist and arranger. The resulting over-the-top funk album, rich in electronics, excited Jackson—who saw them as avenues for jazz improvisation—yet distanced Scott-Heron, who preferred core soul and R&B foundations. The only track the pair wrote together was “Corners.” Led by the anti-nuke single “Shut Um Down,” the set reached the Top Ten on both the jazz and R&B charts and peaked at sixty-seven on the Top 200. After a brief, difficult tour Jackson ended the partnership.
The following year Jackson played keyboards alongside producer Eumir Deodato on Kool & The Gang’s Something Special and toured with Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind & Fire. In 1982 he contributed the funky soul track “Step in the Light” to Sunfire’s self-titled debut. In 1988 he co-produced Will Downing’s successful debut album and supplied several songs, including the hit single “In My Dreams.” That same year he appeared on Roy Ayers’ Drive and toured with him; he also co-produced and played on Downing’s Come Together as One in 1989.
Jackson’s reputation continued to grow. While performing internationally with numerous artists, he produced Gwen Guthrie’s final Reprise album, Hot Times, in 1990 and maintained his association with Downing. He spent the greater part of his time in the United Kingdom and Europe, producing Aja’s debut 12-inch for Expansion Records in 1992 and writing music for Oneness of Juju. In 1994 he co-wrote “Spirits Past” for Scott-Heron’s comeback album Spirits; future collaborator Ali Shaheed Muhammad also contributed to that project. Expansion later licensed and reissued several of their earlier recordings. Jackson remained active in Europe; in 2000 he released his solo debut, Gotta Play. Joined by younger musicians, he enlisted Roy Ayers to add vibes to several tracks, including a cover of the Gap Band’s “Outstanding.” Another selection, “Parallel Lean,” which incorporated elements of “Home Is Where the Hatred Is,” featured Scott-Heron. Issued by the small RMG label, the album disappeared from the U.S. market before most listeners encountered it.
Jackson continued performing across Europe with various ensembles, gigging with Ayers in London and France and leading his own jazz-funk improvisation groups. In 2006 he collaborated with guitarist Eugene Chadbourne and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie and Victor DeLorenzo on the privately released Get G.O.I.N.; a year later he appeared with Alabama 3 on M.O.R. In 2008 he played flute on the Scallions’ Sounds of Vinyl and the Past and heard his rhythm tracks and vocals extensively sampled on the [One] Nation album The Long March. That same year he recorded with the pickup band the Jack and Jim Show for Think 69, alongside Chadbourne, banjo master Tony Trischka, former Frank Zappa drummer Jimmy Carl Black, and others. In 2009 he served as pianist on Jenni Muldaur’s Dearest Darlin’. Jackson also participated in several tributes to Scott-Heron following his death in 2011.
In 2013 Jackson co-produced, arranged, and performed on Kentyah Fraser’s Scott-Heron/Jackson tribute Evolutionary Minded for Motema. The program consisted entirely of extensively reworked Jackson and Scott-Heron material performed by a cast that included drummer Stanton Moore, Chuck D, Gregory Porter, Juma Sultan, Mike Clark, Bill Summers, Abiodun Oyewole, and Airto. The following year he worked with Porter on Issues of Life: Features and Remixes. After additional session work with independent artists, he resurfaced as pianist and keyboardist on Charnett Moffett’s globally acclaimed Motema release Bright New Day and toured with him.
Late in 2019 Jackson began woodshedding with producers and multi-instrumentalists Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge. According to Muhammad, Jackson helped shape the aesthetic and direction of their Jazz Is Dead label; in fact, he recorded its first full-length project. Their initial released track together, “Nancy Wilson,” appeared on JID001 in early 2020. That summer Jackson launched the podcast Pieces of a Man with Ohio death-row inmate Keith LeMar, who continues to seek exoneration; the two recorded eight episodes through January 2021. Although recorded first, Jackson’s installment in the bi-monthly JID series was issued in August 2021 as Brian Jackson JID008. The eight-track album was composed, produced, and performed entirely by the three men, with drummer Malachi Morehead joining the sessions.
Jackson had begun outlining a solo album while recording Bridges with Scott-Heron in 1976 and had even cut a few demos. Those plans were set aside as the Midnight Band’s touring commitments increased. He later mentioned the project to the Phenomenal Handclap Band’s Daniel Collás, who immediately began imagining how such an album might sound. Determined to realize it, the two embarked on twice-weekly sessions over eleven months in Collás’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn studio. Jackson enlisted guitarist and bassist Binky Brice (Billy Ocean, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Roy Ayers), occasional writing partner Morgan Phalen, Latin Grammy-winning flautist Domenica Fossati, drummers Moussa Fadera and Caito Sanchez, and Phenomenal Handclap Band members Juliet Swango and Monika Heidemann. Lyrics emerged during post-session conversations over coffee and exotic whiskeys. The resulting album, This Is Brian Jackson, was released by BBE in May 2022.
Born in 1952 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Jackson is the son of Clarence and Elsie Jackson; his mother, an amateur pianist and librarian at the Ford Foundation, and his father, a New York State parole officer, were both devoted jazz enthusiasts who, according to an interview, kept music playing almost constantly in the house. His parents separated when he was five, and he moved with his mother to Crown Heights, where they lived in a one-bedroom apartment until her remarriage in 1968. During those years Jackson began piano lessons with his mother’s teacher, Hepzibah Ross. When financial constraints forced his mother to end the lessons, the instructor awarded him a scholarship in recognition of his talent. Between 1965 and 1969 he attended Brooklyn’s Erasmus Hall High School, participating in school music programs, meeting fellow musicians, and performing in his own early bands.
At seventeen Jackson enrolled at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University, chosen because poet Langston Hughes had studied there. One afternoon in a music-department practice room he met Gil Scott-Heron, then a nineteen-year-old English major who had likewise selected Lincoln because of Hughes. Scott-Heron was already a published poet working on his first novel, Vulture, and he also played piano. He had composed a piece for fellow student Victor Davis, a future Midnight Band member, to perform at a talent show. Davis asked Jackson to accompany him on the standard “God Bless the Child.” That same afternoon Jackson heard Scott-Heron’s original song “Peace” and was struck by its lyrics. He asked the composer whether he might add words to his own compositions; the two forged a decade-long partnership on the spot.
In 1970 Scott-Heron released the live spoken-word album Small Talk at 125th & Lenox on Flying Dutchman to accompany his poetry collection. As he and Jackson began writing together, they approached label head Bob Thiele about recording with a band. Thiele consented and assembled a first-rate ensemble that included bassist Ron Carter, saxophonist and flutist Hubert Laws, and drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie; Johnny Pate handled arrangements and conduction. Jackson co-wrote more than half of Pieces of a Man, among them the title track and the song many regard as the first neo-soul recording, “I Think I’ll Call It Morning.”
Jackson had long been drawn to the Fender Rhodes electric piano after hearing Herbie Hancock employ it with Miles Davis and the Mwandishi band. Intent on cultivating his own voice, however, he initially resisted the instrument and instead acquired a Farfisa Professional. While tracking the song “Speed Kills” for 1972’s Free Will, he moved to the Rhodes and discovered its singular possibilities for his music; from that point forward he embraced the instrument alongside his acoustic piano.
The pair recorded the landmark Winter in America for Strata East in 1973. Their first jointly billed project, it was cut in a Maryland studio and self-produced for artistic reasons; the album marks the true emergence of the sound they would refine and tour with over the next seven years. Although distribution remained limited in the United States, the single “The Bottle” received national airplay, propelling the album to number six on the jazz album chart. It sold more than 300,000 copies and secured them a contract with Arista. Despite sharing writing and production duties, label chief Clive Davis viewed Scott-Heron as the principal artist, yet Scott-Heron successfully insisted that Jackson’s name appear alongside his own. First Minute of a New Day appeared in January 1975. Its fusion of neo-soul, funk, and spiritual jazz addressed spirituality, oppression, revolution, and personal transformation; the album reached number five on the jazz albums chart and entered the pop Top 100. Following a promotional tour, the Midnight Band returned to the studio in June and, over the next month, recorded From South Africa to South Carolina. Also self-produced, the set yielded the hit club single “Johannesburg,” crossed the jazz charts, placed in the upper half of the Top 200, and earned the group a December appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Two-thirds of the double-length It’s Your World, released in November 1976, was captured live in Boston the preceding July; the remainder was recorded in a pair of studios. Although it did not register on the jazz album charts, the album capitalized on its Bicentennial theme, reached the Top 200, and is widely regarded as one of the duo’s finest works. Jackson again wrote the title-track opener. After worldwide touring, the Midnight Band re-entered the studio that summer and completed Bridges. Issued in September, it featured the single “We Almost Lost Detroit,” drawn from John G. Fuller’s book-length account of a nuclear incident at Michigan’s Fermi II plant. The album placed at sixteen on the jazz albums chart and also entered the Top 200. The track became an international hit and an anthem for the no-nukes movement; the band performed at numerous No Nukes concerts until their 1980 split. Together with It’s Your World, Bridges remains one of Jackson’s personal favorites from his years with Scott-Heron.
The Midnight Band maintained a relentless touring schedule, and whenever they were off the road Jackson and Scott-Heron continued writing. In April they entered a Santa Monica studio and emerged a month later with Secrets. Released in September, its funky lead single “Angel Dust” charted on the R&B list, as did the album, which also achieved the group’s highest Top 200 placement at sixty-one and reached number eleven on the jazz album charts. Throughout 1978 and all of 1979, Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson and the Midnight Band performed at venues ranging from the Hollywood Bowl to the Montreux and Tokyo Jazz Festivals. The extended tours intensified creative, business, and personal strains between the two men.
In August 1979 Scott-Heron and Jackson entered the studio with co-producer Malcolm Cecil and an all-star cast that included drummer Harvey Mason, trombonist Bill Watrous, and guitarist Marlo Henderson. Tensions mounted as Scott-Heron claimed additional songwriting credits, leaving Jackson primarily in the roles of multi-instrumentalist and arranger. The resulting over-the-top funk album, rich in electronics, excited Jackson—who saw them as avenues for jazz improvisation—yet distanced Scott-Heron, who preferred core soul and R&B foundations. The only track the pair wrote together was “Corners.” Led by the anti-nuke single “Shut Um Down,” the set reached the Top Ten on both the jazz and R&B charts and peaked at sixty-seven on the Top 200. After a brief, difficult tour Jackson ended the partnership.
The following year Jackson played keyboards alongside producer Eumir Deodato on Kool & The Gang’s Something Special and toured with Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind & Fire. In 1982 he contributed the funky soul track “Step in the Light” to Sunfire’s self-titled debut. In 1988 he co-produced Will Downing’s successful debut album and supplied several songs, including the hit single “In My Dreams.” That same year he appeared on Roy Ayers’ Drive and toured with him; he also co-produced and played on Downing’s Come Together as One in 1989.
Jackson’s reputation continued to grow. While performing internationally with numerous artists, he produced Gwen Guthrie’s final Reprise album, Hot Times, in 1990 and maintained his association with Downing. He spent the greater part of his time in the United Kingdom and Europe, producing Aja’s debut 12-inch for Expansion Records in 1992 and writing music for Oneness of Juju. In 1994 he co-wrote “Spirits Past” for Scott-Heron’s comeback album Spirits; future collaborator Ali Shaheed Muhammad also contributed to that project. Expansion later licensed and reissued several of their earlier recordings. Jackson remained active in Europe; in 2000 he released his solo debut, Gotta Play. Joined by younger musicians, he enlisted Roy Ayers to add vibes to several tracks, including a cover of the Gap Band’s “Outstanding.” Another selection, “Parallel Lean,” which incorporated elements of “Home Is Where the Hatred Is,” featured Scott-Heron. Issued by the small RMG label, the album disappeared from the U.S. market before most listeners encountered it.
Jackson continued performing across Europe with various ensembles, gigging with Ayers in London and France and leading his own jazz-funk improvisation groups. In 2006 he collaborated with guitarist Eugene Chadbourne and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie and Victor DeLorenzo on the privately released Get G.O.I.N.; a year later he appeared with Alabama 3 on M.O.R. In 2008 he played flute on the Scallions’ Sounds of Vinyl and the Past and heard his rhythm tracks and vocals extensively sampled on the [One] Nation album The Long March. That same year he recorded with the pickup band the Jack and Jim Show for Think 69, alongside Chadbourne, banjo master Tony Trischka, former Frank Zappa drummer Jimmy Carl Black, and others. In 2009 he served as pianist on Jenni Muldaur’s Dearest Darlin’. Jackson also participated in several tributes to Scott-Heron following his death in 2011.
In 2013 Jackson co-produced, arranged, and performed on Kentyah Fraser’s Scott-Heron/Jackson tribute Evolutionary Minded for Motema. The program consisted entirely of extensively reworked Jackson and Scott-Heron material performed by a cast that included drummer Stanton Moore, Chuck D, Gregory Porter, Juma Sultan, Mike Clark, Bill Summers, Abiodun Oyewole, and Airto. The following year he worked with Porter on Issues of Life: Features and Remixes. After additional session work with independent artists, he resurfaced as pianist and keyboardist on Charnett Moffett’s globally acclaimed Motema release Bright New Day and toured with him.
Late in 2019 Jackson began woodshedding with producers and multi-instrumentalists Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge. According to Muhammad, Jackson helped shape the aesthetic and direction of their Jazz Is Dead label; in fact, he recorded its first full-length project. Their initial released track together, “Nancy Wilson,” appeared on JID001 in early 2020. That summer Jackson launched the podcast Pieces of a Man with Ohio death-row inmate Keith LeMar, who continues to seek exoneration; the two recorded eight episodes through January 2021. Although recorded first, Jackson’s installment in the bi-monthly JID series was issued in August 2021 as Brian Jackson JID008. The eight-track album was composed, produced, and performed entirely by the three men, with drummer Malachi Morehead joining the sessions.
Jackson had begun outlining a solo album while recording Bridges with Scott-Heron in 1976 and had even cut a few demos. Those plans were set aside as the Midnight Band’s touring commitments increased. He later mentioned the project to the Phenomenal Handclap Band’s Daniel Collás, who immediately began imagining how such an album might sound. Determined to realize it, the two embarked on twice-weekly sessions over eleven months in Collás’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn studio. Jackson enlisted guitarist and bassist Binky Brice (Billy Ocean, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Roy Ayers), occasional writing partner Morgan Phalen, Latin Grammy-winning flautist Domenica Fossati, drummers Moussa Fadera and Caito Sanchez, and Phenomenal Handclap Band members Juliet Swango and Monika Heidemann. Lyrics emerged during post-session conversations over coffee and exotic whiskeys. The resulting album, This Is Brian Jackson, was released by BBE in May 2022.
Albums
EP One
2025
Is That Jazz?
2025
It's Your World
2025
Of Corners & Bridges
2025
Terremoto
2024
Mami Wata - Joaquin Joe Claussell Sacred Rhythm and Cosmic Arts Remixes
2023
Little Orphan Boy
2022
This is Brian Jackson
2022
All Talk
2022
It´s Your World
2021
Brian Jackson JID008
2021
Gotta Play
2008
Singles
