Biography
Jakko Jakszyk, a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer also credited as Jakko M. Jakszyk or simply Jakko, contributed for many years to British prog and art rock before achieving his broadest visibility in the 2010s as lead singer and guitarist for a revived King Crimson. He had admired the durable, groundbreaking proggers since first encountering them in the late 1960s, when he had not yet reached double-digit age. Born Michael Lee Curran in Highgate, London, in 1958, he aspired as a teenager to a professional soccer career yet failed his trial with Watford Football Club. Already practicing guitar in his bedroom, he pursued acting as well and entered the National Youth Theatre at age 14. A year later he formed his first group, the trio Soon After, which placed third in the 1975 Melody Maker National Rock Competition.
After leaving school he secured acting work with the Sixty Four Spoons troupe, whose blend of punk-rock attitude, classical musicianship, and bawdy music-hall humor became a familiar presence in England’s smaller venues. Through the Spoons he met keyboardist Dave Stewart of Egg, Hatfield and the North, and National Health; the two toured England and Europe, and Jakszyk later appeared on Stewart’s recording of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?” alongside Colin Blunstone and Barbara Gaskin. He signed a solo contract with Chiswick Records in 1981, issuing several singles and an album, Silesia, released solely in Germany, before moving to Stiff Records for additional singles and a second album.
By 1985 Jakszyk had joined Mark Dean’s Innervision/MDM label for his third album. In 1987 he assembled the all-acoustic Indo-fusion band Dizrhythmia, featuring Danny Thompson on double bass and various Indian classical musicians; the self-titled Antilles Records release earned critical praise in both the U.K. and U.S. He next relocated to New York to join the avant-garde rock band the Lodge, whose members included ex-Henry Cow musicians John Greaves and Peter Blegvad plus Golden Palominos drummer Anton Fier. After contributing to and arranging material for Sam Brown’s Stop! album, he collaborated with Tom Robinson on tour and on the co-written album We Never Had It So Good. In 1991 he became Level 42’s lead guitarist, by which point his session work already encompassed Swing Out Sister, Gary Moore, and Mica Paris. The Resurgence label issued the mini-album Kingdom of Dust in June 1994, recorded with three former Japan members—Richard Barbieri, Steven Jansen, and Mick Karn—followed by the solo album Mustard Gas & Roses in 1995. Throughout the decade he also created the biographical music-and-spoken-word project The Road to Ballina, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in December 1996 and released on CD by Resurgence the next year.
In 2002 Jakszyk formed the Crimson repertory group 21st Century Schizoid Band with fellow King Crimson alumni Ian McDonald, Mel Collins, Peter Giles, Michael Giles, and Ian Wallace, taking an early though then-unrecognized step toward later membership in the band itself. The ensemble toured the U.K., North America, and Japan for five years and self-released several live albums before disbanding after Wallace’s death in 2007. Meanwhile Jakszyk assembled the 2006 double-CD The Bruised Romantic Glee Club, drawing on both earlier and newer collaborators—including Dave Stewart, Mel Collins, Ian McDonald, Ian Wallace, Soft Machine’s Hugh Hopper, and notably Robert Fripp—for one disc of personal songs and another of prog, avant-prog, and art-rock covers originally performed by Crimson, Soft Machine, and Henry Cow.
After the album’s release, and following Jakszyk’s rendition of “Islands” at Ian Wallace’s funeral, Fripp invited him to collaborate; the project expanded to include saxophonist Collins on the 2011 Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins album A Scarcity of Miracles, which also featured former Crimson drummer Gavin Harrison and bassist Tony Levin. Although King Crimson was inactive at the time, Fripp announced in fall 2013 that the band would reconvene, and the 2014 lineup built on the A Scarcity of Miracles core of Jakszyk, Fripp, Collins, Levin, and Harrison while adding returning member Pat Mastelotto and newcomer Bill Rieflin. This largest-ever Crimson aggregation, later augmented by an eighth member, Jeremy Stacey, placed Jakszyk on vocals and second guitar and revisited material from 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King onward. The group toured globally for several years and issued numerous well-received live albums, among them 2016’s Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind and the following year’s Heroes EP containing the David Bowie title track, on which Jakszyk delivered a notable vocal performance while Fripp reprised the guitar sustain he had originally played in 1977.
Jakszyk has also produced various artists, appeared on television programs such as French and Saunders and Birds of a Feather, and written extensively on music for Melody Maker and Musicians Only. His incidental music has been featured on the BAFTA-nominated Chef, Jo Brand Through the Cakehole, and Birds of a Feather.
After leaving school he secured acting work with the Sixty Four Spoons troupe, whose blend of punk-rock attitude, classical musicianship, and bawdy music-hall humor became a familiar presence in England’s smaller venues. Through the Spoons he met keyboardist Dave Stewart of Egg, Hatfield and the North, and National Health; the two toured England and Europe, and Jakszyk later appeared on Stewart’s recording of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?” alongside Colin Blunstone and Barbara Gaskin. He signed a solo contract with Chiswick Records in 1981, issuing several singles and an album, Silesia, released solely in Germany, before moving to Stiff Records for additional singles and a second album.
By 1985 Jakszyk had joined Mark Dean’s Innervision/MDM label for his third album. In 1987 he assembled the all-acoustic Indo-fusion band Dizrhythmia, featuring Danny Thompson on double bass and various Indian classical musicians; the self-titled Antilles Records release earned critical praise in both the U.K. and U.S. He next relocated to New York to join the avant-garde rock band the Lodge, whose members included ex-Henry Cow musicians John Greaves and Peter Blegvad plus Golden Palominos drummer Anton Fier. After contributing to and arranging material for Sam Brown’s Stop! album, he collaborated with Tom Robinson on tour and on the co-written album We Never Had It So Good. In 1991 he became Level 42’s lead guitarist, by which point his session work already encompassed Swing Out Sister, Gary Moore, and Mica Paris. The Resurgence label issued the mini-album Kingdom of Dust in June 1994, recorded with three former Japan members—Richard Barbieri, Steven Jansen, and Mick Karn—followed by the solo album Mustard Gas & Roses in 1995. Throughout the decade he also created the biographical music-and-spoken-word project The Road to Ballina, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in December 1996 and released on CD by Resurgence the next year.
In 2002 Jakszyk formed the Crimson repertory group 21st Century Schizoid Band with fellow King Crimson alumni Ian McDonald, Mel Collins, Peter Giles, Michael Giles, and Ian Wallace, taking an early though then-unrecognized step toward later membership in the band itself. The ensemble toured the U.K., North America, and Japan for five years and self-released several live albums before disbanding after Wallace’s death in 2007. Meanwhile Jakszyk assembled the 2006 double-CD The Bruised Romantic Glee Club, drawing on both earlier and newer collaborators—including Dave Stewart, Mel Collins, Ian McDonald, Ian Wallace, Soft Machine’s Hugh Hopper, and notably Robert Fripp—for one disc of personal songs and another of prog, avant-prog, and art-rock covers originally performed by Crimson, Soft Machine, and Henry Cow.
After the album’s release, and following Jakszyk’s rendition of “Islands” at Ian Wallace’s funeral, Fripp invited him to collaborate; the project expanded to include saxophonist Collins on the 2011 Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins album A Scarcity of Miracles, which also featured former Crimson drummer Gavin Harrison and bassist Tony Levin. Although King Crimson was inactive at the time, Fripp announced in fall 2013 that the band would reconvene, and the 2014 lineup built on the A Scarcity of Miracles core of Jakszyk, Fripp, Collins, Levin, and Harrison while adding returning member Pat Mastelotto and newcomer Bill Rieflin. This largest-ever Crimson aggregation, later augmented by an eighth member, Jeremy Stacey, placed Jakszyk on vocals and second guitar and revisited material from 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King onward. The group toured globally for several years and issued numerous well-received live albums, among them 2016’s Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind and the following year’s Heroes EP containing the David Bowie title track, on which Jakszyk delivered a notable vocal performance while Fripp reprised the guitar sustain he had originally played in 1977.
Jakszyk has also produced various artists, appeared on television programs such as French and Saunders and Birds of a Feather, and written extensively on music for Melody Maker and Musicians Only. His incidental music has been featured on the BAFTA-nominated Chef, Jo Brand Through the Cakehole, and Birds of a Feather.
Albums
Singles
