As I get older, I prefer small concert halls. Besides the wonderful Royal Theatre Carré, I also like to visit Het Muziekgebouw Frits Philips in Eindhoven. The venue is intimate and the acoustics are very good. It was there that I attended Joe Jackson's concert in 2017. Just as you have good vintages of wine, you also have good years for pop music. 1979 was an exceptionally good year for pop music. It was the year the first two albums by Joe Jackson were released. That evening, Jackson calmly took us behind his keyboards through his entire repertoire. A lovely evening!
On 29 March 2020, "I'm the man" was spinning on the needle at our Sunday Morning Classics.
Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson (born David Ian Jackson, 11 August 1954) is a British musician. Jackson started playing violin at a young age but soon switched to piano. From the age of 16, he regularly performed in bars and received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London.
But the prospect of becoming a serious composer did not appeal to him, and he entered the pop world with his band Arms and Legs. The band split up after two unsuccessful singles. After that, he played in theatres for a while and recorded some demos. In 1978, he signed a contract with A&M Records.
Almost immediately, the album Look Sharp! was recorded and released in 1979. In the same year, his second album I'm the man came out, followed in 1980 by the third album Beat Crazy, just before his Pinkpop performance. The Joe Jackson band was very successful and toured extensively. But this band also broke up, and Joe took a step back from the pop and rock world and recorded an album full of old jazz and swing numbers: Jumpin' Jive. After moving to New York, he considered making a "pop album" without using a guitar. Everyone thought he was crazy. Until then, the guitar was the defining instrument of pop/rock. His album Night and Day was a great success (1982). It is about life in New York (he would later revisit this with Night and Day II). The album gives a good impression of the diverse musical styles in the multicultural society of the Big Apple. Although Jackson often appears confident and calm, he is often insecure and shy and often unsure whether the audience is truly enthusiastic. There is also a story that Jackson cancelled a concert (or even several concerts) because the audience was not quiet enough. In January 2019, his latest album Fool was released, featuring 8 new songs. Shortly afterwards, a new world tour will start: "Four Decade Tour". During this tour, Jackson will visit the Netherlands 5 times and Belgium twice. The concerts sold out completely within an hour.
Source: Wikipedia Photo: David Gans and Stuart Mentiply
http://joejackson.com/
