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D.D. Jackson
Composer for Television, Film & Media
Jazz Pianist/Composer
Greetings!
With Spring just around the corner, I thought I'd update you on my recent activities during these colder Winter months! It's been a busy period working in varied spheres, from network television appearances, to my continued work composing music for Children's Media and producing, to my participation in some fascinating industry panels. As always, this newsletter is to keep you abreast of these and my other creative activities, and to (of course) encourage you to keep me in mind for any of your composing, arranging, production and performing needs!
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| Jimmy Fallon, CBS Early Show & More
The Roots CD Undun on which
I collaborated with drummer Questlove (on the track "Will to Power") is out and has garnered rave reviews! Recently, I also had a chance to perform excerpts from the CD with The Roots on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. I'm also flattered that Questlove had some kind words to say about me in the following video:
I also appeared on the CBS Early Show in a piece on the Harlem School of the Arts (where I teach part-time), featuring my wunderkind 10-year old prodigy jazz piano student Matt Whitaker and myself performing together in my studio there [after the 3 minute mark]. Watch the video on the CBS website, below [they've unfortunately put a short commercial upfront!]:
Finally, the Korean pop group Sweet Sorrow's new CD Sweet Sorrow 3: VIVA is out worldwide (including on iTunes), for which I produced and arranged music for multiple tracks and performed on piano (mastered by the great Bob Ludwig!) The group has also released a delightful music video for the title tune "VIVA", where you can hear the horn arrangement and production I did for the group (I'm also "actually" playing the piano, though unfortunately am not in the actual video!) Watch it below:
Multiple-Grammy-award-winning engineer Marcelo Anez also has an interesting, more tech-oriented blog on his experiences working on the project I invite you to check out.
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| Growth Spurt Grumpies, Kup Kids, & Other Music for Children's Media News
I was delighted to recently bring together two of my "worlds" - namely, those of jazz performance and children's music, when I was asked to play the piano as part of The Heidi Siegell Tiny World Project. Heidi is putting together media in multiple spheres (starting with an album of her children's songs) that attempts to nurture consciousness, empathy, and self-respect in children.
(The track also reunites me with my old musical colleague Pheeroan Aklaff on drums!)
In other Children's music news,  I was excited to be working with the Creator and Character Designer for HBO's Classical Baby animated series (Maciek Albrecht of Magikworld.com), for Arthur Barry's "Sammy and the Kup Kids" children's t.v. series project (Arthur also recently participated in the Kids Screen Summit here in NYC).
(with song lyrics by Mark Valenti)
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Industry Panels
 | | D.D. At Music Entrepreneurs Panel |
In my capacity as educator/lecturer/writer (I am on faculty at both Hunter College and the Harlem School of the Arts and a former regular columnist for Downbeat magazine), I enjoy participating in panels on topics of interest to the music industry whenever they come up. Recently, I was asked to participate in two. The first took place at my Masters degree alma mater, the Manhattan School of Music (sponsored by John Blanchard and Angela Beeching of NETMCDO, a Music Entrepreneurship educational organization) and centered around visions of "New Revenues for Musicians". The panel was enlightening for me as well, as it helped crystallize in my mind even more the idea of what I do as "music entrepreneurship" (!) The 2nd panel was part of the Chamber Music America conference and was hosted by Howard Mandel, the President of the Jazz Journalists' Association on the subject of "Social Media: Beyond the Basics". The subject matter was wide-ranging (from Facebook and Linked In to crowd-source funding through sites such as Kickstarter), and, as always with these things, I garnered some new tidbits of information of my own in the process!
Visit my Jazz Website:
Visit my Composing for Media Website:
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