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D.D. Jackson
Composer for Television, Film & Media
Jazz Pianist, Composer & Educator
Greetings!
Greetings and a slightly belated Happy New Year! Now that 2013 is underway and the Inauguration complete (Go, Obama! :-)), I thought I'd finally spend a moment updating you on some of my recent activities of the past few months, from performances in Italy, writing music for a new PBS children's show, to a Grammy nomination for an album on which I participated. 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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The Roots Undun Nominated for
Best Rap Album and Other Recording News
 | | Grammy-nominated The Roots "Undun" |
I was recently excited to hear that the Roots CD Undun on which I co-composed and co-produced the track
"Will to Power" (performing a crazy piano duet with drummer Questlove) has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album (fingers crossed!) For those with Spotify, you can listen to a medley of the last 3 tunes (including the track I'm on), by clicking here.
In other recording news, I recently was pleased to begin a new music licensing relationship of my jazz and other catalogs with Inventivmusic.com, a smartly-designed, NON-"re-titling" website where interested producers of television and other media can search for suitable music with ease.
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Performance and Education News
While sticking generally closer to home of late to be with my family, I also managed to get out and do some higher profile performances in recent months. Highlights included an appearance of my Trio in
Capri, Italy at their beautiful Certosa, featuring Tony Lewis and
Mark Peterson on bass, plus special guest, my 11-year-old,
Harlem School of the Arts prodigy piano student Matt Whitaker on piano.
Watch my performance in Italy of Duke's "In a Mellow Tone":
Watch my 11-year-old Harlem School of the Arts student Matthew Whitaker performing his arrangement of
Softly:
I was also honored to participate in a concert in Columbus, Ohio, organized by Michael Vander Does as a tribute in memory of his wonderful wife Kate Schulte. When he invited me, Michael reminded me how much Kate loved a very early composition of mine entitled "Peace-Song", and specifically requested that I perform it at this event. We were honored also to have Kidd Jordan on sax, along with Michael's poetry and some great Columbus musicians.
Here's the performance:
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The HSA Jazz combo heading to Walmart headquarters in Arkansas via private jet :-)
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In Education News, while my "Living Jazz Institute" has been delayed while I try to find a new name (the old monicker having being taken) l've managed to stay quite busy on the education front. The Harlem School of the Arts Advanced Jazz Combo I direct (featuring my student Matt Whitaker again on piano, 17-year -olds Franklin Rankin on guitar and Oren Maximov on bass, and 15-year-old drummer Dom Gervais) has been building increasing national buzz, including our musical hosting of the National Urban League Awards, and a performance at the Walmart home offices, in Arkansas, just yesterday (whisked there by private jet!), for an appearance in honor of Martin Luther King Day.
I also brought my Hunter College Popular Music Combo class into Dubway recording studios last month to do our fourth annual CD (due out later in the Spring, with me producing & mixing), and was pleased that it now features mostly their original tunes that we worked on during the Fall semester.
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Coming soon:
PEG + CAT on
PBS Kids
I'm thrilled to be writing music as part of a team of composers (including Emmy award-winning writers J. Walter Hawkes and Martin Erskine) for PEG + CAT, a new show created by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson and involving several people previously associated with such shows as The Wonder Pets and 3rd & Bird! (both for which I've also written). If the reaction of my six year old son is any indication, it will hopefully be well received!
Click below to visit the recently-launched PEG + CAT website at PBS Kids:
Visit my Composing for Media Website:
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