`There is a gray area between lowest-common-denominator pop and intellectual art music,” contends Joe Jackson, whose latest album ”Will Power” is as likely (or unlikely) to be played on WXRT as WFMT. ”You could make a case, for instance, that Talking Heads and Philip Glass both work within this gray area. I also think this category is expanding, because it includes anybody that doesn`t quite fit in.”
Over the course of nine albums in the last eight years, Jackson, a slight and balding 32-year-old Englishman, has willfully avoided a precise fit. He debuted playing power-pop (”Look Sharp”), spiced up his rock with foreign rhythms (”Beat Crazy”), dovetailed into `40s swing (”Jumpin` Jive”), and found his greatest success with pop inspired by the likes of Cole Porter
(”Night and Day”). His last effort, 1986`s ”Big World,” was not only spread over three LP sides (the fourth was blank), but was recorded live-to-disc at a New York theater.
Even so, ”Will Power” is Jackson`s most radical departure to date–it`s an instrumental album written for a full orchestra supplemented by rock instruments and synthesizers.
”This is what happens to Joe Jackson music if you take away the words,” explains Jackson, finishing up a luncheon salad at the Pie in the Sky cafe in his Gramercy Park neighborhood. ”To me, I think, what`s the big deal? It`s all music.
”Believe it or not,” he continues, ”I see myself in the mainstream.
`Will Power` has already sold 90,000 copies, which is more than respectable for a new band, and absolutely great for a classical record. For me, it`s a question of using the platform of my popularity to play the music I like and hopefully open up a few ears.”
To Jackson`s label, A&M, ”Will Power” is another artistic side trip in a career full of them. ”Joe listens to his own drummer,” says trumpeter Herb Alpert, the ”A” in A&M and the company`s artistic conscience, ”but what makes his music a little more difficult for us to sell is that he`s such a buckshooter. His heart and soul is in what he does, so it`s hard to fault him. But from a company point of view, it`s hard to build continuity, and I can`t help but think it puzzles his audience.”
Unspoken, of course, is the realization that buckshot can hit a bullseye at any time. Jackson`s sales record, consequently, ranges from well shy of gold (500,000 sold) to platinum-plus (more than a million).
Jackson offers a dour smile when asked to consider A&M`s assessment of his work. ”Some of them wait with bated breath,” he says, ”and others just hold their breath.”
Regardless, Jackson, who studied composition at London`s Royal Academy of Music in the early `70s, contends there is a singular continuity to his records: ”I don`t feel that I`ve continually changed styles; I just have an eclectic range of styles that have shown up on different albums.
”The thing is,” he continues, ”most people are used to listening to pop songs: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, guitar solo, chorus. If you don`t listen to much else, `Will Power` might seem confusing, but the pieces are constructed in very logical ways.”
On ”No Pasaran,” for instance, Jackson had a specific subject in mind:
U.S. involvement in Nicaragua. ”The piece describes a building up of tension and violence that culminates in revolution and then calms down to a period of tension and violence. For me, that`s a more direct way to get at the subject; words would just make it seem clumsy and preachy.”
Jackson says it`s improper to call his new music classical, but he`s pleased as punch that it`s received limited play on some stations that go under that rubric. Loren Toolajian, of New York`s WQXR, interviewed Jackson and played the complete album on his weekly show ”Connections,” which combines classical, jazz and new age music.
”We`ve gotten good response from the record,” says Toolajian, who goes on to admit that even with the eclectic format of his program, he finds ”Will Power” difficult to categorize. ”I`d have to go with Jackson`s own description–orchestral instrumental music–although it`s certainly defined by his own style.”
Though Jackson arranged and produced the LP, he let conductor George Manahan handle the baton. Manahan, who had previously worked with such other
”gray area” composers as Steve Reich, was a logical translator between the pop star and the concert musicians.
Hunched over his score as the orchestra played his music for digital recorders at RCA`s Manhattan studio, Jackson couldn`t help but be amused. ”It was really quite funny,” he recalls, ”with old guys playing double-bass, jazz guys blowing horns and a rock band on the side.”
According to Ed Roynesdal, who has played keyboards and synthesizers with Jackson since 1982, the classical musicians contracted for the sessions arrived thinking, ” `Here`s a rock and roll guy who`s trying to get a little respect.` But as the recording progressed, people were coming into the control room to hear the playbacks, and I think they were impressed not only by the sound, but also by the composition itself.”
Jackson hopes to interest a major orchestra in mounting the work–his fantasy band is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which he recently saw perform Mahler`s 9th Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Despite a bad experience scoring the film ”Mike`s Murder”–his little-used soundtrack ended up preceding the ill- fated movie by months–he sees such work as a natural career progression.
Currently, he`s scoring the pilot to the NBC program ”Private Eye.”
Married last year to a British woman, Jackson, who has lived in New York for four years–long enough to become a rabid Yankee fan–says he`s beginning to get homesick. ”I like the city, but I miss England, especially the people. The more time I spend here,” concludes the man who resists categories, ”the more I recognize that I`m not an American.”
