What people are saying.
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“MGJ was already doing almost everything I was striving to do. How inspiring and simultaneously daunting!”
- Nels Cline - February 2015 - Rova Arts
https://www.rova.org/foodforthought/nels-cline-2015-february.html
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“Frequency Equilibrium Koan is a communion of loft jazz musicians who weren’t just among the best of their time, but of ALL time. As Frisell marveled, “I can’t believe this happened more than 40 years ago. It sounds like the future.”
- S. Victor Aaron - Something Else Reviews 1/2021
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MGJ is among a generation of guitarists who forged their own path on the instrument in the wake of Jimi Hendrix. No less an authority than Pat Metheny said, “I have always considered him to be one of the most significantly original guitarists of our generation” while Bill Frisell opined, “I believe he’s one of the unsung innovators.”
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“‘Frequency Equilibrium Koan’ is nothing less than 40 minutes of prime interaction between four distinct improviser-leaders circa 1977...and it seems like a small miracle that this documentation has come to light."
- Bret Saunders The Denver Post 2/2021
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"Guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson is a maverick..the axeman...earning a place beside James Blood Ulmer and Sonny Sharrock as an innovator, and influencing future envelope pushers like Bill Frisell, Brandon Ross and Vernon Reid. Recorded live in 1977, Frequency Equilibrium Koan features Jackson throwing down with a free jazz dream team: saxophone legend Julius Hemphill, drummer Pheeroan akLaff and radical cellist Abdul Wadud, late of the unfairly obscure Black Unity Trio. “Clarity” and the title track don’t mess around... Not for the faint of heart, but mother’s milk to fans of uncaged spontaneous composition. ...As rocking as it is dazzling, “Heart & Center” acts as a gateway to Jackson’s viewpoint, prepping the unsure for the more demanding delights within."
– Michael Toland, The Big Takeover (USA), Feb. 5, 2021
http://bigtakeover.com/recordings/MichaelGregoryJacksonFrequencyEquilibriumKoanGolden
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"Frequency Equilibrium Koan is a live recording captured...at the very beginnings of Jackson's career, a few months after the release of his first record as a leader in 1977. The guitarist is surrounded by a team of the most amazing: the cellist Abdul Wadud, the drummer Pheeroan aKlaff (who had previously distinguished himself with Wadada Leo Smith) and the immense saxophonist Julius Hemphill who had already published the essential Dogon AD and founded the Saxophone World Quartet. The program...consists of four pieces... Heart & Center follows a bizarre but irresistible dance...exchanges between Jackson and Hemphill are delightful... This recording - although its sound quality is not optimal - allows us to appreciate the talent of a visionary artist who...has exerted an undeniable influence on his peers. "
– Steve Naud, panm 360 (Canada), Feb. 2021
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"This digital archival release..will hopefully eventually get an LP release...but fans of 1970s loft jazz shouldn’t wait for that to happen, because the music is undeniably major. ... While Frequency Equilibrium Koan’s emergence is worthy of celebration foremost as a journey into collective excellence, it also illuminates how the activities in the lofts could get as wild and free as the Fire Music and avant-jazz that preceded it. Jackson’s flute in the final track “A Meditation” highlights a tendency toward world-jazz fusion, but his guitar in “Heart & Center” is the kind of thing to rouse fans of Mary Halvorson."
– Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District (USA), Feb. 4, 2021
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"Whenever the American guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson is mentioned, the adjective "underestimated" is never far away. Despite...a number of perfectly brilliant records, he is hardly a household name. And the stage he sprang from - the so-called loft jazz scene that flourished in New York in the second half of the seventies - does not get the attention it deserves either. But maybe all this can change? ...I keep my fingers crossed for that. The album Frequency Equilibrium Koan, the latest release on Golden Records, deserves to be heard by many. ...That Jackson was only 24 at the time is impossible to hear - his innovative use of effects, volume and tone feels like the results of several decades of exploration. Do not miss."
– Johan Jacobsson Franzén, Lira (Sweden), Feb. 19, 2021
https://www.lira.se/skivrecension/frequency-equilibrium-koan/
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“Michael Gregory Jackson has long been one of my favorite musicians... I have always considered him to be one of the most significantly original guitarists of our generation with his own distinctive sound and point of view. I am always curious to know ... where his inspiration has taken him next."
- Pat Metheny
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"It's never too late to discover a musician this talented and creative."
- Phil Freeman, The Wire
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“What ultimately holds it all together is Jackson’s undeniable prowess. His deep melodic sensibility and razor-sharp precision are constants... the record: a celebration of Jackson's continuing vitality, and a hopeful sign of much more to come."
- Troy Dostert, All About Jazz
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"Jackson quietly laid the groundwork for much we take for granted in the contemporary jazz-guitar vocabulary ... so rich in lived experience and so infused with fresh energy."
- Steve Smith, National Sawdust Log
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"ELECTRIC GITBOX" The Wire
“Electric Git Box is Jackson's first solo guitar recording, and he keeps it simple, playing through a single amp with a slight delay and maybe one other effect, alternating between a Gibson SG and a Fender Stratocaster. He reworks pieces from his back catalogue, ranging from
"Prelueoionti" from Clarity to "Theme X (For Geri Allen)", which he recorded on
2019's WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW. Other pieces are dedicated to Ornette Coleman and Jackson's partner (referred to only by her first name Karen), and the album as a whole is a tribute to the late writer and bandleader Greg Tate.
Jackson's playing is deeply emotional throughout; though he's extraordinarily dexterous, none of these compositions ever feel like he's showing you a trick. The impression, rather, is of eavesdropping on a man working through some stuff with his instrument in his hand. There are elements here of blues, jazz, R&B and the universal grammar shared by guitarists from the Mississippi hill country to the North African desert, and every note he plays speaks volumes.
Phil Freeman –The Wire
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Electric Gitbox Review
Michael Gregory Jackson — Electric Git Box
(Bandcamp Golden Records, 2022, DL)by Peter Thelen, Published 2022-05-07
American guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Michael Gregory Jackson has done it all across many decades, from free jazz to more commercial styles to eclectic jazz ensembles and much more, going all the way back to the 70s. In the last few years he has released recordings with his Clarity Quartet as well as working with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and his 2020 release Change: A Suite for Nelson Mandela. But he’s never done anything like Electric Git Boxbefore — a purely solo electric guitar album without any accompaniment and no overdubs, no vocals either, the guitar in real time is the entire story, no effects beyond the natural distortion of his amps and the natural reverb of the studio he recorded in. The eleven compositions herein exude beauty and emotion, and confirm his exceptional skills as a composer and guitarist. Opener “Karen (Sweet Angel)” sets the stage for all that follows, wandering through a number of ideas, offering further refinements on some; it’s truly a masterful and free elucidation of his compositions in an almost improvisational style. In “The Rainy Days” his approach conveys a reassuring warmth that proceeds along an almost magical entanglement, developing with assurance as it goes. As an experiential listen, one would almost have to find these pieces to be meditative and introspective, even in spite of the fact that they are delivered on distorted electric guitars. With “Jcakjcak (For Ornette)” we find him in a jazzy soundworld mostly delivering exceptional bursts of solo shred, while on the dreamy “Prelueoionti (V2)” he offers a hauntingly beautiful fingerpicked piece that warms the spirit. Every spin of this album comes with new discoveries that seem to have been previously hidden, and its entirety is a journey that a listener will want to repeat often, beginning to end.
http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/michael-gregory-jackson-electic-git-box-3.html
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Michael Gregory Jackson – ‘Electric Git Box’ (2022)
A technically ingenious and innovative guitarist, Michael Gregory Jackson leans in on his emotions in presenting his music, adding to the uniqueness of his approach. The recent events where both the ugliness of racism and an unchecked pandemic had left Jackson distraught about the world around him and pushed him to record his first-ever solo electric guitar album. Electric Git Box collects his originals both new and old with, holed up in a studio with just electric guitars using virtually no effects but a lot of gritty sonority to match the mood of the man behind the instrument.
Jackson unaccompanied is Jackson with all of his gifts on full display: his subtle manipulation of guitar tone, his grasp of melodic development and a fluid, unforced finesse matched with a rough edge that exposes a vulnerability. It’s a combination of qualities extremely rare from any musician, much less a guitarist.
Jackson leverages open chording bracketing nimble fills to paint a full sonic portrait for “Karen (Sweet Angel).” “Theme-X (for Geri Allen)” is a pretty melody made more poignant by Jackson’s deft mixture of lush chords and blues-imbued blues lines.
“JcakJcak (for Ornette)” is completely transformed from what was essentially a bop tune on 2017’s Spirit Single Strata into Hendrix-ian blues-rock and works very effectively in this style. “Meditation In E (for Karen)” is ballad dipped in blues, while “Sweet Rain Blues” is soaked in it, played with the freewheeling cadence of modern jazz.
“Prelueoionti (V2)” goes all the way back to Jackson’s Clarity debut, and even then it was performed on solo guitar, albeit an acoustic one. This time, the distinction lies in the rough but warm timbre of his 1959 Gibson SG guitar. “Hymn For My People” stands out for its greater reliance of single note lines to sketch out the melody, giving Jackson’s note bending finesse more prominence.
The boggy tonality of the last three tracks signals a changeup of rigs, from the SG to a Stratocaster. What Jackson does with this grimy but shimmering resonance is to render “The Rainy Days,” “Wish” and “The Science of Beauty (for Arthur Livermore)” with a lot of soul and sincerity.
Over a recording career stretching back forty-six years, Electric Git Box may very well be the purest form of Michael Gregory Jackson’s unparalleled artistic expression. And the purer his artistry, the better. -S. VICTOR AARON
https://somethingelsereviews.com/2022/04/03/michael-gregory-jackson-electric-git-box-2022/
Get Electric Git Box now from Bandcamp.
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NYC Loft Jazz of the 1970s Comes Alive with “Frequency Equilibrium
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2025
ALBUM REVIEWSBLUES/JAZZNYC METRO
NYC Loft Jazz Of The 1970s Comes Alive With “Frequency Equilibrium Koan” By Michael Gregory Jackson
By Sal Cataldi On Feb 23, 2021
CBGB wasn’t the only club/scene to birth a new musical genre in the low-rent, dirty and deliciously dangerous Downtown NYC of the mid- to late-1970s. Alongside the wannabe punks, there were a slew of fiercely talented young jazz immigrants from St. Louis, Chicago and beyond who worked to make free jazz even freer than Coleman and Coltrane. They plied their exploratory path not at traditional clubs but a series of short-lived, musician-led NYC loft scene like Coltrane drummer Rashid Ali’s Studio 77, Studio We, The Ladies’ Fort and, most notably, Studio RivBea, founded by saxman Sam Rivers and his wife Bea.New York’s so-called Loft Jazz scene would launch the careers of many luminaries who would define jazz’s more creative edge in the post-Coltrane era. These included Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Butch Morris, Lester Bowie, Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill to name but a few.
Their music was technically accomplished, exploratory, impulsive, spiritual and often politically-minded. It could flow from angry and dissonant to heavenly melodic, all in the space of a few bars. It had elements of jazz, modern classical, folk, world music and more. It also utilized instruments not often associated with jazz, like the oboe and cello. The intimacy of the scene led to much cross pollination among the players. This is something reflected in a bold new release from the archives of Michael Gregory Jackson, a versatile innovator and guitarists’ guitarist who first came to light in the scene.
One look at the list of progressive jazz guitar all-stars who have named Michael Gregory Jackson as an influence demonstrates the continued resonance and relevance of his four-decades of exceptionally creative music-making.
“Michael Gregory Jackson has long been one of my favorite musicians,” said Pat Metheny. “I always considered him one of the most significantly original guitars of our generation, with his own distinctive sound and point of view.”
Bill Frisell adds: “I first heard Michael Gregory Jackson in 1975 when I moved to Boston. He blew my mind and influenced me a lot. I believe he’s one of the unsung innovators.”
Frequency Equilibrium Koanis an authentic document of the without-a-net creativity and exhuberance of no-hold-barred this era. It is a performance of four lengthy compositions recorded by Jackson on his trusty Sony cassette machine in 1977 at The Ladies’ Fort. It finds the then 23-year-old guitarist leading a quartet featuring saxophonist Julius Hemphill, drummer Pheeroan akLaff and cellist Abdul Wadud.
Hemphill was one of the true giants of the era, perhaps best known for his work with the World Saxophone Quartet alongside Oliver Lake, who helped launch Jackson’s career in a quartet which also included akLaff.
A little like Hendrix before him, cellist Wadud literally reinvented his instrument for a new musical genre. With furious plucking, bowing and percussives, it became a tool of jazz that would skirt the territory between groove-keeping acoustic bass, a soaring solo instrument and drum. Wadud and Hemphill were frequent collaborators. One of their best performances together is on “Hard Blues,” from Hemphill’s 1975 album Coon Bid’ness.
Jackson’s new/old album kicks off with the nine-plus minute title track. After a fragmentary head, the piece moves into improvisation, with Hemphill coming to the fore with a long forceful tenor solo. At times, the improvisation becomes collective, a kind of outré New Orleans ragtime. Jackson’s bag of tricks is on full display here – volume swells, detuned swooshery, bleeps, slides and long tricky melodic lines, a blend of Cubist post-bebop and twelve-tone classical. Wadud plucks and bows away, creating both rhythmic pulse and solo lines that dance off his partners’ musical conversation.
The next track, “Heart and Center,” is a radical extension of what would become the title offering for Jackson’s wonderfully diversified 1979 album of the same name. This is as straight-ahead as this album gets, with Hemphill again out of the gate on a solo charge. Jackson leads the way with choppy irregular chording that provides a rich harmonic backdrop for Hemphill and his own soloing. Again, the flavor here is improvisation that is collective, with lots of call-and-response. As usual, akLaff keeps it all moving, with jungle like tom tom heavy percussion.
“Clarity 3” is the most challenging listening experience in the set. It begins with akLaff’s circular swirl of percussion, which leads to a solo spotlight for Wadud. With Hemphill and Jackson’s entry, the music comes to a fast boil then overflows. It’s jazz roller coaster, with the instruments almost seeming to merge into one howl at times. In the last minute, Jackson finds and rides a broad chord that sounds like a car horn, together with Wadud’s cello groans. The album ends on a mellow tone with “A Meditation.” Hemphill sits this one out and Jackson forsakes his trusty 1961 Gibson SG for a bamboo flute. It’s a wind down of chill temple bells and malleted cymbals, bowed cello and modal flute melody, an East Asian-flavored sunset brought to the dark and dirty Downtown NYC of the 1970s.
In the liner notes to the album, guitar master Bill Frisell observes:
These guys are all heroes of mine. I’ve learned so much and am still learning from all of them. To hear them all together like this is a real gift. What a combo! I can’t believe this happened more than 40 years ago. It sounds like the future. I’m so thankful the tape was running to document this extraordinary moment.
Like many good things in New York City, the loft jazz scene was killed by the rising rents that came with gentrification. For more detail on this vibrant scene, read Michael Heller’s Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s. For a great sampling of the musicians and the scene, check out Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions. This five album/three CD set captures edge-pushing performances by many of loft jazz’s leading lights over nine days at Studio RivBea in May 1976. For more about Jackson, see our review of his jazz suite for Nelson Mandela, Change or purchase the album on Bandcamp
Key Tracks: Heart and Center, Frequency Equilibrium Koan - Sal Cataldi
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Electric Git Box Review Musique Machine
Michael Gregory Jackson - Electric Git Box [Golden Records - 2022]Michael Gregory Jackson is a veteran American jazz guitarist whose output began during the original heydey of electric jazz in 1977 and has released infrequent recordings ever since. There was a bit of an extended hiatus in his career from the early 90s until 2010 or so, but in the last decade his releases have resumed. His new album Electric Git Box, a full record of solo guitar playing, follows last year's self-released Frequency Equilibrium Koan.
The straightforward album title and references to blues in the song names might indicate a different sound than the one I actually hear on this recording, one heavier on shredding and pentatonic tonality. There are few swaggering shred moments here, though Jackson certainly has the chops for it, as his occasional bursts of speed indicate. His chosen mood is melancholic and brooding, with mysterious, questioning chord choices one might hear in shoegaze or folk metal.
He is quite melodically inspired, changing moods and scales effortlessly, many times per song. These sound like composed pieces, rather than improvisation, as the unfolding of the melody is intelligent and precise. It may be that he adds improvisatory embellishments to what he composed, as well. If he is in fact able to improvise melodies this fluent, he is a genius.He plays in a mostly clean tone with the slightest hint of overdrive, adding just a bit of bite when he applies more pressure to the strings. It's a versatile choice that allows the nuance of what he does to be heard.
The song "Sweet Rain Blues" does indeed live up to the classic imagery of its title, sounding more 70's than any other song here, almost like the more relaxed moments of Led Zeppelin. However, much of the music is surprisingly modern, and I'm often tempted to make comparisons to artists who began their careers long after Jackson. Admittedly, I'm likely unfamiliar with many of his original influences.
"Perserverance" almost sounds like a ballad written by a 90's punk band. Like the best of such bands, he brings forth aching feelings of nostalgia, giving a nod towards each memory before acknowledging that its time has gone. The heartstring-tugging feeling of this album is perhaps its best quality. Even on the first listen, it penetrated quickly into my mind and gave me chills.
Michael Gregory Jackson has created a fully engaging album of solo playing on a single instrument, which is no small feat. Few possess the range to create surprising moments throughout, but Jackson has done this by exploring a wide variety of moods and tonal idioms. He deeply understands the classic rock and fusion jazz of the 70s, of course, but moves on from there as well, into myriad hints of nearly every genre that has occurred since. It's a stirringly emotional album that is perfect for putting on after a long day of work.
https://www.musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?id=9283