Michael Gregory Jackson (born August 28, 1953 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American guitarist and composer working in jazz, R&B, avant-garde, rock, blues, and free jazz. Early in his career, he used his given name, Michael Gregory Jackson. In 1983, when he signed with Island Records, Michael dropped Jackson and recorded under Michael Gregory to prevent mix-ups with the name of pop singer Michael Jackson. In 2013, he returned to using his full name Michael Gregory Jackson. During the 1970s and '80s, he worked with avant-garde jazz musicians Oliver Lake, and Baikida Carroll. He worked with playwright Ntozake Shange, poet

Jessica Hagedorn Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn (born 1949) is an American playwright, writer, poet, and multimedia performance artist. Biography Hagedorn is an American of mixed descent. She was born in Manila to a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Spanish Fi ...

, and poet Thulani Davis at the Public Theater, New York City. Following this he began working more in rock,

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

, and R&B. He worked with Walter Becker of Steely Dan. In 1983

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...

produced his album ''Situation-X'' for

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

. In 2013 he formed Michael Gregory Jackson's Clarity Quartet and Michael Gregory Jackson's Clarity TRiO. His groups have included

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Bob Moses Robert Moses (1888–1981) was an American city planner. Robert Moses may also refer to: * Bob Moses (activist) (1935–2021), American educator and civil rights activist * Bob Moses, American football player in the 1962 Cotton Bowl Classic * Bob M ...

, David Murray,

Jerome Harris Jerome Harris (born April 5, 1953) is an American jazz musician specializing in electric and acoustic bass guitar, electric guitar, voice, and occasionally lap steel and small percussion. He came to prominence in 1978 playing bass guitar and gui ...

Julius Hemphill Julius Arthur Hemphill (January 24, 1938 – April 2, 1995) was a jazz composer and saxophone player. He performed mainly on alto saxophone, less often on soprano and tenor saxophones and flute. Biography Hemphill was born in Fort Worth, Texas, ...

Mark Helias Mark Helias (born October 1, 1950) is an American double bass player and composer born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He started playing the double bass at the age of 20, and studied with Homer Mensch at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1974, then ...

, Mark Trayle,

Marty Ehrlich Marty Ehrlich (born May 31, 1955) is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, clarinets, flutes) and is considered one of the leading figures in avant-garde jazz. Biography Though born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the portion of Ehrlich's youth spent in ...

, Wadada Leo Smith, and Will Calhoun.

Discography

As leader

* ''Clarity'' (Bija, 1977) * ''Karmonic Suite'' (Improvising Artists, 1978) * ''Gifts'' (Arista Novus, 1979) * ''Heart & Center'' (Arista Novus, 1979) * ''Cowboys, Cartoons & Assorted Candy'' (Enja, 1982) * ''Situation X'' (Island, 1983) * ''What to Where'' (RCA Novus, 1988) * ''The Way We Used to To Do'' (Tiptoe, 1990) * ''Red'' (Golden, 1998) * ''Towards the Sun'' (Golden, 2002) * ''After Before'' (Golden, 2015) * ''Endogeny & Exogamy'' (Ethnicity Against the Error, 2015) * ''Spirit Signal Strata'' (Golden, 2017) * ''WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW'' (Golden, 2019)

As sideman

With Oliver Lake * '' Holding Together'' (Black Saint, 1976) * ''Life Dance of Is'' (Arista Novus, 1978) * ''Shine!'' (Arista Novus, 1979) * ''Plug It'' (Gramavision, 1983) * ''Zaki'' (hat ART, 1992) With Wadada Leo Smith * '' Spiritual Dimensions'' (Cuneiform, 2009) * ''

Heart's Reflections ''Heart's Reflections'' is a two-disc studio album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The album was released on May 16, 2011 via Cuneiform Records label. Reception Glen Hall of ''Exclaim!'' stated "Trumpeter Smith wears his love for ...

'' (Cuneiform, 2011) * '' Najwa'' (TUM, 2017) With others * Pheeroan akLaff, ''Fits Like a Glove'' (Gramavision, 1983) *

Deanna Bogart Deanna Bogart (born September 5, 1959, Detroit, Michigan, United States), is an American blues/fusion singer, pianist, and saxophone player/composer/arranger/producer. Background She began her career in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area of ...

, ''New Address'' (Viceroots, 1996) * Matthew Shipp, ''Matthew Shipp Plays the Music of Allen Lowe'' (Constant Sorrow, 2015)

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Michael American jazz guitarists Novus Records artists Enja Records artists 1953 births Living people Musicians from New Haven, Connecticut Guitarists from Connecticut 20th-century American guitarists Jazz musicians from Connecticut Improvising Artists Records artists