Javon Jackson
Biography Javon Jackson
Javon Jackson
came into international prominence touring and recording with the legendary drummer Art Blakey as a member of his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Symbolizing a new generation of musicians that blended tradition with neo-jazz, Jackson went on to release 19 recordings as a band leader and tour and record over 135 CDs with jazz greats including Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Haden, Betty Carter, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, Donald Byrd, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Richard Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Curtis Fuller, JoAnne Brackeen, Stanley Turrentine, and Ben E. King.
In 1992 Jackson made his recording debut with Me and Mr. Jones, featuring James Williams, Christian McBride and master drummer and NEA Jazz Master Elvin Jones. Jackson also recorded six projects for Blue Note Records featuring collaborations with Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Kenny Garrett, Jacky Terrason, John Medeski and Vernon Reid. Among his later recordings for Palmetto Records, Javon explored funk-based jazz, incorporating the sounds of Fred Wesley, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lenny White, Mark Whitfield and others. Javon’s current musical group, The Javon Jackson Band, blends many styles including jazz, funk, R&B and rock.
In 2012, Jackson released two self-produced recordings, Lucky 13 and Javon Jackson and WE FOUR, Celebrating John Coltrane. These CDs marked his return to acoustic jazz. For Lucky 13, Javon covers music by Stevie Wonder as well as newly composed original material and is joined by a special guest, Les McCann, for three selections. Javon Jackson and WE FOUR, Celebrating John Coltrane, is a tribute to the iconic saxophonist, composer and bandleader. The release is highlighted by an appearance by NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Cobb, drummer for both Coltrane and Miles Davis.
In live performances, The Javon Jackson Band is joined by special guest Les McCann, the iconic soul jazz pianist, vocalist and composer. Known as one of the godfathers of soul jazz, Les is recognized as a founding force for the genre known as funky jazz established in the mid 1960’s.
In 2010, Javon was commissioned by the Syracuse International Film Festival to compose a full-length score for the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lodger, a silent movie based on the hunt for Jack the Ripper. The original score had its debut at the festival, performed live by Jackson at the film's screening on October 2010.
In 2012, Javon was the recipient of the prestigious Benny Golson Award from Howard University in Washington, DC, for recognition of legendary excellence in jazz.
In addition to his performance schedule, Javon Jackson is a highly sought after jazz educator, conducting clinics and lectures at universities throughout the United States and abroad. He served as Assistant Professor of Jazz at Long Island University (NY)1996-1998, and in the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College (NY) 1999-2007. In 2013, Javon accepted the position of Director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford.
Also, Javon currently serves as a Chair of Jazz for the National YoungArts Foundation. He is also a member of JEN (Jazz Education Network) and lends support as JENerations Jazz Festival Artist and Clinician Coordinator. Jackson has a Bachelor in Music from the Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) and a Master of Music from State University of New York College at Purchase.
Nikki Giovanni
was born Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni on June 7, 1943, the second child of Yolande and Jones Giovanni. A few months after her birth, the family left their Knoxville, Tennessee home to move to Cincinnati, Ohio. Giovanni didn't write much as a child, but like many, she spent time doing chores to earn money. "I earned my allowance by washing dishes," she says, "and in the summer I earned my allowance by working in daddy's garden. I'm not good in the garden; I once pulled up all the peppers -- I thought they were weeds."
When she was fourteen, Giovanni returned to Knoxville to live with her grandparents, where she had spent nearly every summer beforehand. She attended Austin High School and graduated early to attend historically black Fisk University in Nashville. After a particularly rough year, including the death of her grandfather and some rebellious behavior at college, Giovanni was dismissed from Fisk University. She returned to Cincinnati, working at Walgreens and taking occasional classes at the University of Cincinnati. In 1964, she reentered Fisk University and immediately became involved with the growing civil rights movement. She reestablished the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee at Fisk and edited a student literary journal. Her political and artistic involvement in the Civil Rights Movement earned Giovanni her reputation as a fiery young woman and outspoken Black Rights poet.
Nikki Giovanni: Blues for All the ChangesGiovanni graduated Fisk in 1967 with a Ford Foundation fellowship to attend University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work. The same year, she attended the Detroit Conference of Unity and Art and organized the first Cincinnati Black Arts Festival. She moved on to New York City and received a grant to attend Columbia University's School of Fine Arts, where she continued writing about volatile times. Just after attending the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she published her collection of civil rights poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talk. The Harlem Council of Arts funded the publication of a third section, and Black Judgement was added to the collection.
On August 31, 1969, Giovanni gave birth to her son, Thomas Watson Giovanni. At the time there were very few single mothers, and Giovanni remembers the reaction. "They…said I was setting a bad example…. It was none of their business. I'm not a role model, and I've had big arguments with people about that. I just try to live my life and be a decent human being." She says that Thomas, who is now twenty-nine, made her look more closely at the "needs and interests of children." Since then, she has written six books for children, including the recent favorite, The Geni in the Jar.
After serving two teaching positions at Queens College and Rutgers University, Giovanni started NikTom, Ltd, a communications company, and edited an anthology of poetry by African-American women. Her writing was immensely popular, especially her spoken-word albums. Decades before the emergence of hip-hop and rap into popular culture, Giovanni was recording her poems with gospel choirs and other music. In 1972, Truth won NARTA's (National Association of Radio and Television Announcers) Award for Best Spoken Word Album.
Giovanni's career continued throughout the next three decades as she published volume after volume of her poetry and toured the country giving lectures. She has been given the Life Membership and Scroll by the National Council of Negro Women, named an honorary commissioner for the President's Commission on the International Year of the Child, and awarded with seven honorary doctorates. Awards and titles decorate her biographies, but Giovanni insists, "I was not that adventurous in life…I'd be the one standing in the corner writing down everything that happened."
Although her writing has admittedly softened since the years of her militant fight for civil rights, Giovanni does not shy away from conflict. In 1984, she was teaching English at The Ohio State University while receiving bomb and death threats for her opposition to the artist boycott of South Africa. Political organization TransAfrica blacklisted her, but Giovanni's career lived on; she toured Europe on a speaking tour the year after.
Giovanni currently teaches at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is a voice for all types of Americans -- she has been labeled an Appalachian writer and a Southern writer; she is a female poet and an African-American poet, a mother, a teacher, and a cancer survivor. Her early years as an activist gave voice to the pain and anger of an oppressed race, while her recent writing works through the emotions of our time and culture. "You only have so much time," she says. "There are things you stand up for because it's right. That's not a battle that you're losing. You're just adding your body and your best wishes to a fight that has to be won."
