Keith M. Jackson

Welcome to my Web page. My friends call me Grandpa, a nickname that I have had since I was three. The reason being that I asked too many old questions. My key to survival in the spiritual and commercial world of the performing arts has been to "Keep Learning Alive."

I do not ever remember wanting to do anything but sing and dance. My earliest recollection of my career as a singer were those Motown and church duets from the radio in Cleveland where I sang harmony with my sister. We did this nightly while she washed dishes and I dried them. My parents bought the piano for her but she did not want to play it. However, I did. Somehow I could hear a song and sit down and figure out the melody on the piano. To me it was no big deal. I actually thought everyone could do it until I got to college.

My first formal instrumental training was on the trombone. I began to play it in the fourth grade, and played it through high school marching band and on the road with different bands. I grew up attending concerts of the Cleveland Orchestra and listening to the big band recordings from my father's collection plus all kinds of popular music on the radio. I sang hymns in the Baptist church and gospel in community choirs, plus arranged songs for my own rhythm and blues groups. My high school marching band teacher, Rufus Foster, and choir director, Otta M. Christy Peterson are responsible for the demand for excellence in performance that remains with me. My high school, John Adams, was number one in the city and known for excellence. We recorded, traveled and even premiered a couple of operas. In addition to playing Count Basie arrangements on trombone in a swinging jazz band, the choir repertoire ranged from six part Spirituals of William Dawson and Jester Harrison to the selections from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Part of my original attraction to the University of Dayton was the Music Therapy program. I thought that I might get a degree in that field. This was because I had been unofficially involved in music therapy as I traveled around the country presenting successful child abuse prevention workshops while promoting my recording, "Arm Your Child with Music." (tm) After being here, I realized there was more personal inspiration to gain as a writer and composer by being exposed to a variety of subject matter required by a more general education degree. Prior to coming to UD, I attended Alabama State University. There I studied voice and developed a love for Gregorian Chants. I also attended Rutgers University where I studied jazz piano and composition with noted Jazz pianist Kenny Barron. Kenny was a great teacher for me because he did not have preconceived standards to which a student had to attain. He respected the artist in each one of his students, and inspired them by example to live up to their true potential.

I also traveled on the road with show bands where I served in several different capacities as needed. These included sound engineer, synthesist, trombonist, composer, arranger and band leader. All styles of music have space in my heart. I love the stories of country music, the dance feeling of R&B, the emotion of gospel music, plus the flexibility of classical and jazz arrangements. As a singer, I enjoy performing songs that allow me a certain freedom in terms of interpretation and arrangement.

I have been involved with computer aided music production for over ten years. I started with one MIDI keyboard, drum machine plus sequencer and progressed to managing a 24 track MIDI Demo production facility. Within this framework, I produced a weekly television show where I learned to combine audio / video and SMPTE time code for music videos. I studied arts and microcomputers at Illinois State University, worked as a session musician and producer in Connecticut and New York City, and earned professional certificates in computer music production, video production plus studio and live audio recording techniques.

In the greater Dayton community, I currently serve as minister of music-director of choirs at Faith United Church of Christ. There I am involved with training and directing both the youth and adult choirs, plus community outreach.

My musical vision is to become an international recording and performing artist working with music and stories which transcend the limits of specific cultures and religions. Career goals include the opportunity to operate an audio/video production studio, develop my many curriculum ideas into a private school and manage an orphanage. The ultimate dream is to pilot my own airplane.

Listen to Keith Jackson's production of his composition We Are All a Part of One Color (55 sec., 441K .au) recorded and mixed in December of 1996.