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Joe Jackson looks sharp with old band'Volume 4' proves idiosyncratic singer hasn't changed his tune
By Todd Leopold
(CNN) -- Joe Jackson has been a prickly New Wave punk. A jive-slinging bopper. A smooth-crooning standard-bearer. Over his 25-year career, his albums -- from the blazing "Look Sharp!" to the jazzy "Body and Soul" to the classical "Will Power" -- have hopped from genre to genre, sometimes connected only by Jackson's sarcasm-edged voice and determined idiosyncrasies. Virtually none of the style changes, he said in a phone interview, has been premeditated. He said he just goes where the spirit moves him. "I've only made one album ever in an identifiable genre, 'Jumpin' Jive,' and that was a little vacation," he says of the 1981 album of 1940s swing and jump blues recorded after recovering from illness and fatigue. "Everything else I've ever done has been a mix of styles. It's not like there's a [check]list of genres on my desk. ... I don't have a plan. It's just the way it comes out." So when it came to recording his latest record, "Volume 4" (Restless), he wasn't planning to gather his original backing band together. But it had been nearly 25 years since "Look Sharp!" -- his debut album -- and a few live dates and rekindled friendships later, the group -- bassist Graham Maby, guitarist Gary Sanford and drummer Dave Houghton -- stepped into the studio and laid down tracks. The process, Jackson said, was similar to the recording of "Look Sharp!" "All the songs were done on the second or third take," he said. "It sounds fresh." Writing songs like 'a jigsaw puzzle'
The songs on "Volume 4" -- so named because it's the fourth album with the Joe Jackson Band -- didn't come about in any predictable way either, Jackson said. "Most songs come about in a process I don't understand myself," he said. "Bits and pieces come over time. It's like a jigsaw puzzle." In the case of one of "Volume 4's" catchiest tunes, the cutting "Dirty Martini," he started with an old riff and a few jotted lyrics and combined them with the title -- an image Jackson liked -- and an idea to write a song about New Orleans. The result hearkens back to both Gary "U.S." Bonds and smoky French Quarter clubs. Other songs were written during the album's recording. "I had six already written, one of which, 'Blue Flame,' was two years old," Jackson said. "But then I got on a roll and wrote a lot. I was inspired by writing for the band." The result, he said, "turned out to be easier than we expected. It was great fun. I'm very excited about it." Singing doesn't come easily
He's also excited about his singing, which he describes as being "12 million times better" than it was when he started recording. "Singing was never natural for me," he said. "I forced myself to sing. I really struggled on the early records." Singing lessons and simple hard work have made him better, he added. "Many songs I couldn't have sung 20 years ago, like 'Blue Flame.' I'm getting better. Like a fine cheese, I'm aging nicely," he said with a chuckle. His voice is only Jackson's latest instrument. As a child, he played violin; he later entered London's Royal Academy of Music on a composition scholarship. He's best known for playing piano, but he's also sampled everything from melodica to recorder in concert, displayed to best effect on his album "Big World." He's also written works for others, including the soundtracks to the little-seen "Mike's Murder" and the Francis Ford Coppola film "Tucker." "It's not every day you get to work with Coppola," he said. All of these variations have probably driven his record companies -- Restless (an appropriate name) is his fourth -- crazy over the years, but Jackson said he wouldn't have done it any other way. "I don't know how else to be," he shrugs. Besides, perhaps eclecticism has its merits. "Maybe it's the reason I'm still here," he said.
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