Jenifer Jackson is quite blunt with her assessment of her latest record. "OUTSKIRTS," she says, "was my recording dream-come-true." She's right. What she envisioned, what she imagined, was realized. What Jenifer wanted -- and got -- was a live recording of her songs and her band with no overdubs. In other words: turn on the tape recorder, press 'record', and play the songs; what you hear is what happened.
Nothing slick, nothing fancy, nothing overdone or overblown. In other words: Just Jenifer's songs, Jenifer's voice and Jenifer's band. Taking a pronounced step away from the impressive layering on her previous record, "So High", OUTSKIRTS is, instead, spare and intimate, while avoiding being sparse or parched.
A truly in-the-moment recording, Jenifer's band knows these songs -- and each other -- so well, their ease and camaraderie provide a lived-in authenticity to this mellow-dramatic set of reflections. The acoustic soul of "Don't Fade", the peppy Burt Bacharach touches of "Suddenly Unexpectedly", the Seventies seduction groove pushing "The Change", the cascading keyboards on the ballad "Dreamland", are all artful and effortless.
Best of all, her band-mates know to let Jenifer's voice remain the focus. Whether she's sings high and ethereal, or drops down to a low dusky whisper, Jenifer's conversational, confessional, innate vocal stylings inhabit a song, making her someone you just simply have to listen to. "I had this idea of how I wanted OUTSKIRTS to be," Jenifer says, "and I never let go of it. I didn't compromise -- and with my band and Brad, my producer and engineer, I didn't have to compromise -- and I am so proud of what we did."
Many musicians aspire to having a record sound like a bunch of friends sitting around in a room, just playing their songs -- and go to elaborate lengths in the recording studio to make it all sound convincingly casual.
But with OUTSKIRTS, Jenifer and her band simply sat in a circle at New York City's Magic Shop recording studio and played. They didn't don headphones, they didn't pump up the volume. Instead they performed quietly, intently, intensely, irreverently, doing whatever the songs called for, whatever they demanded. "I'm not a real techie, I'm not into getting headphone levels set. And this time I didn't have to," Jenifer says with a laugh. (Indeed, until her studio time fell into place, Jenifer was planning to record OUTSKIRTS in her East Village apartment. That's where she and her band rehearsed for the record, sitting in a circle and playing quietly -- with no headphones.)
Regarding OUSKIRTS as a document of the four days spent recording the record Jenifer and her longtime band -- Pat Sansone (Wilco) on bass, Greg Wiz (Joseph Arthur) on drums, Sonny Barbato on accordion & keys, Oren Bloedow (M'chelle N'degeocello) on guitar, and Nate Walcott (Brighteyes) on trumpets -- viewed the sessions as "a process of the heart and art."
Jenifer explains: "Sure they're my band, but, really, they are all friends who just wanted to be a part of this record. We've all been together so long that we are all invested in the music -- the music is the motivation. We were all there to capture a moment. And, sure, OUTSKIRTS may not be perfect, but that's not the point," Jenifer describes her producer/engineer Brad Jones as "an excellent surgeon who can make a cardboard box sound good" and doesn't let his ego or his ideas dominate the session. He was there to help, there to solve problems.
And with OUTSKIRTS, Brad was there to oversee four days of 12-hour sessions that, by design, were one-take recordings of the songs -- remember: no adding on instruments later; okay, a horn part, but no big deal. What's really impressive is that a lot of these one-take songs were done on the first take. But as Jenfier points out: "We knew we could do it this way -- really quiet, no headaches -- because we've been working toward this for a long time now."
As for OUTSKIRTS itself, as Jenifer looked at her life and her career, she found herself searching for a new direction, a next chapter. As she wrote her latest songs she realized that this "in-between" moment was becoming a chapter in itself, with the recording of OUTSKIRTS bringing it all into a tight focus. And just as OUTSKIRTS was a step away musically from her previous records, lyrically, too, Jenifer has stepped away, with the record offering a clutch of 'outside looking in' songs that hint at the outskirts of the record's title.
"This has been a longing and searching time," Jenifer says. "Searching for love, a new place and finding bits and pieces along the way." Or, as Jenifer puts it in "For You": "On the outside trying to get back to the inside, to you."
Now, however, after ten years of living in New York City, she's heading off to Austin. Though, really, this is a case of heading back, since Jenifer has a bit of a history with that Texas town. She performed there in 1998 with Jules Shear, and has been "in and around" Austin's South by Southwest music marathon five times.
"I've always had an unrequited love for Austin," Jenifer says, "feeling the way about that place like I used to feel for New York when I was a kid growing up in Massachusetts. But of course there's a pang, as I love New York City."
Jenifer spent two months in Austin last winter and lately she'd been wondering: Can I move there? Can I leave New York? What clinched the move was realizing that she wasn't just going to Austin for her music, but for herself. "The speed of life has become more important to me," Jenifer says. "And Austin just seems my speed now." So then: Next stop -- or, really, next step -- Austin, Texas.
And the next Jenifer Jackson album? "Oh, I have no idea how it will sound," says Jenifer. "But I can't wait to make it."
-Ivor Hanson
biography
Jenifer Jackson is a singer's singer and a writer's writer. Her soulful, wistful voice coupled with her classic, melodic writing have critics comparing her to such notables as Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Astrid Gilberto, Burt Bacharach and Marvin Gaye.
She has toured the USA and Europe promoting her numerous releases: Love Lane, Slowly Bright, Birds, Together in Time, So High and now, Passaporto and Outskirts of a Giant Town.
Jackson's bandmates and collaborators include Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann), Pat Sansone (Wilco), Sonny Barbato, Oren Bloedow (Elysian Fields, Chocolate Genius), Greg Wiz, Nate Walcott (Brighteyes), Nashville's Brad Jones and Jay Bellerose (Joe Henry).
She supported Jules Shear on his US Duet tour, and has toured overseas with Jack Bruce, Hugo Race, Chris Brokaw, Marta Collica, Richard Julian, and many more.
Jenifer composed the score for the award winning indie feature film Daydream Believer, which won a 2001 Independent Spirit Award. She has recorded and released an album of standard jazz duets with her father Julian, called Together In Time. Among her other collaborations, she has co-written songs with Austin's Troy Campbell, with Swan Dive for their album June (Compass) and with Mads Mouritz for his Danish release This Chaos Called Love. She also co-starred with Rosie Perez in the off-off Broadway play Brooklyn Bridge.
Her release on Bar None Records, So High, made its mark on radio stations nationwide and landed on many a year-end "Best of 2003" lists including: WKUT in Austin and WFUV in New York. Tangents UK named So High "Best Soft Pop Album" of 2003. Jenifer appeared on World Cafe with David Dye, Mountain Stage, and NPR's "All Things Considered"
So High was released in France on Bad Reputation Records during Spring of 2005 and it incudes two French re-mixes "La Force de L'Amour" and "Si Haut".
Also in 2005, Jenifer recorded a yet to be released album of Goffin-King hits from the 60's and 70's, which was produced by Pat Sansone. (Wilco, Autumn Defense).
Jackson performed at the legendary Olympia Theater in Paris for the first International Crossroads Night, and was a featured performer in the nationally syndicated television series "Spotlight On Performing Songwriters". The year ended with a tour of Italy and co-writing and recording two songs with the Italian band Noorda for their CD, L'antipole, (Desvelos Records).
Look for two new independent releases from this prolific songbird; Outskirts of a Giant Town and Passaporto a collection of romantic, acoustic songs in sung Italian, Portuguese, French and Spanish both produced by Brad Jones.