Album Review: Joe Jackson-'Summer In The City Live in New York' (Sony Classical)

Many pop fans may not be aware that Joe Jackson has been very busy lately. Even long time fans may not be aware of all that he has been up to. Little wonder. His releases of the past five years, ‘Night Music’ and ‘Heaven and Hell’ went largely unnoticed by the record buying public, and may have contributed to the perception of inactivity.

Last year he released an autobiography of sorts ‘A Cure For Gravity’, and his ‘Symphony No. 1’. Unlike Paul McCartney’s ‘Liverpool Oratorio’ and whatever Billy Joel swears he’s going to complete right after his next ‘final’ rock show, Jackson knows what he’s doing when it comes to orchestral music. Having studied at the Royal College of Music, Jackson deviated from his studies there to pursue his pop dream. In addition, this type of composition is not new territory for Jackson, having released ‘Will Power’ in 1987 (conducted by George Manahan).

So those fans who have been thrown from the Jackson bandwagon with each new re-invention may be leery of his latest release, ‘Summer in the City’, and that it is distributed by the classical division of Sony. Fear not, pop fans, the listening is fine.

Recorded in New York in August 1999, Jackson presents a trio performance, with long time bandmates Graham Maby (bass and vocals) and Gary Burke (drums). Maby is Jackson’s original bass player, and has played on all but two of his rock albums.

Although Jackson is a piano player, the prominence of piano on his records has typically not been equal to that of other instruments, such as guitar and percussion. Even in concert, Jackson spends less time at the keyboard than he does at the microphone. In the trio setting however, the piano is central to the sound, and Jackson gets few breaks from it throughout the performance.

Do not look for his biggest hits like ‘Stepping Out’, ‘Breaking Us In Two’ or ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him?’ on ‘Summer’. But look for equally good, albeit less familiar numbers from his catalog like ‘Be My Number Two’, ‘You Can’t Get What You Want’, and ‘It’s Different For Girls’.

The trio is surprisingly effective in delivering his earliest rock songs like ‘Fools In Love’ (coupled with a cover of the Yardbirds’ ‘For Your Love’), and ‘One More Time’, which contains Maby’s signature bass line. Also notable is the lone song from Jackson’s magnum opus ‘Night and Day’, ‘Another World’. ‘Obvious Song’ loses little of the punch achieved with full band complement when originally released on 1991’s ‘Laughter and Lust’. ‘Hometown’ from ‘Big World’ stands out as a solo piece for piano and voice.

Jackson throws in a little jazz for variety, offering Duke Ellington’s ‘Mood Indigo’, with an all too short piano solo, and ‘The In-Crowd’, a major breakthrough hit for Ramsey Lewis from 1965, which is effectively paired with ‘Down To London’ from the financially disastrous but critically successful ‘Blaze of Glory’.

Jackson covers The Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Summer in the City’ and takes its name for the album’s title. Also covered within the context of two separate medleys are ‘Eleanor Rigby’, and Steely Dan’s ‘King of the World’.

The playing sparkles throughout. Jackson is not given to extended solos or improvisation, which would spell doom for lesser rock artists whose melodies may be found wanting absent of it.

‘Summer in the City’, breaks new ground as far as arrangements go, even though some of the material may be familiar to those who have followed each phase of Jackson’s career. For any of those he may have lost along the way, ‘Summer in the City’ is well worth visiting, if only to remind you of why he found you in the first place.