Paul Jackson (March 28, 1947 – March 18, 2021) – Spank-A-Lee (1974)
The legendary bassist and founding member of the Headhunters co-wrote this epic jazz-funk jam for Thrust, Herbie Hancock's second LP backed by the group.
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Paul Jackson was an extremely talented bassist best known for being one of the original members of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and playing on several landmark jazz-funk albums with him in the 1970s.
Born in Oakland, California, Paul Jerome Jackson Jr. began playing multiple instruments as a child, starting with piano and bassoon before taking up the bass at age nine. He played with the Oakland Symphony Orchestra when he was 14, and later attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
In the early seventies, Jackson joined former Santana members Coke and Pete Escovedo’s Latin funk rock group Azteca. For their self-titled debut LP, released on Columbia in 1972, Jackson wrote and sang lead on the jam “Can't Take The Funk Out Of Me,” featuring Lenny White on drums and Neal Schon on guitar. The following year, he co-wrote the stellar “Whatcha Gonna Do” off their second album Pyramid Of The Moon (1973). White returned on drums, and it was the only one of the LP’s tracks that Schon appeared on, who didn’t disappoint when he delivered an epic solo.
Jackson joined Herbie Hancock’s new jazz fusion group the Headhunters in 1973, alongside Benny Maupin on saxophone and clarinet, Bill Summers on percussion, and Harvey Mason on drums. Their debut LP Head Hunters went to #13 on the Billboard 200 on its way to going gold, the first jazz album to do so, and helped establish jazz-funk as a major musical force in the seventies.
Hancock was again backed by the Headhunters on his next album Thrust (1974). Jackson, Hancock, and the group’s new drummer Mike Clark co-wrote the epic funky jam “Spank-A-Lee.”
While touring Europe that fall to promote Thrust, they performed the track live on the German music TV show Musikladen.
For Man-Child (1975), Hancock’s fifteenth studio album and his last with the Headhunters, he and Jackson co-wrote two tracks with the great guitarist Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin. One was the very funky closing cut “Heartbeat,” and the other was the LP’s opener, the jazz-funk masterpiece “Hang Up Your Hang Ups.”
See our earlier post on Herbie Hancock for more on Jackson’s time with the Headhunters.
In 1974, Jackson released a rare single under his own name, the silly funk jam “Quack, Quack, Quack” b/w the heartfelt “You're My First Love.” Both sides were written and produced by Jackson, and it was the first and only ever release on San Francisco-based Hollywood Records. Original copies today sell for hundreds of dollars on Discogs.
Jackson and Hancock both guested on the Pointer Sisters’ 1975 LP Steppin’, produced by David Rubinson, and played on the funky cut “Chainey Do” which was co-written by Willie McTell and Taj Mahal. It also featured Ragin on guitar and Bill Summers on percussion.
Jackson’s debut solo LP Black Octopus was released in 1978 on the Japanese label Eastworld, a Toshiba EMI subsidiary. He wrote and produced the entire album, including what was arguably its highlight, the superb cut “Funk Times Three.” It featured Bennie Maupin on tenor sax, Webster Lewis on Hammond organ, and Alphonse Mouzon on drums.
In the late seventies, Jackson joined the short-lived funk group Free Love, who released their ultra-rare self-titled debut album on EmKay Records in 1979, recorded in St. Louis and co-produced by Oliver Sain. Jackson wrote the LP’s epic, laid back, funky closing cut “Big City.” He played bass on all its tracks, like the superb James Brown-esque opening cut “Pushin’ To The Top,” and the funk workout “Paul’s Song,” plus the socially conscious anthems “This Ain't Livin'” and “Together We Stand” (both of which were previously released in 1975 by Westmoreland Co. on Vanessa Records).
“If we don’t try together to advance, Black man, white man, yellow man, red man, ain’t got a chance…Together we stand, divided we fall, without that feeling between us, we won’t stand at all.”
Original copies today sell for upwards of $800 on Discogs.
Happy Heavenly Birthday to the great Paul Jackson.
Further info:
“Roots & Branches: The story of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters in 10 records,” by Anton Spice, The Vinyl Factory, January 28, 2014.
“Groove master: Paul Jackson interview, Part 1 and 2,” by Randy L. Smith, Jazz Journal, December 9, 2019.
“Paul Jackson, Funk Bassist With Herbie Hancock, Dies at 73,” obituary, The New York Times, March 20, 2021.
#jazz #funk #HerbieHancock #Headhunters #PaulJackson