Walter Jackson (March 19, 1938 – June 20, 1983) – When I See You (1981)

From the last album the great soul singer released before his early death, this superb disco-funk jam was produced by Carl Davis and arranged by Tom Tom 84.

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Walter Jackson was a soul and R&B singer/songwriter. He was discovered singing in a Detroit nightclub in 1962 by Columbia Records A&R executive Carl Davis, who went on to produce most of his records over the next two decades.

See our earlier post on Jackson for more on his musical career.

After Davis set up Chi-Sound Records in the mid-seventies, Jackson scored the biggest R&B hit of his career with his 1976 cover of Morris Albert’s “Feelings,” produced by Davis for his Feeling Good LP. They followed it up with I Want To Come Back As A Song (1977), featuring a stellar cover of Jackson’s own first hit “It’s All Over” (1964) which was written by Curtis Mayfield and originally co-produced by Mayfield and Davis. The backing band included Mayfield’s longtime conga player “Master Henry” Gibson and onetime drummer Quinton Joseph, alongside the great Phil Upchurch on guitar.

Davis produced another three albums for Jackson over the next few years, including Good To See You (1978) and Send In The Clowns (1979), both on Chi-Sound but the latter distributed by 20th Century Fox. For his final LP Tell Me Where It Hurts (1981) on Columbia, Jackson recorded the epic disco-funk jam “When I See You,” produced by Davis, arranged by “Tom Tom 84” Washington, and co-written by Keith Echols, M. Titus and A. Sanderson.

Two years after its release, Jackson died of a cerebral hemorrhage, gone far too soon at age 45.

Rest in Power, Walter Jackson.

Further info:

“Walter Jackson - Can It Possibly Be That This Man Has Never Had His Own Thread Here?”, SoulfulDetroit Forum.

#soul #funk #disco #CarlDavis #WalterJackson