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Michael Gregory

Songwriter, Composer, Guitarist, Improviser, Poet and Music Producer Michael Gregory (nee Michael Gregory Jackson) is a figure who paved the way for the Black Rock movement in the 1980s.

A musical innovator and brilliant improviser, always on the cutting edge, he recording for Arista, RCA, Island and many other labels and headed the power-trio Signal. Gregory's genre bending guitar virtuosity is readily apparent, scumbling phrases into grays and browns with the use of a volume pedal (an acknowledged influence on Bill Frisell and many other musicians).

Michael is also an accomplished and mind-blowing vocalist, often compared to Sting, Smokey Robinson, Seal and Al Jarreau. Michael has successfully straddled the pop and improvised music worlds since the beginning of his career in the 1970s. Michael's influences vary widely, from Stravinsky to Cage from Hemphill to Ellington from Wonder to Bacharach. Michael possesses his own very unique, highly creative and fertile voice.

Born Michael Gregory Jackson in New Haven, Connecticut, Michael began to play guitar at the age of seven. In his teens he often performed his own material during solo gigs and band appearances. Among Michaels early influences were Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Son House, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and Igor Stravinsky. His father exposed him to Wes Montgomery, Mahalia Jackson, Les Paul, Mary Ford, and early George Benson, and Michael's musical destiny began to take shape.

Progressive improvised music composer and trumpeter, Wadada Leo Smith, influenced Gregory to look beyond the boundaries of rock, folk and mainstream jazz, and soon Michael was playing avant- garde music with Smith and such other notables as pianist Anthony Davis, saxophonists Julius Hemphill, David Murray and Oliver Lake. During this period, Gregory notes, "I learned that it was ok to try different things, to experiment. I've allowed myself to be free creatively and stylistically."

Gregory produced a series of stand out creative music recordings, including "Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square", "Karmonic Suite", "Gifts" and "Heart and Center".

Rolling Stone magazine raved, "By the time (Gregory) was twenty-one he was already one of the most original jazz guitarists to emerge since the sixties." Michael's unique style and innovations have changed the face of jazz guitar and influenced many other very well known guitarists and musicians in many genres of music. Michael changed his name in 1982, to Michael Gregory, to avoid confusion with another artist who shared his name. It was during this period that Michael's career began to take off.

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Extended Analysis

Michael Gregory Jackson: Clarity

Read "Michael Gregory Jackson: Clarity" reviewed by Clifford Allen


Michael Gregory Jackson Clarity ESP-Disk 2010 (1976)

In the musical climate of 2010, the fact that a diverse range of musical styles and approaches can be combined is something often taken for granted. Creative music has long recombined musics from various non-Western sources as well as jazz and Western art music. While not always successful, improvised music has been brought together with contemporary popular music, such as indie rock and electronica. There is something ...

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Event

Dafna Naphtali, Michael Gregory, Jen Baker and Ras Moshe at Spectrum in NYC on January 3

Dafna Naphtali, Michael Gregory, Jen Baker and Ras Moshe at Spectrum in NYC on January 3

Source: Michael Gregory

Spectrum January 3, 2013 at 7:00pm 121 Ludlow St. New York, NY, 10002 Michael Gregory Jackson, Clarity, Circle, Triangle and Square” The opening “Clarity” begins with terse acoustic guitar arpeggios, keening flute and tenor, and then moves through an evenly-spaced upward tone row, following along a path outlined by Smith’s concept of rhythm units. The shock — at least to those solely weaned on improvised music — comes when Gregory spins out a delicate, ...

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Performance / Tour

Kresten Osgood Trio with Oliver Lake & Michael Gregory Jackson at Cornelia Street Caf Thursday April 6

Kresten Osgood Trio with Oliver Lake & Michael Gregory Jackson at Cornelia Street Caf Thursday April 6

Source: All About Jazz

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1,9 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, F to West 4th St.

Kresten Osgood Trio

Oliver Lake, saxes Michael Gregorry Jackson, guitar Kresten Osgood, drums

Thursday April 6, 8:30PM & 10:00PM cover $10 + $6min.

This evening features a very specialmeeting of new ...

Selected Reviews:

Michael Gregory Jackson Clarity re-release ESP-Disk 2010 (1976) “The opening "Clarity" (the title also contains a graphic element not reproducible here) begins with terse acoustic guitar arpeggios, keening flute and tenor, and then moves through an evenly-spaced upward tone row, following along a path outlined by Smith's concept of rhythm units. The shock��"at least to those solely weaned on improvised music��"comes when Gregory spins out a delicate, soulful tune with a vocal delivery reminiscent of a young Stevie Wonder. It's a short sung poem that meanders along a burbling sonic brook, but its effect is extraordinary, immediate and unlike anything else before or since in improvised music”. ~ Clifford Allen - All About Jazz

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Primary Instrument

Guitar

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

California Institute for the Arts L.A., CA, visiting Composer, Faculty , Artist and Student workshops 2005- present, Copenhagen Rhythmic Conservatory of Music DK visiting Composer, Faculty , Artist and Student workshops 1979- present Sonnderburg Music Academy, DK visiting Composer, Faculty, Artist and Student workshops Hampshire College 2008-2009 visiting Composer and Artist, Student workshops, Michael’s pieces performed at Student Spring Concert New England Conservatory of Music Faculty Third Stream Department 1979-1980 Creative Music Studio, Woodstock, N.Y. Faculty 1975- 1986 Visiting Artist Berklee College of Music, N.Y.U., Columbia University, Yale University, Southern Connecticut State College.

Clinic/Workshop Information

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Michael Gregory...

Unknown label
2010

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The Way We Used To Do

Creative Sources
1990

buy

What To Where

Creative Sources
1988

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Videos

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