Jumpin' Jive

ike his fellow Angry Young Man/New Wave archetype Elvis Costello, Jackson's musical abilities/interests were always too broad to be straightjacketed by pop-rock. The deep reggae grooves of 1980's criminally under-rated BEAT CRAZY were the first sign of this, and the following year's JUMPIN JIVE made that fact abundantly clear. Flouting commercial appeal, Jackson made an album that pays tribute to the jump blues of Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, Louis Prima, etc. He dropped his guitar-based rock band for a six-man jazz combo. Jackson's reedy voice was never meant to challenge the chops of his heroes, so the sonic disparity isn't a factor.
It's a pleasure to hear him reveling in the joys of a style decades old, but still capable of packing a punch. All the tunes he covers here are from the golden era of jump blues, most of them classics, and he plays it consistently straight, staying close to the original arrangements. At the time, there was no less commercial record he could have made, so it's ironic that after years out of print, the album would be reissued 18 years later due to the late-'90s swing revival. It's doubly ironic that JUMPIN' JIVE is more fun than that revival's leading lights.|