PAUL JACKSON
Genres: RnB, Funk Jazz • United States

Jackson worked as a sideman with a wide variety of artists, from Santana and the Pointer Sisters to the jazz saxophonists Stanley Turrentine and Sonny Rollins. But he is undeniably best known for his association with Hancock, which lasted through most of the '70s. His insistent, conversational electric bass lines propelled Headhunters — with Hancock on keyboards, Bennie Maupin on saxophone, Bill Summers on percussion, and either Clark or Harvey Mason on drums — to the furthest reaches of rapturous jazz-funk. Jackson's playing both tethered the band to the ground and encouraged it to take flight. He can be heard on all four Headhunters albums under Hancock's direction: 1973's Head Hunters, 1974's Thrust, 1975's Man-Child, and the 1975 live LP Flood. The relentlessly funky Head Hunters, inspired more by Sly and the Family Stone than by Hancock's onetime boss Miles Davis, became the best-selling jazz album of all time on release — read more...