Alan Jackson

British Jazz drummer (January 5, 1940 in Mottingham, London).

Alan Jackson is one of the great British modern jazz drummers who emerged in the 1960’s. He was a mainstay of Mike Westbrook’s bands for many years: if for nothing else, his place in history is assured by his presence on masterpieces like Celebration, Love Songs, Metropolis, and Citadel/Room 315. He has remarked on his pride in the fact that, alongside people like Westbrook and Surman, he could make music ‘totally free of having to play in any particular style’. As a teenager in the 50s, he had been drawn to jazz and blues, particularly the New Orleans band of Ken Colyer. He later joined Humphrey Lyttelton for two years, before finding his place in the new British jazz of the 60s & 70s. As well as Westbrook, he played for John Surman’s Trio, Keith Tippett, Howard Riley, the New Jazz Orchestra and the John Warren Big Band. Dave Green’s Fingers band saw supporting a front line which paired avant-gardist Lol Coxhill with the original ‘dirty bopper’ Bruce Turner. He later formed a long association with another great British composer/pianist/bandleader, Michael Garrick, and one member of Garrick’s last quartet, Martin Hathaway, rejoins Alan today. Alongside them in the quartet are Dominic Howells on bass and Graham Harvey on piano.