SYMPHONY No. 1 Many people who still think of Joe Jackson only as a pop singer/songwriter will probably see this project as a big departure. However, as readers of his new book "A Cure for Gravity" will discover, Joe started off as a composer and took a long detour through the pop world. He hasn't given up writing songs or singing; he's simply revealing more sides of a diverse talent. Joe Jackson's first Symphony is for real. In fact, he already has plans for a Second.
Joe played all the keyboards on the recording, along with the following
musicians: Click here to order Symphony No.1. |
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After
several years (on and off) of work, Joe Jackson's First Symphony is finally
released in October 1999. The work is cast in a fairly traditional four-movement
form, but is not "classical" in style. For instance (to quote from Joe's
liner note), "on the eve of the 21st century, a piece which was symphonic
in structure surely didn't have to be written for a 19th-century orchestra
to qualify as a symphony." Joe also had "a handful of very simple musical
themes in my head and wanted to see if they could be developed and transformed
throughout four whole movements. Gradually, I started to see the symphony
as a person, like a character in a musical novel, traveling through four
stages of life". Hence the final form of the piece, with the movements
("First," "Fast," "Slow," and "Last") roughly reflecting childhood, youth,
mid-life and old age.