AT 64, JOE JACKSON IS AS INFECTIOUSLY CROSSGENRE AS EVER, AND IS IN A ROCKING MOOD AS HE HEADS TO NEW JERSEY AND MANHATTAN FOR FEBRUARY TOUR DATES

BY EVAN MONROE PHOTO BY JACOB BLICKENSTAFF

Joe Jackson has been, since his breakout album Look Sharp! In 1979, wonderfully difficult to define. From hits on that disc like “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” and “Sunday Papers,” the title track to 1982’s Night and Day (and one of the most addictively foot tapping songs of the decade, “Stepping Out”) to thirteen subsequent studio albums, his fusion of jazz, pop, blues…even classical and an emphasis on intimate soundscapes have left critics and audiences in a state of happy confusion as to which Joe is going to show next.

Now a seasoned 64, the five time Grammy Award nominee offers some backward glances in his 20th disc, Fool, set for a late January release. Its preview single, “Fabulously Absolute,” finds him in stellar voice, one seemingly unaged from his New Wave days, as he just about thrashes his way through an exploration of why so many decisions get made badly and/or at the behest of others. It’s dark, thrilling, and decidedly not standard issue sexagenarian fare.

Joe-Jackson

Produced by Jackson, along with Pat Dillett (who’s worked with Sufjan Stevens and David Byrne), Fool’s songs are, as Jackson explained, “about fear and anger and alienation and loss, but also about the things that still make life worth living: friendship, laughter, and music, or art itself. I couldn’t have done this in 1979. I just hadn’t lived enough, “ adding that “The title track is about my favorite superhero: the one whose special power is to make us laugh. He is immortal and invulnerable; you can’t kill humor. And like Shakespeare’s Fools, he is really no fool at all. I think it’s the title track because in this battle of comedy and tragedy, he’s the good guy, the one I’m rooting for.”

Joe Jackson
Feb. 12, Scottish Rite Auditorium,
315 White Horse Pike, Collingswood,
NJ / 856.858.1000 scottishriteauditorium.com
Feb. 15 and 16, The Town Hall,
123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan / thetownhall.org

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