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Julian Jackson Quartet

I Can't Get Started

33JAZZ129

With three successive Hohner Harmonica Championships, periods of study at both the Guildhall and Royal Academy, and encouragement from Toots Thielemans and Julian Joseph behind him, Liverpudlian Julian Jackson can reasonably claim to be in the first rank of jazz harmonica players, and this album contains ten great showcases for his extraordinary gift.

Like other performers on 'unusual' jazz instruments (a good parallel might be Richard Galliano on accordion), he impresses initially courtesy solely of his amazing technique, but such surprise quickly gives way to admiration for his fecund musical imagination, an improvisational bent that results in punchy versions of standards such as the album's lengthy title track and 'Autumn Leaves', and an ability to extract genuine emotion (often courtesy of an affecting 'dying fall' at the ends of phrases) from ballads ('Alfie' and Bill Evans's 'Laurie').

With sterling support from a sparky band (pianist Tim Lapthorn, bassist Tom Herbert and drummer Patrick Levett), Jackson turns in a highly impressive performance on this lively, intelligently programmed album.