{"id":88,"date":"2008-05-08T11:23:52","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T15:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2008\/05\/franz_jackson_sevendecade_jazz\/"},"modified":"2019-09-13T14:26:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T18:26:44","slug":"franz_jackson_sevendecade_jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/05\/franz_jackson_sevendecade_jazz.html","title":{"rendered":"Franz Jackson, seven-decade jazz master"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk about a legendary career: Chicago saxophonist and clarintest\u00c2\u00a0Franz Jackson<\/a>, who died at age 95 on May 6, spanned American vernacular music from the Roaring ’20s to the postmodern present. He began as a 16-year-old professional with\u00c2\u00a0stride and boogie woogie pianist Albert Ammons<\/a>, starred as a featured soloist in the the hottest Depression Era big bands, entertained WWII troops under USO auspices, popularized Midwestern neo-traditional “jass”<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in the ’50s and ’60s and kept playin’ in essentially uncategorical situations up until a couple of weeks of his demise.<\/p>\n

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Among Jackson’s recent high visibility gigs were his turn at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival <\/a>of 2007, and also last year’s “Tribute to Fletcher Henderson” commissioned by the Jazz Institute of Chicago<\/a> for the Great Black Music Ensemble, performed at the Frank Gehry bandshell in Millenium Park, where he sat amid creative musicians less than half his age, not revisiting the past but rather carrying it forward.<\/p>\n
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\n\"FranzJackson.forweb.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jackson was also a participant in the Jazz Journalists Association’s panel discussion of King Oliver at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 2005. Jackson heard Oliver play at the Royal Garden Inn, where Louis Armstrong joined him, in the mid ’20s, and had sharp recall of that experience. His music from his salad days is heard on recordings with the always hardswinging, often groundbreaking Earl “Fatha” Hines big band<\/a> and some editions of Fats Waller’s small groups<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Jackson was born in Rock Island, IL, lived in Europe for a time, and was beloved in Chicago, where he was based for most of his life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
photo of Franz Jackson, 2002, courtesty of Bob Cook;<\/strong> from the saxophonist’s performance at Quad City Arts, Black Hawk College, for\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0Jazz & Blues Restoration Project, part of the Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk about a legendary career: Chicago saxophonist and clarintest\u00c2\u00a0Franz Jackson, who died at age 95 on May 6, spanned American vernacular music from the Roaring ’20s to the postmodern present. He began as a 16-year-old professional with\u00c2\u00a0stride and boogie woogie pianist Albert Ammons, starred as a featured soloist in the the hottest Depression Era big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-1q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2904,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2021\/05\/record-man-koesters-blues-and-jazz-legacy.html","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":0},"title":"Record man Koester’s blues and jazz legacy","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"May 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Chicagoan Bob Koester, proprietor of the Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records for nearly 70 years, is a model of music activism and entrepreneurship from an era rapidly receding and unlikely in current business circumstances. Neil Genzlinger did a nice formal New York Times obit, and I've written a remembrance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob-Koester-00115x7-BW-JJ-1200x798-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob-Koester-00115x7-BW-JJ-1200x798-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob-Koester-00115x7-BW-JJ-1200x798-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob-Koester-00115x7-BW-JJ-1200x798-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob-Koester-00115x7-BW-JJ-1200x798-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":954,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/07\/funding-jazz-projects-kickstarter-and-other-pleas.html","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":1},"title":"Funding jazz projects: Kickstarter and other pleas","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"July 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Do-it-yourself practicalities pertain to serious jazz projects -- artists whatever their art form do what they must to fund their projects. Hence\u00c2\u00a0Kickstarter, the platform that seems to have become the functional alternative to asking wealthy patrons to underwrite expeditions, experiments and print folios.\u00c2\u00a0That model worked for Columbus, Edison and Audubon,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/electric-ascension.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3000,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2022\/08\/who-plays-the-saxophone-and-why.html","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":2},"title":"Who plays the saxophone? 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