Joe Jackson - Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive
#234
By Tom Mott
Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive
Genre: Jump Blues
Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5
Tom’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Jumpin' with Symphony Sid in the City
Jumpin' Jive
Allen’s Highlights Add:
Jack, You’re Dead
Five Guys Named Moe
This Joe Jackson gem falls midway between his Dixieland album and his Tuvan throat-singing album.
Jackson put out two great angry-young-man sorta-punk-in-the-way-Costello-was-punk albums.
Then came Beat Crazy, previously discussed.
And then -- this!
I loved Jumpin' Jive at the time. My lord, how could a marching band geek not love this?
I'm loving it again. It's a blast! The band is having a blast. Wow, they're good. The horn arrangements are fantastic. (And there are only three of them!) Joe sounds invigorated by the music, inhabiting the characters in each song. The album sound is clear and great.
The album is sequenced like a live show in a supper club. The band comes out of the gates storming, with Jackson letting us get to know each band member (musically, not verbally). He doesn't start singing until the first song is more than half over. They keep the energy up, do a torchlight number, and end Side 1 in the frenzy of Five Guys Named Moe. After a brief intermission as we flip the album over, they come back swingin' hard with Jumpin' Jive, and apart from an overlong Tuxedo Junction -- the weakest track on the album -- the energy rarely flags.
Like the Squirrel Nut Zippers 12-14 years later, it's neither slavish nor nostalgic. There's electricity here. Joe Jackson looked around at the rockabilly revivalists, soul revivalists, and blues worshippers and said hold my beer, I'll show you the motherlode. Like your cool uncle telling you to pull your head out of our ass, and then hipping you to the good stuff. Psst, our grandparents were having sex! Before rock and roll, there was jump blues and swing, and parties and liquor and fun, and it was current and urgent and in the now, not a nostalgic thing. Every song is a cover -- Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway are most represented -- but Jackson lets us listen with fresh ears. He and the band infuse it all with so much energy, you want to jump in and join them.
I obsessed over this album in 1981. Who was Symphony Sid? Was the DJ committee a real thing? Who was "Jayzee?" Who was Pressburg? Why did they leave in the cracked trumpet note in the Jumpin' Jive solo? What's an "ickeroo"? Are they singing "bop bop" or "mop mop" and is that related to Beanie and Cecil singing "rag mop"? Could I still be a sax player if I couldn't sing unison backing vocals in key?
P.S. #1: Yes, I could! I was in a swing big band through the latter part of high-school. Dick Clark's Note-ables. Mostly adults. Playing off original 30-40 year old sheet music. We played a lot of dances at the NCO club on the local air force base. We were definitely NOT hep-cats -- Dick wore a toupee, bless him -- but it was a blast, and I got paid after every gig. After six months, the lead alto player told me to grow some balls so he'd have someone to play with. (He said it much more kindly, but that's how I absorbed it.) It turns out my elementary school principal played sax in big bands in his younger years, and his wife was a killer trumpet player. Who knew?! We the cats shall hep ya, so reap this righteous riff!
P.S. #2: This album felt like an outlier in 81. I don't remember it getting ANY radio play, but it broke the Top 50 in the U.S. And ... Madness and the Specials had killer horn sections, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo had been exploring this territory for a couple years, and Roman Holiday was coming up. Adam Ant and Bowie were about to add horns. It was there if you knew where to look. Maybe all those kids who heard this in '81 grew up and started bands in the 90s.
P.S. #3: I always hated the photo on the front cover. It's by Anton Corbijn who has been the visual creative director for Depeche Mode and U2 for 30 years. What do I know.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7spQJsP6dimhGMNgsBYaRO?si=DI9UNQAQT8OuNsl3mLbLdw
