Bertland
The musical universe of Bert Jackson

This past summer I had the opportunity to work with the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival and volunteered at many of the concerts, including the premier of “The Cape Cod Files” composed by Cuban jazz and classical master Paquito D’Rivera. After the concert the staff and musicians went out for a late dinner, including Paquito himself, who was on hand. It was one of those truly special evenings, with musicians sharing stories (including Paquito telling off-color jokes). I was buzzing when I finally got home and immediately picked up the guitar. An hour or so later most of this was done. It was refined over the next week or so, but 90% came that evening. So, thanks, Paquito, this one’s for you.

Title: Paquito
Composer: Bert Jackson
Guitar (Martin acoustic): Bert Jackson

All one track, no overdubs

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One of my fav Antonio Carlos Jobim tunes (but they are ALL favs). This is me on lead and rhythm guitars, with bass and drums provided by the ever reliable Band-in-a-Box.

Title: How Insensative
Composer: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Guitars (Ibanez GB-10 hollowbody): Bert Jackson
Bass, Drums: BIAB
Recorded: Nov 9, 2009

Two guitar tracks plus BIAB

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I’ve been playing around with the new live sample tracks in Band-in-a-Box and thought I try another recording of this classic jazz tune. “Softly…” was written in the 1920’s by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical “New Moon”. It has been recorded in a number of styles throughout the years, including bebop. My version is sort of bebopish. This is one of my all-time fav jazz tunes to play.

Title: Softly as in a Morning Sunrise
Composers: Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II
Guitar (Ibanez GB-10 hollowbody): Bert Jackson
Piano, Bass, Drums: BIAB
Recorded: Nov 8, 2009

One guitar track plus BIAB

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My latest tune is a fast jazz in 3/4 called “Warm Luke”, named after a friend’s dad who left this life this past week. This is a short draft, the guitar parts are just two takes each. Hope to have a more evolved version soon.

Title: Warm Luke
Composer: Bert Jackson
Guitars (Ibanez GB-10 hollowbody): Bert Jackson
Bass, Drums: BIAB
Recorded: Nov 7, 2009

Two guitar tracks plus BIAB

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Well this little trio has a name for now- Robertchez (Roe-Bert-Cheryl). This is a shot by Bob Tucker from our performance at the Cape Rep Theatre’s “Evening of Song and Dance”.

Roe Osborn, Cheryl Kain, Bert Jackson

This tune was written back in the early 80s and evolved through several iterations. This is the last recorded version, done around 1987/88. It’s all me, Roland drum machine, synth drone track, bass, acoustic and electric guitars and guitar synth for the flute sound.

I was working with sarod player Peter Boardman last night and we used the second part of the Anurhada theme as a basis for our sarod/guitar conversation. Thought it may be good to have this hanging around.

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This is a little droney tune I wrote in 1984, on the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated (I didn’t know it at the time and named the piece when I found out). This is a “scratch” version I recorded last week in Garage Band to test how it would work with two guitars. The timing is off in places, but some people asked to hear it so here it is.

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Ran a quicky one take of Softly as in a Morning Sunrise (Romberg/Hammerstein) with yours truly playing the trusty Ibanez GB-10 with Band-in-a-Box accompaniment. Not the same as real players, of course, but a lot easier to schedule!

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Another tune that grew out of Jean Coyne’s Roland D-50 keyboard’s extended visit to my house. Started playing around with some stuff and this quasi-classical thing came out. Remember, this was 1987-88 and we had never heard sampled audio patches before. The horn sounds just blew me away. This is all me, all synth recorded on a few tracks.

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This is one of the last iterations of Razor’s Edge in the 80s, with Mike Lurie on bass and Patrick Whatule on drums (Patrick was later replaced by the late great Charles Lynch). This was from a gig we did at the Stouffer Grand Resort in Smith Bay on St. Thomas. The room acoustics were great, as I am pretty sure it was recorded with the internal mic of my cheesy little Hitachi boom box.

Minor Mystery is a Ray Brown tune that I have only heard on Poll Winners Three with Barney Kessel, Brown and Shelley Mann.

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