While his skills as an accompanist inextricably lift any project he contributes to, the core of Gavin’s work can be found on the two Gitbox Rebellion albums, and his three solo albums.
In New Zealand his professional life took a completely different turn, and he hooked up with a wide-ranging contingent of jazz, folk and improvising communities, over the years performing and recording with the Nairobi Trio, the Jews Brothers, Lorina Harding, Whirimako Black, Tom Ludvigson, and many more. In America, Gavin had roadied for one of his favourite guitarists, jazz fusion player John Abercrombie, and by the mid-80s he was what he describes as “the widdly-widdly” guy, a “guitar hero” in a band called Relayer that at one time, got a single into the USA top 100. In New Zealand his professional life took a completely different turn, and he hooked up with a wide-ranging contingent of jazz, folk and improvising communities. I had a year away from music, and came back to it with fresh ears.” At the same time I found out my father was born in New Zealand but left as a child, and I decided to start my life over again. I was so disheartened that I just said ‘forget it’. “It was the 80s, cocaine was at its peak in California, bad music was at its peak, and I was surrounded by people in the music industry who didn’t actually love music. Disenchanted with life and the music scene in the big hair and lite metal environment of mid-80s America, moving to NZ was his way of dropping out and starting afresh.
Through my guitars, I discovered discipline, self-awareness and inspiration, my git boxes opened a conduit, a dive in deep access and connection to the blues-ness in me.His circuitous route to life in New Zealand started with the discovery that his errant dad was born here. He goes on to explain, “My guitars, which I’ve called ‘git boxes’ since my teens, have always been my companions and a sanctuary to me, vehicles to help me through the angst of my younger life, and now. I was feeling angry, disconnected and erased thus, I recorded this music with some edges, some distortion, to communicate the multifaceted well of emotions that birthed this performance.” This project was borne of an angst-full period for me, I was feeling inundated with tragedies, the isolation of Covid lockdowns, re-occurring police and vigilante killings of Black people, and living with the omnipresent reality of systemic racism. Jackson says of Electric Git Box, “The nature of beauty is at the core of my being and my music, alongside aggression, passion, fire, and powerful feelings of personal independence and creative freedom. The release will include liner notes comprised of reflections on Electric Git Box from Oliver Lake, Vernon Reid, Bakida Carroll, Ed Motta, Brian Jackson and Brandon Ross, as well as a poem written for the project by authur/playwright/poet Jessica Hagedorn, with additional writings from Jackson. The album includes both reinterpretations of Jackson originals dating back to his 1976 solo debut, Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square, as well as a host of powerful new work. Available exclusively at the artist’s Bandcamp site, the digital offering boasts 11 unaccompanied solo guitar pieces showcasing the breathtaking stylistic scope and technique of this critically-acclaimed and influential guitarist’s singular work.
Michael Gregory Jackson, the visionary guitarist namechecked as a vital influence by modern masters like Vernon Reid, Brandon Ross, Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, releases his first-ever solo electric guitar album, Electric Git Box (Golden Records).