Jimmy Jackson

Jimmy Jackson (born 1943) is an American-born pianist, keyboardist, and organist in Germany. He lived and worked in Germany after serving in the US Army. He also performs under the pseudonym Tabarin Man.

Jimmy also plays the mellotron.

Jimmy Jackson was born James Jackson in 1943 into a musical family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father played saxophone in the US Navy band when he was stationed in California. He was raised by his great-grandmother after his mother moved to California. Both his mother and great-grandmother played piano.

Inspired by his musician parents, Jimmy grew up wanting to be a jazz musician. However, his great-grandmother initially wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer.

His grandmother gave Jimmy a record player and a few jazz records. One of the songs he loved was "Nica's Dream", a jazz standard composed by Horace Silver in 1954. Through his family, he was influenced by a variety of music genres—jazz, classical, pop, gospel church music, funk and soul, blues, country, and rock n' roll. Among his favorite musicians were Miles Davis; drummers Philly Joe Jones and Tony Williams; pianists Red Garland, Ray Charles, Wynton Kelly, Herbie Hancock, and Bill Evans; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter; and saxophonist John Coltrane.

Jimmy first learned to play piano from a local pianist and then took a few lessons at the Music Conservatory Of Pittsburgh. He also jammed with his friends on his synthesizer and Hammond organ. For a brief time, he had a job playing piano in a local bar. He joined a local doo-wop group and played at a few parties and even a gig where the singer Chuck Jackson made an appearance.

After completing high school, Jimmy and his two friends moved to Detroit to try their hand at the Motown music scene. Without any success, they decided to join the US Army under the buddy system. He was stationed in Germany during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. His lucky day came when he was playing piano for himself in a room of the service club and someone approached him and asked him to join the army band. He joined the band and they played 3 or 4 times a week in service clubs.

Eventually, Jimmy was sent to Heidelberg, a town in southwestern Germany, where he began playing piano and organ at the famous Cave 54 jazz club. He usually played on the lines of pianists Bobby Timmons, Ramsey Lewis, and Les McCann.

After he was discharged from the army, Jimmy decided to continue living in Germany. He moved to Kassel where he got a job to play piano at a weekend jazz club. This was in the mid to late 1960s.

In 1967, he played on the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream's debut album Electronic Meditation alongside Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze, and Conrad Schnitzler. Two years later, he performed at the Heidelberg Holy Hill Jazz Meeting with his trio (Joe Quick, William Powell, and George English Green).

When the Kassel club was about to be shut down, Jimmy landed a job with Christian Burchard's Munich-based world music band Embryo.

In 1970, he played on Klaus Doldinger's psychedelic fusion band Motherhood's eponymous album.

Jimmy got in contact with noted German producer and saxophonist Olaf Kübler (of Amon Düül II) who helped shape his music career in Germany.

Jimmy launched his trio Haboob (Arabic for desert/sandstorm) with fellow American musicians—George English Greene on drums and William D. Powell on guitar and vocals. Haboob's sound is a fusion of psychedelic rock, avant-garde, blues, and psychedelic funk rock. In the spring of 1971, Olaf Kübler produced Haboob's debut album Haboob on Reprise Records. It was recorded at Bavaria Studio in Munich, with Peter Kramper serving as the sound engineer. His trio, unfortunately, didn't click with the masses and didn't produce enough revenue. The trio didn't make any more recordings but Jimmy continued to perform as a sought-after organist as a guest musician for many German musicians.

During that time, Jimmy also played organ with Klaus Doldinger's jazz fusion band Passport and recorded the album Passport with Udo Lindenberg (drums) and Lothar Meid (electric bass).

In 1971, Jimmy guest-played organ and piano on German rock band Amon Düül II's album Tanz der Lemminge (Dance of the Lemmings) with Lothar Meid (double bass), Falk-Ulrich Rogner (organ, electronics), John Weinzierl (guitar, piano), Peter Leopold (drums), Al Gromer Khan (sitar), and Chris Karrer (guitar). The same year, Jimmy, under the name "Tabarin Man", played organ on Embryo's album Embryo's Rache (Embryo's Revenge), alongside Franz Böntgen (vocals), Hermann Breuer (piano), Hansi Fischer (flute, vocals), and Edgar Hofmann (soprano saxophone, violin). He also played drums on Fred Braceful's album The Call with Mal Waldron for the renowned jazz label ECM.

In 1973, Jimmy participated with Embryo at the National Blues and Jazz Festival in Reading, United Kingdom. He also played at the Salzburg Music Festival in Salzburg, Austria.

In 1981, he played on Marius Müller-Westernhagen's album Stinker and also toured with the band.

Jimmy has played at several important venues all over Europe, including The Cebit Fair in Hannover, Germany; The 24-hour race at Le Mans, France; The Grand Hotel, Switzerland; Esplanada Hotel, Berlin Germany; Anabella Hotel, Mallorca Spain; Kempenski Hotel, Moscow Russia; and Kempenski Hotel, Berne, Switzerland. He continues to live and perform in Germany.

• Haboob (1971, with William Powell, George Greene)
• Embryo: Embryo's Rache (1971)
• Passport: Passport (1971)
• Mal Waldron: The Call (1971, with Eberhard Weber, Fred Braceful)
• Embryo: Steig aus (1971)
• Amon Düül: Tanz der Lemminge (1971)
• Embryo: Rocksession (1972)
• Amon Düül: Wolf City (1972)
• Eddie Taylor: Stormy Monday (1973)
• Marius Müller-Westernhagen: Stinker (1981)