Calvin Jackson

Calvin Jackson stood out as a concert performer whose formidable keyboard command was matched by a deep affinity for jazz, reaching the height of his popularity throughout the 1950s. A classical singer herself, his mother provided his earliest musical environment. Over seventeen years Jackson pursued intensive piano training, four of them spent at Juilliard and New York University. His first professional engagement came with Frankie Fairfax’s band; from 1943 to 1947 he worked in Hollywood as assistant musical director for MGM. In 1947 he appeared on recordings by Phil Moore’s ensemble and also made his debut session as a leader, cutting six solo piano selections for Discovery. The following year Jackson joined Mildred Bailey for an engagement at New York’s Café Society. Relocating to Toronto in 1950, he became a familiar presence on local radio and television, including programs that bore his own name. He returned to Los Angeles in 1957, where studio work kept him busy scoring music for motion pictures and television series. Beyond the Discovery date, his discography includes 1954–1955 sessions for Vik and Columbia with a quartet featuring vibraphonist Peter Appleyard, a 1958 Liberty album of Gershwin material together with “Jazz Variations on Rhapsody in Blue,” a 1959 Raynote release, and two concluding dates for Reprise in 1961.