Javon Jackson, Nikki Giovanni Rekindle Rapport at ‘The Movies’

By Bill Milkowski I Nov. 5, 2024

“She knows so many films and the lyrics to all the songs, so it was her idea to select these tunes,” Javon Jackson said of his muse, poet Nikki Giovanni.
(Photo: Brett Winter Lemon)

An unlikely partnership was struck on 2022’s The Gospel According To Nikki Giovanni between tenor saxophonist-composer-educator Javon Jackson and the renowned poet-activist whose literary career was launched with 1968’s Black Feeling, Black Talk, Giovanni’s seminal volume of modern African-American poetry. As the former Jazz Messenger and director (since 2013) of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, noted at the time, “It’s the first time I’ve worked in a collaborative manner. The project is personal for me because I come from a lineage of devout Christians, and that affords me the chance to connect with that ancestral stream.”

Two years later, Jackson has rekindled his chemistry in the studio with Giovanni, who is the first person to receive the Rosa L. Parks Women of Courage Award, a Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award winner in 2017 and one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 “Living Legends.” Joined once again by stellar pianist Jeremy Manasia, veteran bassist David Williams and rising star drummer McClenty Hunter (Jackson’s working quartet since 2013), Javon And Nikki Go To The Movies finds the saxophonist and his capable crew exploring movie themes that later became enshrined in the Great American Songbook.

Giovanni recites her evocative poetry on two tracks, delivering her steamy “That Day” on top of an alluring bossa nova rendition of Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low” (from the 1948 movie One Touch of Venus) and her seductive “Still Life With Apron” and romantic “I Exist” read on top of an Afro-Cuban take on Sammy Fain’s “Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing” (from the 1955 movie of the same name). “They’re love poems,” said Jackson. “Obviously, Nikki has various poems. She has poems that are very far from love poems; poems that challenge the status quo. And so this is another side of her, and it just goes with the spirit of the music.”

Elsewhere on Jackson’s fifth recording on his Solid Jackson Records imprint (and 24th overall as a leader or co-leader), Grammy-winning vocalist Nicole Zuraitis (for 2023’s Christian McBride-produced How Love Begins) conveys a classy old-school vibe on a swinging rendition of Burton Lane’s “How About You” (from 1941’s Babes on Broadway with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland) and a dramatic reading of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein ballad “The Folks That Lived On The Hill” (from 1937’s High, Wide and Handsome).

Said Jackson about the direction he took on Javon And Nikki Go To The Movies, “There’s so many films that she loves, and she would come to my gigs or we’d catch up on the phone and she’d sing me lyrics to these songs that I didn’t know. For example, ‘I Belong To You’ is a song I didn’t know from a film I hadn’t seen. It’s from The Racers with Kirk Douglas. I watched the film, and that melody is in there throughout. And it’s sung by Peggy Lee, who I love. So it kind of goes from that perspective. She knows so many films and the lyrics to all the songs, so it was her idea to select these tunes.”

The leader also contributes three originals, including the loping minor blues “Theme For Nikki,” his unabashedly swinging “When The Time Is Right” (title track of his 1994 Blue Note debut) and the funky “Have You Heard” (title track of his 2005 album on Palmetto Records). He also turns in a cover of Sonny Rollins’ “Valse Hot,” a waltz based on the changes to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” (from 1939’s The Wizard of Oz) that the Saxophone Colossus recorded at the tender age of 25 for his 1956 Prestige album Plus 4.

Rollins had originally written “Valse Hot” as an answer to Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” and as Jackson said, “It’s a great waltz that is not really played a lot anymore. So, while we did feature some of the oldies but goodies that we all play, this one is kind of off the beaten path. And I did it for Sonny, just because I love him so much and he’s been such a big influence on me. Plus, I hadn’t played any Sonny Rollins material in quite some time, going back to when I recorded his ‘Paradox’ some years ago [on 1995’s For One Who Knows]. So that was a chance for me to celebrate Sonny.”

Jackson added of his saxophone hero, whom he talks to frequently on the phone, “Everything about him is amazing. You think about how quickly he assimilated everything. He started playing at 16 and by 19 he’s recording with Bud Powell. He put it together so quickly, so I’m not surprised that he came up with something as sophisticated as ‘Valse Hot’ by age 25. And the fact that it’s based on the changes to ‘Over the Rainbow’ not only fits in with the theme of this record, it also speaks to how much the jazz musician has been influenced by film and the Broadway standards.”

Jackson’s initial meeting with Giovanni came when he invited the firebrand poet to speak to his students at The Hartt School. As he recalled, “Ever since I’ve been at the University of Hartford, I felt that the school would be well served to bring great scholars of color and scholars who were freedom fighters and activists. In my second year there I brought Dr. Cornel West, who is a friend. The next year I brought poet Sonia Sanchez, then the next year I brought [iconic feminist political activist] Angela Davis and the following year I brought [academic, author, Baptist minister and radio host] Michael Eric Dyson.

“Then, in February of 2020, I brought Nikki Giovanni. And I reached out to all these people because I felt that them coming to the campus could be very invigorating and also give the students a firsthand perspective and experience of what these individuals went through, sacrificed, and what they provide us as a window going forward.”

Giovanni’s appearance at the University of Hartford coincided with her receiving an honorary doctorate from school president Gregory Woodward. And as Jackson recalled, “After Nikki spoke to the students, she noticed that the Hank Jones and Charlie Haden CD of hymns and spirituals [1994’s Steal Away] was playing in the auditorium. She said she loved it and wanted to hear more, and just then I was hit with an idea. Two days later, after she returned to her home in Roanoke, Virginia, I contacted her and said, ‘Would you be willing to pick 10 hymns? And that’ll be my next recording.’ She got back to me in a few days and gave me her selections.”

Recorded at Telefunken Studios in South Windsor, Connecticut, The Gospel According To Nikki Giovanni was celebrated as a historic meeting and a meaningful meditation on struggle, sacrifice, resilience, liberation and victory. As Giovanni said before a rare performance of her favorite hymns and spirituals at the Kennedy Center in 2022, “These songs are so important. I’m out here putting water on the flowers, because they need a drink.” Their collaboration on Javon And Nikki Go To The Movies, also recorded at Telefunken, finds them exploring more romantic territory, with similarly copasetic results.

Jackson’s previous release on his Solid Jackson Records was 2023’s With Peter Bradley, the soundtrack of a documentary film on the 84-year-old abstract painter and Saugerties, New York, resident, who was a big fan of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and the Jazz Messengers.

“I’ve known him since my time with Art Blakey,” Jackson recalled. “He was a good friend of Art’s, and I never knew that he was a great artist because he never talked about it. A lot of his artwork now is being rediscovered, and he’s still currently very much creating art.” DB