Following are just a few of the many, many articles and reviews on Franz throughout his life and after he left us. We hope you enjoy reading more about him:
"Milestone" - The Last Concert of A Chicago Jazz Legend (Review by Ian Tiele, IAJRC Journal)
As the title states, this was the last concert performance by legenday Chicago reedman Franz Jackson, who was 95 years young at the time. Jackson's professional life started at the tender age of 16 with the great Albert Ammons, playing on the back of a horse-drawn cart trying to solict customers for train excursions betwee Chicago and St. Louis. He then went on to join the bands of Carroll Dickerson, Jimmy Noone, Walter Barnes, Roy Eldridge, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and James P. Johnson and others. Some of the best jazz performers in Chicago and beyond made their way to Dowagiac, Michigan, where Jackson had relocated permanently, to pay tribute to him on his historic birthday.......Full Story
Jazz Legend Jackson's Final Show Released - November, 2012
The careers of Franz Jackson and Eric Schneider intersected plenty of times before Schneider came to Dowagiac to celebrate Jackson’s 95th birthday in 2007. Schneider says Jackson worked with some legends of the first generation of great Chicago-based jazz musicians. “He played with Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, the piano player who got famous working in Chicago,” Schneider says. “(Hines) and Louis Armstrong made some brilliant recordings in the 1920s.” A saxophonist, Schneider says Hines led a band at the Grand Terrace club in Chicago through the 1930s and into the ’40s. “Franz played with Earl in the ’30s and ’40s, and I played with Earl (who died in 1983) in the late ’70s and ’80s,” Schneider says. “So we had that in common.”.......Full Story
Jackson Event Scaled Back - October, 2012
The sixth annual Franz Jackson Jazz Celebration: Blowin’ The Blues Away! will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10, at the Wood Fire Trattoria, 134 S. Front St., Dowagiac, beginning at 5 p.m. This is a change in time and venue from the Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, where the event was previously scheduled to take place. The Chris Greene Quartet kicks things off at 5, followed by vocalist Jenna Mammina.....Full Story
Final Franz concert on CD for 100th - October, 2012
The sixth annual Franz Jackson Jazz Celebration: Blowin’ The Blues Away! takes place at noon, Nov. 10 at Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center. A CD release party follows at Wood Fire at 8 p.m. for “Franz Jackson: Milestone,” recorded at DMS PAC during Jackson’s 95th birthday concert.....Full Story
Chicago Jazz Legend Franz Jackson's Legacy Keeps Huffin' & Puffin' Along - August, 2012
"Huff & Puff" was the theme song my dad, Franz Jackson, used to close out his sets at intermissions and the end of the night. "Yeah, we huffed. And, we puffed. We blew the whole night away....," he'd sing in his familiar congenial growl. My dad huffed and puffed right up until the very end of his life and career, passing away five years ago in May, 2008 at the age of 95. But his legacy lives on and this November, Franz's light will shine even brighter on what will be the 100th anniversary of his birth....Full Story
Funding Jazz Projects: Kickstarter and Other Pleas - Jazz Beyond Jazz - July 8, 2012
Do-it-yourself practicalities pertain to serious jazz projects — artists whatever their art form do what they must to fund their projects. Hence Kickstarter, the platform that seems to have become the functional alternative to asking wealthy patrons to underwrite expeditions, experiments and print folios. That model worked for Columbus, Edison and Audubon, so why not for Franz Jackson, Electric Ascension and the Peace Old Jazz Band?....Full Story
New Franz Jackson CD Set In The Making - Chicago Daily Herald - July 8, 2012
If Chicago had a Mount Rushmore of jazz, Franz Jackson’s face wouldn’t just be on the mountain. He would be the mountain itself. Jackson owned a unique claim on the Chicago jazz scene. As a clarinetist, saxophonist, vocalist, arranger and composer, his work stretched from the late 1920s, when he played with boogie-woogie master Albert Ammons, right up until a year before his death in 2007.....Full Story
Jackson CD Hinges on Kickstarter Campaign - Herald Palladium - July 8, 2012
When Michelle Jewell, the daughter of late jazz saxophonist Franz Jackson, recorded the three-hour concert at her father's 95th birthday party she never intended to release it. "I wasn't thinking about turning it into a CD," Jewell says of the Nov. 4, 2007, event that took place at the Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center. "I just recorded it so we would have it." Six months later, on May 6, 2008, Jackson died, and that recording unwittingly captured what would be his final public performance......Full Story
Goal Almost Reached To Release Sax Great Franz Jackson's Last Disc - Examiner.com - July 7, 2012
It was five years ago this coming November that reedman Franz Jackson, who played a key role in several generations of Chicago jazz history, gave his last concert. The seemingly ageless saxophonist and clarinetist was in fact 95, and the celebratory event featured a raft of marvelous musicians and old friends, among them trumpeters Arthur Hoyle and Yves Francois, clarinetist Tad Calcara, Eric Schneider on tenor and clarinet, trombonist Ed Bagatini, drummer Bob Cousins, and singers Judi K and Lisa Roti. And Jackson himself – who was expected to play or sing at most a couple of tunes at this, his birthday celebration – participated throughout the night, blowing hard on tenor and swinging harder on every song......Full Story
Franz Jackson: Milestone (The 95th Birthday Concert) - Jazz Lives - July 7, 2012
Please take a moment to visit the Kickstarter site to hear Franz’s daughter explain what she has started — not only a birthday celebration for Franz Jackson, the late Chicago reedman, but the 2-CD set of that concert. This project is a loving one: her father’s love for the music and Michelle’s love for him . . . ..Full Story
Franz Jackson’s Last Concert Could Become CD - Dowagiac Daily News - June 6, 2012
Part personal quest, part preserving jazz history from a Chicago legend whose recording career began in 1931, Michelle Jewell of Niles is a woman whose mission marches on. Her mission is keeping her dad Franz Jackson’s name and music alive since he died four years ago by preserving his last concert she organized in Dowagiac when he turned 95 in November 2007 as a two-disc CD set. “It was a fabulous night filled with music, love and memories,” she said. “Having all those amazing performers make the trip to Dowagiac was so special and the music they made that night was nothing less than magical. And, we were fortunate enough to record the entire three hours with Dad playing the first note, the last note and every one in between.” I can attest, fortunate enough to have been there....Full Story
Jackson CD release hinges on Kickstarter campaign - South Bend Tribune - June 5, 2012
Saxophonist Franz Jackson made his presence known at his 95th birthday party and concert. The party was held on Nov. 4, 2007, in Dowagiac. Plenty of musicians who performed with and were inspired by Jackson attended the event. And Jackson couldn’t passively enjoy music played for him while accolades were being tossed his way. Instead, he did what he had done nearly all of his life — he picked up his saxophone and joined in the fun, daughter Michelle Jewell says...Full Story
(Keep) Franz Jackson, Always Telling Stories - Aesthetic, Not Anesthetic - June 4, 2012
Perennially hip, cynically postmodern ears may hear Franz Jackson’s music as outdated. Others will listen and be grateful for an eighty-year career spent playing exactly the notes the clarinetist, saxophonist, vocalist and arranger wanted (which is pretty much the definition of “hip”). For Jackson artistic liberty was expressed through swing, a clear melody and the blues,...Full Story
Jazz Vocalist Judi K Headlines Jackson Celebration Party - South Bend Tribune - November 3, 2011
Judi K is a highly regarded jazz vocalist, and Franz Jackson was a respected jazz saxophonist. Both performers called Chicago their home base, so it's not surprising that the two performed together. "I always had a grand time," she says. "He and I would do this routine when I sang 'Bill Bailey' where I would sing it through straight and then I would sing it again and he would make comical comments. That was one of many wonderful moments with Franz."........Full Story
Pioneer Press - Mundelein Review/Chicago Sun Times - October 7, 2011
It’s time for the fifth annual Franz Jackson Jazz Celebration. This year welcomes back a performer who was here to honor Franz at his 95th birthday concert — the veteran Chicago jazz vocalist, Judi K. Jackson once said, “Judi K has a voice that is true and mellow. A fine singer.” Judi is included in jazz historian Scott Yanow’s book “Jazz Singers: The Top 500” and has been the featured singer with such notable musicians as the late Jethro Burns, the Dick Kress Swing Orchestra, the Jerry King Orchestra and Jim Beebe’s Chicago Jazz........Full Story
Chicagojazz.com - Chicago Jazz Magazine - September 30, 2011
THE 5th ANNUAL FRANZ JACKSON JAZZ CELEBRATION PRESENTS: AN EVENING WITH JUDI K
Named in the swing category of the jazz history book “Jazz Singers, The Top 500” by jazz historian Scott Yanow, Judi K has made a name for herself........Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - September 29, 2011
John Eby
Honoring a bandmate: Former Northbrook resident and jazz vocalist Judy K will be the featured performer at the Fifth Annual Franz Jackson Jazz Celebration at 5:30 p.m. (CST) Nov. 6 at Wood Fire Italian Trattoria, 134 S. Front St., Dowagiac, Mich. Judy K was mentioned........Full Story
South Bend Tribune - October 31, 2010
Howard Dukes
Lisa Roti says it's hard to single out one special moment in the friendship she had with Franz Jackson and his family. When pressed, however, the Chicago-based jazz vocalist comes up with one. "The moment Franz first called me on stage with him is definitely a cherished moment," Roti writes in an interview conducted via e-mail. "He began to introduce a young lady who had, 'all the right stuff.'.......Full Story
Indianapolis/Chicago Examiner.com - November 13, 2009
Neil Tesser
Looking for someplace to go Saturday night? What about Dowagiac? Dowagiac, Michigan is about two hours’ drive from downtown Chicago. That’s 115 miles or so by road – maybe 75 miles as the crow flies (but the crow gets to fly over Lake Michigan, and you don’t).......Full Story
South Bend Tribune - November 8, 2009
Howard Dukes
It had been a while since Michelle Jewell had seen Tom Bartlett, the trombonist for The Original Salty Dogs. But when Jewell ran into him at the Elkhart Jazz Festival, she wanted to make one request. But first, Jewell had to reintroduce herself.,.......Full Story
Chicago Tribune - October 6, 2009
Howard Reich
The great reedist-vocalist died last year, at 95, but anyone who heard him never will forget him. Fans from Chicago and beyond will converge on Dowagiac, Mich., next month to remember Jackson,.......Full Story
Chicago Jazz Magazine - September 30, 2009
A long-standing Chicago jazz staple, the world-renowned Salty Dogs will bring their old-school, traditional jazz sound to Michiana with a concert at The Wood Fire Italian Trattoria in Dowagiac, Michigan on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 7:00pm.......Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - September 30, 2009
John Eby
A longstanding Chicago jazz staple, the world-renowned Salty Dogs will bring their old-school, traditional jazz sound to Michiana with a concert at Wood Fire Italian Trattoria in Dowagiac on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. A favorite of jazz audiences throughout the country and around the world, the Salty Dogs have performed at some of the biggest jazz festivals......Full Story
South Bend Tribune - November 6, 2008
Howard Dukes
Trumpeter Marcus Belgrave didn’t get a chance to attend Franz Jackson’s 95th birthday bash in November of 2007.
“I had another engagement in Detroit on that day,” he says about missing what turned out to be one of Jackson’s last public appearance before his death on May 6. Instead, the Detroit-based trumpeter will bring his Marcus Belgrave Jazz Experience to the Wood Fire Trattoria on Saturday night for a benefit in Jackson’s honor.......Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - October 13, 2008
John Eby
Marcus Belgrave, Ray Charles' longtime trumpeter, had an engagement last November which prevented him from taking part in Franz Jackson's 95th birthday gala at Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center. Belgrave made a video greeting for Jackson, "but he never did see it," Belgrave recalled by phone Friday from Detroit. "He passed that morning" last May. The tribute instead played at Mr. Jackson's memorial service......Full Story
Chicago Jazz Magazine - July/August, 2008
Lisa Roti
Those of us even remotely related to the Chicago jazz scene over the past ten to seventy years are likely to have crossed paths with reeds man, Franz Jackson. Whether we were aware of it at the time or not, he was the closest link to jazz history we would ever approach outside of a book or recording. And if you were paying attention, every casual encounter was a lesson.....Full Story
Point of Departure - August, 2008
Art Lange
The first liner notes I ever wrote were for a Franz Jackson album. That’s how I intended to start this column, after hearing that Franz had passed away in May of this year, age 95, because, for as long as I can remember, I believed that statement to be true. It seems like ancient history now, but I can picture myself sitting at my desk in the old down beat office on Adams Street, downtown Chicago, when the phone rang and Franz.....Full Story
The Independent (London) - May 24, 2008
Steve Voce
The last survivor of the golden age of jazz when King Oliver and Louis Armstrong walked tall in the Chicago of the Roaring Twenties, the saxophonist Franz Jackson played with bands led by Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Roy Eldridge and Fletcher Henderson, among others. Those bands were part of the spine of jazz in the first half of the last century....Full Story
Jazz Institute of Chicago - May 12, 2008
Daniel Melnick
Franz Jackson, legendary Chicago tenor player who lived to see and play his 95th birthday party, passed away last week....Full Story
Chicago Tribune - May 8, 2008
Howard Reich, Tribune Critic
Franz Jackson 1912 ~ 2008 Legendary Chicago saxophonist Franz Jackson dies at age 95, Worked with such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton......Full Story
Chicago Public Radio - May 8, 2008
CityRoom
Produced By Gianofer Fields
Franz Jackson, one of the few remaining tenor saxophone players of the Pre-Swing era jazz passed away this week at the age of 95. Franz Jackson began his life long love affair with the saxophone at the age of twelve....Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - May 8, 2008
Obituary
Franz Robert Jackson / Nov. 1, 1912-May 6, 2008
Franz's life began on Nov. 1, 1912, in Rock Island, Ill., the son of Frank and Effie (Rice) Jackson....Full Story
ArtsJournal Weblog - May 8, 2008
Howard Mandel
Talk about a legendary career: Chicago saxophonist and clarintest Franz Jackson, who died at age 95 on May 6, spanned American vernacular music from the Roaring '20s to the postmodern present. He began as a 16-year-old professional with stride and boogie woogie pianist Albert Ammons....Full Story
Chicago Reader - May 7, 2008
Peter Margasak
Chicago has just lost perhaps its greatest living link to its earliest jazz history with the death of reedist Franz Jackson....Full Story
The Christian Century - February 3, 2008
Pastor Christian Coon, Christ United Methodist Church, Deerfield, IL
KURT VONNEGUT, the renowned writer and self-avowed humanist, once said that his epitaph should read, "The only proof he ever needed of the existence of God was music." I wonder if Vonnegut had been listening to Franz Jackson....Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - November 5, 2007
John Eby
"Happy Birthday" doesn't usually shoot electricity through an audience. But then it isn't usually played - at least not in Dowagiac - with a New Orleans jazz flair....Full Story
South Bend Tribune - October 28, 2007
Howard Dukes
Franz Jackson still loves to play, and jazz musicians such as Larry Dwyer say Jackson still plays very well....Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - October 23, 2007
John Eby
"That's one of the reasons for this gala, is for people who don't know a lot about him to hear him and for him to get back all the joy he's given out to other people,".......Full Story
Niles Daily Star - October 17, 2007
John Eby
Other than it will start with a video slide show encapsulating his amazing career and end with a jam session, it's hard to know what to expect in between at the gala concert planned for Sunday, Nov. 4,....Full Story
Dowagiac Daily News - October 1, 2007
John Eby
A gala celebration concert is planned for Sunday, Nov. 4, in Dowagiac to commemorate the 95th birthday of Chicago jazz legend, tenor-saxophonist Franz Jackson....Full Story
Chicago Tribune - September 21, 2007
Howard Reich
He was once a star, a Chicago pianist who practically epitomized the musical genre he helped perfect.
But his name, Albert Ammons, and the music he championed, boogie-woogie, practically have vanished from public awareness in the United States. Earlier jazz giants such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton still hold a significant place in American musical memory. Yet Ammons' keyboard virtuosity -- which richly deserves to be remembered -- survives mostly in history books, and in the admiration of a small cadre of connoisseurs....Full Story
South Bend Tribune - November 4, 2005
Lou Mumford
The sweet sounds still flow from Franz Jackson's tenor saxophone, just like they did when he performed during Prohibition. That's right, Prohibition. Jackson, at 93, is one of the last musicians to have learned old-style Chicago jazz and to have performed during the big-band era....Full Story
University Wire - April 4, 2005
Jeff Danna
In the jazz world, age ain't nothin' but a number. On March 19, several of Chicago's oldest and most influential tenor sax players proved that by blowing up a storm with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble in the Great Chicago Tenor Saxes at the Art Institute's Rubloff Auditorium, 230 S. Columbus Drive....Full Story
Chicago Jazz Ensemble Announces Sixth American Heritage Jazz Series First with Artistic Director Jon Faddis - January 16, 2005
The Chicago Jazz Ensemble (CJE) announced today that it will kick off its Sixth American Heritage Jazz Series Sunday, February 13, 2005, at the Field Museum with an innovative jazz inspired blues concert featuring legendary blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks. This year's celebration "The Roots of Chicago Jazz" features four programs representing the evolution of jazz in Chicago....Full Story
Chicago Sun Times - September 2, 2003
Kevin Whitehead
"Struttin' With Some Barbecue," Franz Jackson sang, but no fires burned in Grant Park on Sunday. "It Might As Well Be Spring," Karrin Allyson chimed in. Spring in the tropics. The open-air Chicago Jazz Festival is usually lucky, weather- wise, but on the last day of the 25th edition luck ran out....Full Story
The Jerusalem Post - November 11, 2002
Barry Davis
Next Friday's appearance of 89-year-old Chicago-based reedman Franz Jackson at the Tel Aviv Museum will be something of a landmark occasion for our own small jazz community....Full Story
The Daily Herald - November 8, 2002
Steve Zalusky
Urban renewal and civic neglect have swept away virtually all visible traces of Chicago's glorious jazz past. Gone are the Vendome and Regal Theatres. The same for the Lincoln Gardens and the Dreamland Cafe. Some stubborn remnants survive, such as the hardware store on 35th Street that once called itself the Sunset Cafe, where Louis Armstrong reigned as king of the trumpet in the 1920s. One flesh-and-blood monument, however, remains: the seemingly indestructible force of nature that is reedman, composer and arranger Franz Jackson....Full Story
Chicago Daily Herald - November 8, 2002
Steve Zalusky
Urban renewal and civic neglect have swept away virtually all visible traces of Chicago's glorious jazz past. Gone are the Vendome and Regal Theatres. The same for the Lincoln Gardens and the Dreamland Cafe. Some stubborn remnants survive, such as the hardware store on 35th Street that once called itself the Sunset Cafe, where Louis Armstrong reigned as king of the trumpet in the 1920s. One flesh-and-blood monument, however, remains: the seemingly indestructible force of nature that is reedman, composer and arranger Franz Jackson....Full Story
Chicago Daily Herald - November 1, 2002
Barbara Vitello
Celebrated Chicago reedman Franz Jackson celebrates his 90th birthday today at Andy's Jazz Club, 11 E. Hubbard St., Chicago, followed by a show Saturday at Pops Highwood, 214 Green Bay Road, Highwood....Full Story
The Jerusalem Post - September 20, 2002
Barry Davis
These days the epithet "legend" is attached to almost any artist who has been around for a few years and has achieved a high degree of media exposure. But, veteran jazzman Franz Jackson is, truly, a living legend....Full Story
Chicago Sun Times - January 21, 1994
Dave Hoekstra
The late jazz singer Edith Wilson developed much of her bawdy phrasing and buoyant soul from years of portraying Aunt Jemima, first on radio and later in advertisements and appearances at pancake breakfasts.
St. Pioneer Press - January 21, 1990
Bob Protzman
Cornetist Charlie Devore of the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band said it well Friday night at the Emporium of Jazz in Mendota after hearing guest saxophonist Franz Jackson play four numbers. "It's like sitting next to Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster and Franz Jackson all rolled into one," he exclaimed....Full Story
Chicago Sun Times - December 19, 1989
Dave Hoekstra
Traditional-jazz clarinet and saxophone player Franz Jackson named his first band the Original Jass All Stars because jass is a derivative of the French verb jaser (to speed up). Further on down the line, he played with effervescent bandleader Fats Waller, trumpet player Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge and Fletcher Henderson. Jackson, 77, has outlived all of them....Full Story
New York Times - June 29, 1981
John Wilson
''GOIN' TO CHICAGO,'' a survey of Chicago jazz since the 1920's that was presented at Carnegie Hall on Saturday evening as part of the Kool Jazz Festival, touched most essential bases - the traditional jazz played by young Chicagoans in the 20's, the blues, the hard-driving swing groups of the 1930's and 40's, the post-bop combos of the 1950's and 60's and the avant-garde musicians of the 70's...Full Story
