Music, man

Local musician Mike Jackson to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Jazz Festival

Published Aug 6, 2014 at 1:29 pm (Updated Aug 6, 2014)

WARWICK — Mike Jackson, a longtime Warwick resident and professional musician for more than 30 years, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival scheduled Aug. 14 through 17.

The prestigious award honoring Jackson will be presented on Saturday, Aug. 16, prior to The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra show at The Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center.

In 2012 The Hudson Valley Jazz Festival, which was formerly named The Warwick Valley Jazz Festival, sought to create a lifetime achievement award to honor local talent.

The first recipient was Hal Gaylor; the following year, the award was presented to Richard Kimball.

A Stella flat-top acoustic Jackson, whose music ranges from rhythm and blues to jazz, stated that he learned to play guitar the hard way - on the bandstand.

He received his first guitar for his 12th birthday in 1956. It was a Stella flat-top acoustic purchased from a pawnshop by his mother for the princely sum of $15.
The first tune he learned to play was Bill Doggett's "Honky Tonk," one of the great R&B hits of the 50's. Jackson still includes it in his repertoire.

Jackson recalls taking his only guitar lessons, about 10, from the late Bill Harris, a legendary Washington, D.C., blues, jazz and classical guitarist.

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