Info
Walter Jackson was '60s Chicago soul at its sweetest and, occasionally, most mainstream. In the mid-'60s, he had a brace of solid R&B hits -- "Suddenly I'm All Alone," "It's an Uphill Climb (To the Bottom)," "Speak Her Name," "Welcome Home," "A Corner in the Sun" -- without ever rising higher than the lower reaches of the Top 100. Recording for the OKeh stable, which was home to the top Chi-town soul talent, he benefited for a time from the production services of local masters Carl Davis and Curtis Mayfield, who handled the Impressions, Major Lance, Gene Chandler, and others. His sides employed similar punchy brass and strings, but in a smoother, more urbane fashion; Jackson was also comfortable with occasional outings into pure supper-club pop with nary a trace of R&B.
Jackson had already recorded for Columbia (and unsuccessfully auditioned for Motown) when OKeh A&R director Davis saw him at a Detroit piano bar in 1962. Stricken with polio as a young boy, Jackson had never let his disability get in the way of his musical ambitions, performing on crutches. Impressed with his commanding voice, Carl Davis thought of Walter as a Nat "King" Cole type of singer, and procured material for Jackson from Mayfield, Van McCoy, Chip Taylor, and other top-notch songwriters.
Despite the obvious pop crossover potential of Jackson's recordings, he remained obscure to white listeners. During the latter part of his stay with OKeh, he was reassigned from Davis' stable to producer Ted Cooper. Jackson had a few hits with Cooper, but there was little success after the late '60s, although he recorded for a few more labels before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1983. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Janet Jackson plans 2007 tour
With her new album 20 Y.O. set to hit stores September 26, Jackson says she'll begin rehearsing for live shows at the end of the year.
Although she has only a handful of national treks under her belt, Janet Jackson is one of the most successful female touring artists of all time.
Janet Jackson and boyfriend Jermaine Dupri.
Numbers back it up. Between 1993 and 2002 (when she last toured), Jackson grossed $94 million and sold nearly 2 million tickets to just 161 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore.
So as Jackson prepares for the September 26 release of her new Virgin Records album 20 Y.O., marking the 20th anniversary of her landmark Control record, fans can look forward to her return to the road around March 2007.
"My three choreographers and I are working on ideas now for a world tour," Jackson says. "It's always a visual thing for me as we start planning; I can see it on the stage. I don't want to share those ideas yet, because nothing is etched in stone. But we'll begin rehearsing at the end of the year."
Jackson's concert fan base is primarily a "white, suburban audience," according to Brad Wavra, touring vice president at concert promoter Live Nation, which handled her 1998 to 1999 Velvet Rope tour and 2001 to 2002 All for You tour.
Still, he says, the audience crosses racial lines.
"Everything we ever did with her was strategically planned to be promoted on both sides of the equation, pop and urban."
According to Wavra, Jackson "always understood that the African-American part of her life and her audience was an important part, and she made sure her songs, her live show, and her ticket prices appealed to both segments."
Wavra thinks the upcoming Jackson tour will be "wildly successful," despite negative publicity surrounding the Super Bowl flap of 2004, when she revealed her breast during a performance with Justin Timberlake.
"I think that Janet got a bum rap," he says. "She's the antithesis of that person that was created in the media. If it hadn't been an election year, I doubt it would have gotten played like it did."
Just added
