Summer in the City

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (34 ratings)
ALBUM INFORMATION
LIVE

Total Tracks: 13   Total Length: 54:59

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Keeping It Simple...

eaa001

In Summer in the City, Joe Jackson strips down his band to a simple trio with drummer Gary Burke, longtime bassist Graham Maby, and Jackson at the piano. Jackson includes many of his old standards along with an eclectic mix of covers. The trio weaves seamlessly through medleys of Fools in Love and the Yardbirds' For Your Love as well as The In Crowd and Down to London. Burke and Maby provide a solid foundation for Jackson's piano. One of the album's highlights is Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo.

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More Of The Same

pocaroba

And by the title I am referring to the admiration for this record. I too love the 3 piece setup. Too often Joe over indulges himself and this is a wonderful breath of fresh air in his catalog. This is not the typical live record.

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Superb Joe Jackson Live Album

DaveInIL

"You Can't Get What You Want" does work for me without the horns, surprisingly. Probably the Joe Jackson record I listen to the most.

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Don't Miss This One

zambodog

This may seem like an easy Joe Jackson album to skip over because of the offbeat track selection, but this is an absolutely brilliant live album. It's just a 3 piece band -- piano, bass and drums -- and the slightly spare arrangement really works. This may be the definitive version of "Another World," and the covers -- particularly Steely Dan's "King of the World" -- are tremendous.

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They Say All Media Guide

The chameleonic Jackson is reunited with longtime bandmates Graham Maby (bass and vocals) and Gary Burke (drums) for this trio date, recorded live in August 1999. The opening “Summer in the City” promises much, and the album delivers. While the three don’t always play to a song’s strengths (“You Can’t Get What You Want,” for one, misses the full-band treatment), this release does showcase Jackson’s piano and the group’s interplay. The trio bounces through several Jackson originals, including “Fools in Love,” “Down to London,” and a medley including “Be My Number Two” and “You Can’t Get What You Want,” as well as classics like “Mood Indigo,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and the title track. On this album, Jackson proves not only that he has not abandoned classic pop songs or his own pop hits, but that he is performing them better than ever. – Ross Boissoneau

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