About Jackson

Jackson is a performer of world percussion (doumbek, djembe, congas, etc) and drum set, but is best known for playing the riq, a large Arabic tambourine with a head and five sets of large jingles.

An Arkansas native and SMU alumni, Jackson was always interested in complex rhythms, improvising, and other cultures, which led to studying world percussion under doumbek virtuoso Jamal Mohamed.
Jackson has performed nationally and internationally with many artists including Grammy winning and nominated artists Mike Block and Sriji Puvalur, and featured on recordings by Thaddeus Ford and Grammy nominee Derrick Horne.

Besides percussion, Jackson is an accomplished studio/live sound engineer. He learned the recording and production process through Grammy nominated engineer, Tim Kimsey (Kirk Franklin, Three 6 Mafia, Pantera, Vanilla Ice) and Roy Cherryhomes (Dallas Symphony Orchestra).
Jackson currently plays and engineers for the Meadows World Music Ensemble and Jamal Mohamed’s World Ensemble, is the Touring Engineer and drum tech for Texas Soul band Prophets and Outlaws, and leads his own progressive jazz/funk all-star ensemble, Groove Contingency.

The last few years has seen Jackson make the leap from amateur to professional as a photographer and videographer. A Constant need for content and lots of practice led to shooting stills for concerts while mixing on tour/at clubs, and recording/producing multi-cam live video sequences.

Jackson is a proud endorser of Toca Percussion and Odery Drums.