Blues singer/songwriter Millie Jackson has based her career on her deep, resonating voice, keen business edge and brutal honesty. Since the release of her first album in 1973, she has addressed just about every aspect of human life -- sex, love, friendship -- in its purest form.
While some of her material has been described as tactless and distasteful, she possesses a stream-of-consciousness style that allows her plenty of room to say all that's on her mind. Whether in the studio she now runs and operates or on her more than 15 solo recordings, Jackson is an artist who has always made her own decisions.
Perhaps Jackson's tell-all approach comes from having to accept the things in her life she could not change. Her mother died when she was only two years old while her father left her to search for a job when she was 11. She spent the majority of her childhood under the careful eye of her religious grandmother and later relocated to New Jersey to be with her father again. After spending a short time with him, she moved in with an aunt who lived in Brooklyn.
Her career began on a whim. While hanging out with friends at the Palm CafT in Harlem, they dared her to get on the table and sing with the band. She took the bull by the horns, and much to her surprise, the crowd loved it. She landed her first weekly gig at the Crystal Ballroom. Eager to gain experience as a professional singer, she agreed to work weeknights and weekends, but spent her days working as a secretary. She told her agent that until he could book her three months in advance, she would keep her day job as a safety net. When she saw him the following day, he had already made plans to send her on the road.
While on the road, Jackson learned how to play piano and began to write songs for her first album, Millie. Following a strict, R&B mold, she wrote two Top 10 hits. "Ask Me What You Want" and "My Man a Sweet Man" displayed her wit, savvy and female charm. She soon developed a dynamic stage presence and a reputation for addressing issues that women seldom discussed let alone sang in public about. Themes of sex, adultery, dishonesty and pain became trademarks, and would continue to be addressed throughout her career.
The release of her second album, Caught Up, in 1974, proved to be a turning point in her young career and earned Jackson her first gold record. The follow-up, released only one year later, continued on in this tradition and earned her another gold album. Still Caught Up displayed explicitly sexual lyrics and several complaints soon made their way to her agent. Jackson kept her head held high and released Feelin' Bitchey which became one of her top-selling albums. Despite the fact that Jackson's musical career was stifled by radio stations who refused to play her "racy" songs and although she was rarely asked to make appearances on talk shows, Jackson has managed to speak freely and on her own terms. In 1990 Jackson got her own radio show on Dallas' KKDA-FM and now owns and operates her own recording studio, Keishval Enterprises.
I hope that I may be able to see her live again, her live show is an event not to be missed. Millie Jackson has got to go down as being one of the most colourful of personalities and a superb singer who never got the mass recognition that she deserved.
Her albums made the 70's just bearable.
