David Ian "Joe" Jackson (born 11 August 1954)[1] is an English musician, singer and songwriter.

It was followed by a number of new wave singles, before he moved to more jazz-inflected pop music and had a Top-10 hit in 1982 with "Steppin' Out".

[4] Born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England,[5] David Jackson spent his first year in nearby Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

He learned to play the violin but soon switched to the piano, and prevailed on his father to install one in the hall of their Paulsgrove council house.

[5] Jackson's first band, formed in Gosport, was called Edward Bear,[note 1] later renamed Arms and Legs.

[6][7] Jackson then spent some time performing on the cabaret circuit to make money to record a demo.

[5] The next year, the newly formed Joe Jackson Band released their debut album, Look Sharp!

[5] The band consisted of Jackson, Gary Sanford on guitar, Graham Maby on bass, and David Houghton on drums.

A mix of rock, melodic jazz, and new wave, it mined a vein similar to contemporaries Elvis Costello and Graham Parker.

The album enjoyed wide critical success: in 2013, Rolling Stone magazine named Look Sharp!

[9] Though Maby would continue to work with Jackson in the following decades, the full band would not reunite until 2004's Volume 4.

It included songs by Cab Calloway, Lester Young, Glenn Miller, and Louis Jordan.

Jackson's next album was Big World, with all-new songs recorded live in front of an audience instructed to remain silent while music was playing.

The instrumental album Will Power (1987), with heavy classical and jazz influences, set the stage for things to come later, but before Jackson left pop behind, he released two more albums, Blaze of Glory (which he performed in its entirety during the subsequent tour) and Laughter & Lust.

A dedicated smoker, he gave up his New York apartment in 2006 partly in protest over the ascendancy of smoking bans, and made the Berlin neighbourhood Kreuzberg his new home.

The album's title, Fast Forward, and track list were confirmed in addition to North American tour dates.

Jackson and the band performed "Fabulously Absolute" on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show on 21 January 2019.

[21] Jackson spent a number of years living in New York City, which served as an inspiration for his 1982 song "Steppin' Out".