Michael "Jakko" Jakszyk ( , born Michael Lee Curran, 8 June 1958) is an English musician, record producer, and actor. He has released several solo albums as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as lead singer and second guitarist of King Crimson since 2013 succeeding Adrian Belew in the role. His work has been variously credited to "Jakko", "Jakko Jakszyk", and "Jakko M. Jakszyk".
Before joining King Crimson, he led bands for over thirty years, including 64 Spoons, Dizrhythmia, 21st Century Schizoid Band, Jakszyk Fripp Collins, and Rapid Eye Movement. He was a member of Level 42, the Lodge, and the Tangent and has collaborated with Tom Robinson, Peter Blegvad, Danny Thompson, Gavin Harrison, Warren Harry, Pandit Dinesh, and Dave Stewart. Jakszyk has also worked as a session musician and soundtrack producer.
Biography Roots and childhood (1958–1974) Jakszyk was born at Whittington Hospital in Archway, London, the son of Irish singer Peggy Curran and an unknown American airman. At 18 months of age, he was adopted by two European refugees who had settled in England after World War II: Polish Norbert Jakszyk and his French wife, Camille. Jakszyk grew up in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, and would later describe his childhood as unhappy; his adoptive parents' nationalities led to an unsettled home life. He explained, "There was a lot of confusion – English was [a] second language for both of them, so although I could understand them both, they often couldn't understand each other – it led to all sorts of daft misunderstandings and rows." Jakszyk was frequently in conflict with Norbert, although the two would reconcile later in life. In 1977, he tracked down his birth mother Peggy, who had settled in Arkansas; he and Peggy would eventually meet in 1984. Jakszyk would later reconstruct his complex family history in an extended radio piece, The Road to Ballina.Information from dialogue in The Road to Ballina (BBC Radio/Resurgence Records)
Originally aiming to become a professional footballer but, after failing to win a place with the Watford Boys football squad at the age of 15, Jakszyk switched his full attention to his other two obsessions, music and acting. As a developing musician, he was inspired equally by pop, progressive rock, and jazz fusion (with artists such as Allan Holdsworth, Henry Cow, King Crimson, and Hatfield and the North being particular favourites) and developed a high level of skill as both a guitarist and singer by his mid-teens. Having joined the National Youth Theatre at 14, he maintained his acting work in parallel to his musical efforts and would eventually gain his Equity card. In 1974, at the age of 16, he was kicked out of the Jakszyk family home by Norbert, and embarked on a struggling career as part-time actor and musician while working at a number of dead-end jobs to survive financially.
Early bands: Soon After, 64 Spoons, and Rapid Eye Movement (1975–1980) By 1975, Jakszyk was leading an eccentric jazz-rock band called Soon After. His self-confessed "dictatorial tendencies" reduced a bigger line-up to a trio of "two screaming lead guitars and a trumpet" (the latter played by ex-National Youth Jazz Orchestra member Ted Emmett). The band reached the finals of the 1975 Melody Maker National Rock/Folk competition, finishing third. When Soon After split up, Jakszyk toured with "a strange little band" which supported Camel, Stackridge, and Judas Priest, then briefly joined a Tring-based band called Synthesis which played progressive rock in the Canterbury-scene vein.
Jakszyk's first significant band was 64 Spoons, which he joined as guitarist and lead singer in 1976, co-writing much of the band's material. Between 1976 and 1980, 64 Spoons wrote and performed a blend of pop, progressive rock, jazz, and comedy (typified by their single "Ladies Don't Have Willies"). Boosted by an exuberant and funny live show, 64 Spoons proved popular with audiences but failed to gain an effective record deal or media breakthrough and split up in 1980. Their only album, Landing on a Rat Column, was eventually released in 1992, many years after it was recorded. Jakszyk would describe them as "the wrong band at the wrong time".
64 Spoons's work did, however, lead to friendships with several of the musicians who had inspired the band, notably keyboard player Dave Stewart. Following the split of 64 Spoons, Jakszyk joined Stewart, Rick Biddulph, and Pip Pyle in the band Rapid Eye Movement. Jakszyk contributed several songs to the band's repertoire ("One More Time", "I'll Stand on My Own", "Ingmar Bergman on the Window Sill", "Straining Our Eyes", and "Dear Clare", the last of these a 64 Spoons song) and co-wrote material with Stewart ("This Is Not What I Want" and "'Allo Darlin' I Work on the Fair"). Between August 1980 and June 1981, Rapid Eye Movement toured Spain, France, and the UK and recorded material but split up due to Stewart's desire to concentrate on studio work (Jakszyk sang on the original version of Stewart's cover of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?", later a hit with a new vocal track by the Zombies' lead singer Colin Blunstone).
During this period, Jakszyk also contributed to sessions for the former Van der Graaf Generator saxophonist David Jackson's album The Long Hello Vol. 3 (eventually released in 1982).
Early solo career, Stewart/Gaskin, and the Lodge (1981–1987) Signing a solo deal with Chiswick Records in 1981, Jakszyk began to record his debut solo album, Silesia, aided by Dave Stewart, David Jackson, and Amanda Parsons. During 1982, Chiswick released three singles ("The Night Has a Thousand Eyes", "Straining Our Eyes", and "Grab What You Can"), although none were hits. A full release of Silesia was shelved at the last minute while the album was at the manufacturing stage (although the album had a limited release in Germany). Strengthening his existing links to British art rock, Jakszyk began working with Peter Blegvad and would go on to play on the latter's first three solo albums (beginning with 1983's The Naked Shakespeare).
In 1983, Jakszyk signed a second solo recording contract with Stiff Records. Three further singles followed between 1983 and 1984 ("Dangerous Dreams", "I Can't Stand This Pressure", and "Who's Fooling Who") and recordings were made for a second solo album. Due for release in 1985, this album met the same fate as Silesia. It was shelved in 1985 when Stiff Records filed for bankruptcy.
Discouraged but not defeated, Jakszyk supplemented his income with acting work while continuing to pursue music. He continued his collaboration with Dave Stewart, contributing to his duo work with Barbara Gaskin and playing a prominent role on the Stewart-produced Neil's Heavy Concept Album (a 1984 spin-off from the Young Ones comedy series). During this time he also met an up-and-coming drummer named Gavin Harrison, who would become one of his most frequent collaborators. It was also during this time that he finally visited the United States to meet his birth mother.
Jakszyk's third attempt at recording a solo album, this time for MDM Records in 1986–87, was shelved when MDM's distributor, Virgin Records, dropped its support. Some of the "lost" material from this and the previously shelved albums resurfaced on Jakszyk's 1996 compilation album Are My Ears on Wrong?, while Jakszyk‘s ill-fated first album Silesia was briefly issued on CD in the late 1990s.
In 1987, Jakszyk joined Peter and Kristoffer Blegvad, John Greaves, and Anton Fier in the short-lived New York-based band the Lodge, with whom he recorded one album, The Smell of a Friend.
Session musician/producer, the Kings of Oblivion, and Dizrhythmia (1987–1989) From 1987 onwards, Jakszyk consolidated his work as a pop session player and budding producer, and also signed a new and remunerative publishing deal. He worked with producer Larry Williams in Los Angeles, during which he wrote with, produced or played for Bill Myers, Shari Belafonte, and Tommy Funderburk's rock band What If. This period was also notable for a ludicrous footwear-related encounter with Michael Jackson and for Jakszyk's refusal to let Whitney Houston record one of his songs (either "Behave Yourself" and "Don't Blame Me", both of which were later recorded by the Nolans). Returning to the UK, he played with Swing Out Sister and Sam Brown, contributing to and co-arranging the latter's 1988 hit single "Stop", and toured with Italian singer Alice.
He formed the Kings of Oblivion with Gavin Harrison in order to record the album Big Fish Popcorn, which was released on the Bam Caruso label in 1987. The album was a pastiche project similar to XTC's the Dukes of Stratosphear that was later described as "inspiring" and "the absolute worst of Frank Zappa or Ween". Both musicians took on ridiculous pseudonyms for the project (Jakszyk as "Mario 'Fat Man' Vanzetti" and Harrison as "Helmo 'Hairdo' Hudson") and fictitious liner notes claimed that the recordings were the first and second sides of a "lost" 1967 double LP recorded in the back of an auto shop.
The Kings of Oblivion led into a more serious project when Jakszyk and Harrison teamed up with classical Indian singer/percussionist Pandit Dinesh and Danny Thompson on double bass. The quartet formed the world-fusion project Dizrhythmia, which mixed jazz, folk, art rock, and Indian classical music. Pandit Dinesh encouraged Sultan Khan to contribute to the album, while his three British colleagues brought in their own friends and colleagues from the art rock world: Dave Stewart, pedal steel guitarist B. J. Cole, and Lyndon Connah from 64 Spoons. Dizrhythmia's self-titled album was released in 1988 by Antilles Records.
Tom Robinson, Level 42, and the Kinks (1990–1994) In 1988, Jakszyk began recording a duo album with Tom Robinson called We Never Had It So Good: it was released in 1990 and gained positive press attention. This brought Jakszyk to the attention of Jazz-funk band Level 42, who needed to replace their recently deceased guitarist Alan Murphy and Murphy's temporary substitute, Allan Holdsworth. Jakszyk's Holdsworthian guitar style, additional instrumental skills, and broad knowledge of pop music made him a natural choice.
Jakszyk went on to play on all of Level 42's tours and promotional appearances between 1991 and 1994. However, record company politics restricted his contributions: despite being pictured on the cover of 1991's Guaranteed, he never performed on a Level 42 studio album and was never a full member of the band. For similar reasons, material which he wrote and recorded with the band with the intention of release ended up shelved when Level 42 reunited with drummer and songwriter Phil Gould. Gould's second period with the band was short, and Jakszyk brought in Gavin Harrison as drummer to fulfil tour obligations. Jakszyk left Level 42 in 1994 when group leaders Mark King and Mike Lindup opted to split the band up. He would later play in one of the line-ups of King's solo bands.
During 1994, Jakszyk was very briefly a member of the Kinks. He performed with them on 1 January 1994 BBC Radio broadcast of The Johnnie Walker Show, substituting for estranged guitarist Dave Davies. The songs performed on the broadcast were "Phobia", "Over the Edge", "Wall of Fire" and "Till the End of the Day #2".
Solo artist, art rock journeyman, and radio documentarian (1994–1999)