After graduating from the L.A. Conservatory, Fred Jackson first appeared in 1971, playing on Bobby Hutcherson's Head On. Throughout the next three decades, he received constant work as a session man, playing on albums by artists as diverse as Hutcherson, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Carole King, Frank Zappa, Maria Muldaur, Billy Cosby, Terry Callier, Joe Sample, the Whispers, Solomon Burke, Dianne Schuur, and Earth, Wind Fire. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Sean Westergaard, Rovi