Noah Jackson

Noah Jackson is a Grammy-nominated bassist, cellist, and composer from Detroit whose playing has carried him from Michigan State University and the Manhattan School of Music to bandstands with Abdullah Ibrahim, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, and Kenny Barron. In 2023 he founded Full Circle, a Detroit-rooted quintet built on frontline interplay and melodic directness, whose debut album grew out of his residency at Cliff Bell’s and was featured in the June 2026 issue of DownBeat.

He grew up in Southfield, Michigan, and came up through the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Jazz Orchestra under the mentorship of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and bassist Rodney Whitaker — a relationship he continued as Whitaker’s student at Michigan State. After graduate study at Manhattan School of Music, he built a career as an in-demand sideman: bass and cello with Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya since 2012, the substitute chair in the Branford Marsalis Quartet, and international festival stages, from the London Jazz Festival and North Sea Jazz to Jazz à Marciac and Joy of Jazz in Johannesburg.

Jackson returned to Detroit during the pandemic and began a weekly residency at Cliff Bell’s, Full Circle Wednesdays, refining his own compositions with a rotating cast of the city’s players. On Valentine’s Day 2023, the right five musicians were on the bandstand at once, and Full Circle found its sound — a blend of swing, Afrobeat, and songful hooks aimed at connection over complexity.