
Aaron Vaurio Jackson’s upcoming solo album, “Not Yet Home” captures the tension and beauty between stillness and chaos
This month I’ve really been in a piano state of mind. Maybe it’s the short winter days or the grey complexion of the city at this time of year, but classical piano has been my soundtrack these past weeks.
That’s why I consider myself very lucky to be in the position of previewing new music before it’s released. This month I had the privilege of listening to an upcoming solo piano album from American pianist and composer, Aaron Vaurio Jackson. You might describe Jackson’s aesthetic by looking at his musical influences. On the one hand, his music takes inspiration from the classical giants, but there is an experimental side to his music as well.
“I’ve always loved the works of Bach, Chopin, and Schumann,” explains Jackson when talking about his influences. “Their harmonic language and structural integrity have had an undeniable effect on my approach to composition. But I’ve also been drawn to the radical freedom of Cecil Taylor, the open spaces of George Winston, and the improvisational spirit of Rand Blake.“

Due to be released at the end of February, the upcoming album will be entitled “Not Yet Home.” It features eight tracks that set out to find the tension between classical piano and something more chaotic and experimental. Perhaps a metaphor of life’s fragility and the search for meaning.
“The album was inspired by many things,” says Jackson when talking about Not Yet Home. “The view from my front window, my walks through the woods, and the weather itself — each carrying its own sense of grandeur and cruelty, alongside sweetness and tender love.“
It speaks to how personal and intimate this album can be, and what an expansive theme it encompasses.
“The concept of ‘not yet home’ runs through the music,” continues Jackson. “It reflects both a physical journey and a more existential one. It touches on the feelings of anticipation and dread we carry with us, the bittersweetness of knowing that we’re not yet dead, not yet home, but always moving toward something final. That finality carries its own sadness, terror, and sweetness, and the music reflects these contrasts.“
I guess that is why this music fits in so well at this time of year; it connects with a deep stillness. But that stillness is contrasted with the energy and unpredictability of life and its potential. I guess that’s the underlying theme of the album — the interplay of light and dark; uncertainty and certainty. Or as Jackson puts it: “a kind of graceful tension that I can only hope to express through the piano. This album is a meditation on the tension between what we’re always moving toward and the deep, unspoken beauty of being caught in the middle.“
Look out for Not Yet Home to be released Feb 28th.