Music

Vasti Jackson is a multiple Grammy-nominated guitarist, vocalist, composer, producer, actor, musical director, and Mississippi cultural arts ambassador. He has more than fifty years in the music industry, from performing in churches and juke joints in McComb, Mississippi, to drawing crowds at festivals, concerts, and theaters in forty-five countries globally. His musical repertoire seamlessly blends blues, soul, jazz, gospel, reggae and country.

In 2026, Vasti served as producer, arranger, musical director, and guitarist for Tyler Perry's hit Netflix movie, “Joe's College Road Trip.” He was the featured performer with Morgan Freeman's Symphonic Blues Experience in 2025, and was co-producer, features vocalist, and guitarist for Visit Mississippi's Crossroads music campaign. In 2023, Vasti completed a five-year run as Ike Turner in the international musical “Simply The Best: The Tina Turner Story.”

Vasti is guest artist, and composer with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

His numerous awards include the 2022 JMA Lifetime Achievement Award, Sweden's Polar Music Award (with Playing For Change) in 2019, and the 2015 Albert King Lifetime Guitar Award. He was a 2017 Mississippi Arts Ambassador and was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2012.