Critic’s Choice

When he began a career in the brave new world of New Wave, Joe Jackson, Saturday, December 9, at the Paramount Theatre, seemed poised for long-term success in the vein of equally iconoclastic contemporaries like Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. But Jackson’s subsequent and frequently hard-to-peg meanderings into ska, jump-swing jazz and full orchestral works left most fans lost in the shuffle. Fresh from August’s radio-industry showcase in Boulder, Jackson comes to the Paramount with a full performance of his newest release, Night and Day II. It’s an effective sequel to 1982’s seamless package of Cole Porter-styled piano pop, complete with a guest appearance by the equally elusive Marianne Faithfull. Jackson will also be at the Tattered Cover in LoDo on Friday, December 8, reading from his book A Cure for Gravity.