Joe Jackson has released 22 studio albums since 1979 and is known for his meticulous recording regimen and ambitious stylistic explorations, from rock to rhumba and even classical.
But as facile as he is in the studio, the British-born singer, songwriter and keyboardist says he’d just as happy being on stage — as he is this spring in support of his latest release, “Hope and Fury,” with his first metro area show since 2003 on Sunday, May 17, at Detroit’s Masonic Jack White Theatre.
“I’m really not a studio guy,” the classically educated Jackson, 71, says via phone from New York City, where he splits time with another residence in his native Portsmouth, England. “To go out and play it live, that’s my kind of thing. We don’t always play the same set every night, but even when you do, it’s not the same ’cause you have to create it every night. Things come out different. The sound is different…