Paul Jackson (March 28, 1947 – March 18, 2021) was an American jazz electric bassist and composer. He was noted for being a founding member of the Headhunters. He played on several of Herbie Hancock’s albums, including Head Hunters and Thrust. Jackson subsequently moved to Japan and started a voluntary concert called Jazz for Kids, with the intent of familiarizing students there with African-American history.

Jackson was born in Oakland, California, on March 28, 1947. He was one of four children of Paul Sr. and Rosa Emanuel. His father was initially a heavyweight boxer, who subsequently worked as a contractor and was occasionally employed as a security guard at music venues. Jackson played piano and bassoon as a child, in addition to his primary instrument of bass, which he started playing when he was nine years old. At the age of 14, he performed with the Oakland Symphony Orchestra and went on to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jackson was a founding member of the Headhunters. The group was established in 1973 by Herbie Hancock, and also featured Bennie Maupin on saxophone and clarinet, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers playing percussion. Their first album, self-titled Head Hunters, was released that same year. It became the best-selling jazz album of all time when it was released,selling over a million copies (the first jazz album to do so) and peaking to number 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. Jackson co-wrote “Chameleon“, the album’s lead track that later became a jazz standard. He subsequently played on Thrust (1974), Man-Child (1975), and the live album Flood (1975). Another two albums were released by the group, but were performed and recorded without Hancock: Survival of the Fittest (1975) and Straight from the Gate (1977). In the former, Jackson co-wrote “God Make Me Funky” and sang its lead vocals. He went on to release his first solo album, Black Octopus, in 1978. It featured his bandmates Hancock and Maupin.