More than two years ago, members of the class of 2010 wore red and white robes as they walked across the Civic Center stage and began the next chapters of their lives. On June 26, many of them donned those same colors as they gathered in Grant Park with other Grady students, teachers and parents to remember the first member of their class to pass away.

Jay Jackson, 21, died on June 23. His death was a suicide. Word of Jackson’s death spread quickly on Facebook, and soon some of his friends from the class of 2010 began planning a ceremony in honor of the young man known for his passion for music, his unflappable demeanor and his special skill at collaborating with other musicians and artists.

Between 150 and 200 people attended the Grant Park memorial service, which featured a capella performances by Jackson’s friends, a prayer from Jackson’s pastor and eulogies by Jackson’s friends and family. It concluded at dusk with a candle-lighting ceremony. As at their graduation, several members of the class of 2010 sang “Visions of Grady,” the class song Jackson wrote.

Chorus teacher Kevin Hill, who taught Jackson throughout his four years at Grady, offered eulogies at the memorial service as well as at Jackson’s funeral, held at the Chapel of Christian Love Baptist Church on June 30. Hill said he first met the young musician when he found Jackson in a practice room without permission. Unlike most students who sneak into practice rooms, Jackson was actually practicing, Hill said.

“I eventually realized he was very serious about what he was doing,” Hill said in an interview. “We got him in chorus class, and he was also in guitar class and went through AP music theory as well, and he worked very hard and obviously was very talented.”

At Grady, Jackson gained a reputation as a naturally gifted musician, capable of picking up practically any instrument and learning to play it proficiently. James Taylor III, who graduated this May, recalls that Jay was “the full package” as a musician: talented, driven, inquisitive and professional.

“He not only wanted to play [music], but he wanted to know the theory behind it,” Taylor said. “That kind of passion is rare to find among young musicians today, especially aspiring rap artists. Jay was one of very few that wanted to understand music as a whole, not just put rhymes to a beat.”

Jackson frequently sought to collaborate with other musicians at Grady. Although Hill said Jackson was most interested in hip hop, jazz and R&B, he worked with fellow students who had experience in an array of musical styles, from rap to classical.

“For talent shows, he’d get a group together and write a song or pick a song or mix songs together,” Hill said. “He loved collaborating with good musicians. He would seek out the better musicians at Grady and always want to interact with them and learn from them.”

During his years at Grady, Jackson was a fixture in the music wing and especially in the recording studio. Taylor, who became a kind of apprentice to Jackson, remembers his role model as the gatekeeper and king of the studio. He worked only with those who shared his professionalism, but he was always willing to offer advice and support.

“I can recall several times where certain guys would approach me asking about trying to get in the studio and ‘throw down some beats, bruh,’” Taylor said. “…If they were decent, he’d either allow them to come in, or tell them to finish their verse and come back, but he never left them in the open without being real and giving good musical advice.”

Taylor is just one Grady musician who said Jackson helped create his first fully recorded and produced track. Devon Boyd, a member of the class of 2010 who met Jackson through Grady’s chorus program, is another.

“When I first started to really interact with Jay, I brought him a hook and half of a verse I wrote,” Boyd said. “He listened and liked where I was going with it so he recorded it. The next day I came to the studio he had developed an entire song around the little media I gave him. I couldn’t believe the amount of work done or the quality. He created an entire song from a silly little hook and a verse I wrote.”

Anna Fuller, a member of the class of 2012, said she was sitting in the hall before a chorus performance her freshman year when Jackson emerged from the recording studio and announced he needed a female vocalist. He pointed at Fuller because he knew she was in chorus.

“I was like, ‘technically I’m in chorus,’” Fuller said.  “…I told him the people in my class were a lot better than me, and he said the people in my class have been working for years and you can’t just start and expect to be great… after he told me that it made me want to work harder to match them.”

After he graduated from Grady, Jackson’s skill in the studio helped him found his own production company, Haven Productions, with childhood friend Timothy Jasper, who graduated from North Atlanta in 2011.

“We did a lot of video game playing, playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto, some Dragon Ball Z, and stuff like that,” Jasper said. “That was growing up. As we got older we started getting into music more. …He was like, ‘yeah man, we need to start making some stuff happen on this music stuff.’”

According to the company’s website, Haven Productions can help musicians create an electronic press kit complete with music, photos and video. The services offered reflect Jackson’s talent not just inside the recording studio, but also in the fields of photography and videography. Jasper attributes the company’s success, as well as his own musical skills, to Jackson.

“In my life, he inspired me,” Jasper said. “He taught me chords on the piano. He taught me how to do different frequencies with engineering and mixing. He taught me the basics and stuff about what sounds good and what doesn’t.”

Haven Productions released its first music video reel, a compilation of Jackson’s shots he edited and set to music, on June 15. On his Facebook timeline, Jackson posted “Made First Official Video Reel” and “Haven Productions Website went live” as life events.

Beyond being a technically skilled musician, Jackson was a positive presence inside the classroom and during rehearsals, Hill said.

“I remember several conflicts that would happen in the hall or in the class,” Hill said. “Jay would always say, ‘just chill’ or, ‘just relax.’ That was always a big influence on other folks.”

Hill said the diversity of the crowd in Grant Park was a reflection of the fact that Jackson impacted many different members of the Grady community, including teachers and parents.

“It was one thing for a lot of the students who were his friends that were there, but there were a lot of parents of those friends too, that knew Jay really well and were there too, so that was neat,” Hill said.

Fuller estimated that as much as 50 percent of the class of 2010 attended the memorial service.

“It was literally people I haven’t seen in two years,” Fuller said. “They came back and it was like they never left Grady.”

Although in many ways a joyful celebration of Jackson’s life, the service prompted soul-searching among those in attendance on the warm, sunny summer evening. As Jackson’s teachers, parents and close friends recounted episodes from a short but accomplished life, the question on many minds was “Why?”

Jackson’s final Facebook statuses, posted shortly before his death early on the morning of June 23, left the question unanswered. The statuses say goodbye to specific family members and friends. The last post is a general parting message in which Jackson says he will die happy.

Jasper, to whom one of Jackson’s statuses was addressed, said he wished he had been able to help the man he considered his brother.

“My thoughts would be that I really loved Jay and cherished him,” Jasper said.  “I just want to put out there for anybody that’s thinking about suicide or death, that’s not the way out. There’s so much worth that could be going on in your life or anything, but suicide is not the way out.”

On the Saturday after the memorial service in Grant Park, mourners gathered again for Jackson’s funeral. Using Facebook to spread the word, Hill invited chorus members and alumni to sing “MLK,” a song Hill said the chorus performs regularly.

Fuller, who said she might have quit chorus altogether were it not for Jackson’s advice, was one of the performers. She said she had resolved to hold it together and sing the piece all the way through.

“The minute we started singing I started crying really loudly,” Fuller said. “The words to the song are just too fitting: ‘sleep, sleep tonight and may your dreams be realized.’”

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