00:00Lewis Jordan is a key figure in the development of rock and roll and rhythm and blues.
00:10He was a talented and colorful figure who was a saxophonist, songwriter, and band leader.
00:19He has been credited with creating a style of music called Jump Blues,
00:24which is the direct forerunner of rhythm and blues.
00:28The music which would later morph into rock and roll.
00:33Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas in 1908.
00:38He studied clarinet and saxophone, and while still in his teens,
00:43he was invited to join Chick Webb's orchestra at New York City's Savoy Ballroom in the 1930s.
00:58In 1938, Webb fired Jordan after he suspected Jordan of trying to take over control of the orchestra.
01:10Jordan soon had a new band and a recording deal with Decca Records.
01:16The first recording session for his new band, which would later be dubbed the Timpani Five, was in late 1938.
01:26His band contained an ever-changing lineup of sidemen that would accompany Jordan's singing and saxophone on his 1940s hits,
01:36Five Guys Named Moe, Knock Me A Kiss, Caledonia, and a song which some claimed to be the first rock and roll recording, Saturday Night Fish Fry.
01:50Jordan's recordings were raucous and often humorous with solid narrative structure.
01:57His songs celebrated good times, food, drinking, parties, and women.
02:05Jordan became the most successful African American band leader in the country save Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
02:12He was one of the first African American crossover artists as well.
02:18Unlike other African American artists who were known only to African American audiences,
02:24Jordan was very popular with white audiences too.
02:29Jordan's best recordings can be found on the following collections.
02:33The Best of Louis Jordan from 1975.
02:38Louis Jordan's Greatest Hits from 1980.
02:42And Rock and Roll from 1989.
02:46The Best of Louis Jordan's Greatest Hits from 2020.
02:48com
Comments