Louis Jordan

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Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975[1]) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm &

blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to

the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and

white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59

on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time

Louis Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking

fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's

chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four

million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the

first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream

(predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts

on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most

popular and successful black bandleader of his day.

Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than

twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby,

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he

appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two

musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who specialized in the alto saxophone but played all forms of the

instrument, as well as piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, many of the songs he wrote or co-wrote became influential classics of 20th-

century popular music.

Although Jordan began his career in big band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and

popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands

consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes.

It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's

band also pioneered the use of electric organ.

 

With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a

series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the 1950s and

1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on

to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".

Louis Thomas Jordan was born on 8 July 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a local music teacher and

bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young.

 

Jordan studied music under his father, and started out on clarinet. In his youth he played in his father’s bands instead of doing farm work when

school closed. He also played piano professionally early in his career, but alto saxophone became his main instrument. However, he became even

better known as a songwriter, entertainer and vocalist.

Jordan briefly attended Baptist College in Arkansas and majored in music. After a period with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, with one of his band

colleagues having been Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker,[3] and with local bands including Bob Alexander’s Harmony Kings,[4] he went north to

Philadelphia and then New York. In 1932, Jordan began performing with the band of Clarence Williams, and when in Philadelphia played clarinet in

the Charlie Gaines band.

 

In late 1936 he was invited to join the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra led by drummer Chick Webb. Based at New York's Savoy Ballroom,

Webb's orchestra was renowned as one of the very best big bands of its day and they regularly beat all comers at the Savoy's legendary "cutting

contests". Jordan worked with Webb until 1938, and it proved a vital stepping stone in his career—Webb (who was physically disabled) was a fine

musician but not a great showman. The ebullient Jordan often introduced songs as he began singing lead; he later recalled that many in the

audience took him to be the band's leader, which undoubtedly boosted his confidence further. This was the same period when the young Ella

Fitzgerald was coming to prominence as the Webb band's lead female vocalist; she and Jordan often duetted on stage and they would later reprise

the partnership on several records, by which time both artists were major stars.

In 1938, Jordan was fired by Webb for trying to convince Fitzgerald and others to join his new band. By this time Webb was already seriously ill

with tuberculosis of the spine. Webb died after a spinal operation on June 16, 1939, aged only 30; following his death, Ella Fitzgerald took over the

band.

Jordan's first band, drawn mainly from members of the Jesse Stone band, was originally a nine-piece, but he soon scaled it down to a sextet after

landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous club at 464 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The original lineup of the sextet was Jordan (saxes, vocals),

Courtney Williams (trumpet), Lem Johnson (tenor sax), Clarence Johnson (piano), Charlie Drayton (bass) and Walter Martin (drums).

The new band's first recording date for Decca Records (on December 20, 1938) produced three sides on which they backed an obscure vocalist

called Rodney Sturgess, and two novelty sides of their own, "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill The Sailor". Though these were credited to

"The Elks Rendezvous Band", Jordan subsequently changed the name to the "Tympany Five" due to the fact that Martin often used tympany drums

in performance. (The word "tympany" is also an old-fashioned colloquial term meaning "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to

"timpani", or "kettle drum," but historically separate.)

The various lineups of the Tympany Five (which often featured two or three extra players) included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar,

renowned pianist-arrangers Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, "Shadow" Wilson and Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. Jordan

played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and sang the lead vocal on most numbers.

 

Their next recording date in March 1939 produced five sides including "Keep A-Knockin'" (originally recorded in the 1920s and later covered

famously by Little Richard), "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches" and "Doug the Jitterbug". Lem Johnson subsequently left the group, and was

replaced by Stafford Simon. Sessions in December 1939 and January 1940 produced two more early Jordan classics, "You're My Meat" and "You Run

Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business". Other members who passed through the band during 1940 and 1941 included tenorist Kenneth Hollon (who

recorded with Billie Holiday); trumpeter Freddie Webster (from Earl Hines' band) was part of the nascent bebop scene at Minton's Playhouse and he

influenced Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.

 

In 1941 Jordan signed with the General Artists Corporation agency, who appointed Berle Adams as Jordan's agent. Adams secured an engagement

at Chicago's Capitol Lounge, supporting The Mills Brothers, and this proved to be an important breakthrough for Jordan and the band.

 

The Capitol Lounge residency also provides a remarkable yardstick of the scale of Jordan's success. During this engagement, the group was paid

the standard union scale of US$70 per week -- $35 per week for Jordan and $35 split between the rest of the band. Just seven years later, when

Jordan played his record-breaking season at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco during 1948, he reportedly grossed over US$70,000 in just

two weeks.

During this period bassist Henry Turner was sacked and replaced by Dallas Bartley. This was followed by another important engagement at the Fox

Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in the looser environment of Cedar Rapids, away from the main centers, the band was able to develop

the novelty aspect of their repertoire and performance. Jordan later identified his stint at the Fox Head Tavern as the turning point in his career,

and it was also while there that he found several songs that became early hits including "If It's Love You Want, Baby", "Ration Blues" and "Inflation

Blues".

In April 1941 Decca launched the Sepia Series, a 35-cent line that featured artists who were considered to have the "crossover potential" to sell in

both the black and white markets, and Jordan's band was transferred from Decca's "race" label to the Sepia Series, alongside The Delta Rhythm

Boys, the Nat King Cole Trio, Buddy Johnson and the Jay McShann Band.

By the time the group returned to New York in late 1941, the lineup had changed to Jordan, Bartley, Martin, trumpeter Eddie Roane and pianist

Arnold Thomas. Recording dates in November 1941 produced another early Jordan classic, "Knock Me A Kiss", which became a significant jukebox

seller, although it did not make the charts. However Roy Eldridge subsequently recorded a version, backed by the Gene Krupa band, which became

a hit in June 1942, almost a year after the Jordan recording came out; it was also covered by Jimmie Lunceford.

These sessions also produced Jordan's first big-selling record, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", originally recorded by Casey Bill Weldon

in 1936, although again it did not make the charts. It too was covered by Lunceford, in 1942, whose version reached #12 on the pop charts, and it

was also covered by Big Bill Broonzy and Jimmy Rushing.

Sessions in July 1942 produced nine prime sides, allowing Decca to stockpile Jordan's recordings as a hedge against the American Federation of

Musicians' recording ban, which was declared the same month. The ban—imposed in order to secure royalty payments for union musicians for each

record sold—led to Jordan's enforced absence from the studio for the next year, and it also prevented many seminal bebop performers from

recording during one of the most crucial years of the genre's history.

 

"I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" was an "answer record" to Jordan's earlier "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", but it

became Jordan's first major chart hit, reaching #2 on Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. His next side, "What's the Use of Getting Sober" (When You're

Gonna Get Drunk Again)", became Jordan's first #1 hit, reaching the top of the Harlem Hit Parade in December 1942. A subsequent side, "The

Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender and Fine", reached #10 in January 1943. Their next major side, the comical call-and response number "Five Guys

Named Moe", was one of the first recordings to solidify the fast-paced, swinging R&B style that became the Jordan trademark and it struck a chord

with audiences, reaching #3 on the race charts in September 1943. The song was later taken as the title of a long-running stage show that paid

tribute to Jordan and his music. The more conventional "That'll Just About Knock Me Out" also fared well, reaching #8 on the race charts and giving

Jordan his fifth hit from the December 1942 sessions.

In late 1942, Jordan and his band relocated to Los Angeles, working at major venues there and in San Diego. While in L.A., Jordan began making

"soundies", the earliest precursors of the modern music video genre, and he also appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs

made for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas. Unlike many musicians, Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the

draft, except for a 4 week Army camp tour. Due to a "hernia condition" he was classified 4F.[5]

Decca was one of the first labels to reach an agreement with the Musicians' Union and Jordan returned to recording in October 1943. At this session

Jordan and his band recorded "Ration Blues", which dated from their Fox Head Tavern days but had a new timeliness with the imposition of wartime

rationing. It became Jordan's first crossover hit, charting on both the white and black pop charts. It was also a huge hit on the Harlem Hit Parade,

 

where it spent six weeks at #1 and stayed in the Top Ten for a remarkable 21 weeks, and it reached #11 in the general "best-sellers" chart.

In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of the earliest and most powerful

contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", the comic classic "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Buzz Me," "Ain't

That Just Like a Woman", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".

One of his biggest hits was "Caldonia", with its energetic screaming punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes

your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a

unison chorus by five trumpets. Muddy Waters also cut a version. However, many of Jordan's biggest R&B hits were inimitable enough that there

were no hit cover versions, a rarity in an era when poppish "black" records were rerecorded by white artists, and many popular songs were

released in multiple competing versions.

Jordan's raucous recordings were also notable for their use of fantastical narrative. This is perhaps best exemplified on the freewheeling party

adventure "Saturday Night Fish Fry", the two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78. It is arguably one of the earliest American

recordings to include all the basic elements of the classic rock'n'roll genre (obviously exerting a direct influence on the subsequent work of Bill

Haley) and it is certainly one of the first widely popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to prominently feature a distorted

electric guitar.[6]

Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic "story" songs like "Bob Dylan's

115th Dream" and "Tombstone Blues". "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is also notable for the fact that it dispenses with the customary instrumental

chorus introduction, but its most prominent feature is Jordan's rapid-fire, semi-spoken vocal. His delivery, clearly influenced by his experience as a

saxophone soloist, de-emphasizes the vocal melody in favor of highly syncopated phrasing and the percussive effects of alliteration and assonance,

and it is arguably one of the earliest examples in American popular music of the vocal stylings that eventually evolved into rap.

Jordan's original songs joyously celebrated the ups and downs of African-American urban life and were infused with cheeky good humor and a

driving musical energy that had a massive influence on the development of rock and roll. His music was popular with both blacks and whites, but

lyrically, most of his songs were emphatically and uncompromisingly "black" in their content and delivery.

Loaded with wry social commentary and coded references, they are also a treasury of 1930s/40s black hipster slang, and through his records

Jordan was probably one of the main popularizers of the slang term "chick" (woman). Sexual themes often featured strongly and some sides—

notably the saucy double entendre of "Show Me How To Milk The Cow" -- were so risqué that it seems remarkable that they were issued at all.

The prime of Louis Jordan's recording career, 1942–1950, was a period of segregation on the radio. Despite this he was able to score the crossover

#1 single "G.I. Jive"/"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in 1944, thanks in large part to his performance in the Universal film Follow the Boys. Two

years later, MGM had its cartoon cat Tom sing "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon short Solid Serenade.[3]

He also played a musical performance in the 1946 Monogram Pictures movie Swing Parade of 1946 During this period Jordan again placed more

than a dozen songs on the national charts. However, Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts, or as they were known

at the time, the "race" charts. In this period Jordan scored a staggering eighteen #1 singles and fifty-four Top Ten placings. To this day Louis

Jordan still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1—his records scored an incredible total of

113 weeks in the #1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks). From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five

consecutive #1 songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.

Jordan's popularity was boosted not only by his hit Decca sides, but also by his prolific recordings for Armed Forces Radio and the V-Disc

transcription program, which helped to make him as popular with whites as with blacks. He also starred in a series of short musical films, as well

as making numerous "soundies" for his hit songs.[7] The ancestor of the modern music video, "soundies" were short film clips designed for use in

audio-visual jukeboxes. Jordan also had a cameo role in the Hollywood wartime musical Follow the Boys.

 

The Forum post is edited by bninna Aug 12 '15
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