Stephanie Jordan

Artist Information

Biography

STEPHANIE JORDAN - Jazz Vocalist

"The Classy Lady of Jazz!"

Jazz at Lincoln Center notes, "every so often a new voice stands up and proclaims itself, but few do so with such supreme depth and understated soul."

Jordan's current show continues her signature trademark of singing jazz standards from the Big Band era. It includes highlights from her self-produced debut CD on her Vige Music label; “Stephanie Jordan Sings A Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne; Yesterday When I Was Young” which honors the legendary Grammy Award winner who starred in many films and whose one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981), was hailed as her masterpiece.

Stephanie who has had the privileged of mentoring under the guidance of Shirley Horn says that it was actually "Lena Horne who served as her first introduction to great jazz singers. As a little girl I wanted to be Lena Horne."

Noted jazz critic Ted Panken writes, “Great lyrics permeate this beautifully rendered homage, and Jordan has the skill sets to do them justice—a voice that projects from a whisper to a scream, impeccable diction, dead-center pitch, fluid phrasing. Backed by a breathe-as-one 8-piece unit of top-shelf New Orleanians that sounds twice its size, and counterstated by a cohort of virtuoso soloists, she finds fresh, unfailingly swinging approaches to this well-traveled repertoire, melding into a personal argot elements garnered from such distinguished mentors as Shirley Horn, Abbey Lincoln, Nancy Wilson—and Lena Horne herself—while sounding like no one other than Stephanie Jordan. As she aptly puts it, “it’s a tribute, not a copy.”

The album offers Jordan a magnificent platform on which to showcase her exuberant spirit and abundant talent, but also contains an autobiographical component. The back story starts in the spring of 1983, when Horne visited New Orleans for the third and final time, bringing her one-woman show to the Saenger Theater for several weeks. The contractor was Jordan's father, Edward "Kidd" Jordan-best known as an outcat improviser who navigates the interstellar spaces of late period John Coltrane, but also a distinguished educator and first-call session musician. He procured tickets for his family.

"I have witnessed hundreds of performances, by a lot of big-name singers and that one never left me," says Jordan.

"That night was the first time I'd ever witnessed a true jazz singer with everything-the fame, the fortune, the beauty, the style, the wit, the charm, the big band." Jordan continues. "After she did some subtle things where she talked about her life, she sang 'From This Moment On,' which blew me away. The whole theater was on edge. Then, when she sang 'Yesterday When I Was Young,' everyone jumped up and erupted. I had never witnessed one person on stage send an audience into frenzy like that. It was like, 'Oh! This is jazz singing, for real . . .'"

Panken continues, “The album’s title track, Yesterday When I Was Young, a Charles Aznavour gem that Horne documented on the 1969 LP Lena and Gabor. Jordan’s sodium pentothal treatment—the truth WILL be told—is evocative of the magical phrasing of Shirley Horn, a close friend of Jordan from her D.C. days.”

The full album reveals Jordan’s signature treatment of jazz standards from the Big Band era performed with select solos by her father Edward “Kidd” Jordan; her brothers trumpeter Marlon and flutist Kent Jordan; and Uncle Maynard Chatters. Roderick Paulin’s solo treatment on Stormy Weather is enchanting while Emmy Award recipient Mike Esneault provides musical utopia on the keys throughout the album.

Jordan’s only regret is that Horne isn’t around to hear this heartfelt offering. “I was two years into doing tributes to Lena, when she died,” she says. “It was devastating to me.

Stephanie Jordan, whom critics have placed in the company of Nancy Wilson and Diana Krall, began to receive noted prominence following the national televised Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“After Hurricane Katrina, an extraordinary cohort of singers-among them, in no particular order, Shirley Caesar, Aaron and Arthur Neville, Cassandra Wilson, Diane Reeves, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, James Taylor, and Bette Midler-convened at the Rose Theatre to perform a benefit relief concert for the victims of the catastrophic. On that memorable night; none sang with greater authority or emotional resonance than Stephanie Jordan, who enthralled the packed house and a national PBS NPR audience of millions with an ascendant reading of “Here’s To Life.”

Bill Milkowski of JazzTimes Magazine writes “Stephanie Jordan, a standout here, was the real discovery of the evening. Her haunting rendition of this bittersweet ode associated with Shirley Horn was delivered with uncanny poise and a depth of understated soul that mesmerized the crowd and registered to the back rows. Singing with a clarity of diction that recalled Nat “King” Cole . . .”

Jordan brought the concert to its climax, rendering the Phyllis Molinary lyric-an instant classic when the late Shirley Horn recorded it in 1991—with impeccable diction, dead-center pitch, and a personal point of view, acknowledging Horn’s antecedent version while drawing independent conclusions about tempo, phrasing, and dynamics. In the process, Jordan… revealed a fully evolved tonal personality, one that can be mentioned in a conversation about such distinguished mentors and influences as Horn, Abbey Lincoln, and Nancy Wilson.” (Ted Panken / Jazz at Lincoln Center Playbill)

Jordan’s recent concert with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at the Harris Theater where she served as a late minute replacement for Grammy Award-winning singer Ledisi led Chicago Tribune’s leading art critic Howard Reich to proclaim, “The woman can sing and indisputably knows how to reach out across the footlights . . . Jordan showed ample voice, bringing heft to music of the Gershwins and Cole Porter without pushing volume levels. Clearly she values plush sound and knows how to produce it.”

Music critic James Walker added, “Stephanie Jordan . . . stepped in and simply mesmerized the near capacity Harris Theater crowd with a sparkling performance that surely put her in good stead with the astute Chicago audience. . . . She was at ease from her opening medley of "On A Clear Day," "I'm Beginning To See The Light" and "Come Fly With Me." Her infectious smile and charisma was ever present and she had this crowd on the edge of their seat until she left the stage several hours later singing "From This Moment On."

In the fall of 2011, Stephanie Jordan also concluded taping a movie soundtrack for film maker Lee Daniels’ production of “The Paperboy” which co-stars Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and John Cusack among others. This preceded her recording on the Holiday release of “Christmas with the New Orleans Ladies of Jazz” CD produced by her sister Rachel Jordan. The album features features New Orleans' renowned jazz divas; Germaine Bazzle, Leah Chase, and Stephanie Jordan performing their favorite holiday tunes with the Music Alive Ensemble.

Stephanie Jordan has had the honor of singing for Vice President Joe Biden as well as being selected by the National Urban League to sing to Stevie Wonder during NUL’s 2012 National Conference. Jordan also performed at the private celebration ‘Oprah Winfrey and Friends of Susan Taylor’ at New York City's ESPACE in honor of Susan Taylor's 37 years of service to Essence magazine. Jordan was invited specifically to sing Susan’s favorite jazz tune; Here’s to Life. Stephanie is a featured performer at New Orleans Mayor Landrieu’s 2013 Mardi Gras Ball.

Following her performance at the 2008 NBA All-Star Game with Branford Marsalis, columnist Chris Rose of the Times-Picayune wrote, "Local chanteuse Stephanie Jordan set the anthem on a slow burn Sunday night, delivering the most smoldering rendition of the song since Marvin Gaye performed it at another NBA All-Star Game more than 20 years ago... Another blazing light in our constellation”

Selected for the cover of the World’s Who’s Who in Jazz; “SHOWBIZ, PIONEERS, BEST SINGERS, ENTERTAINERS AND MUSICIANS FROM 1606 TO THE PRESENT,” the London Monthly Herald declares, “Ms. Stephanie Jordan in her silk green dress catches your eyes. She reminds me of the flashy dashy days of Josephine Baker at the Lido in Paris, the author referred to Jordan as “The classy lady of modern Jazz!”

Following Hurricane Katrina, Stephanie and Marlon Jordan embark during the fall of 2005 as ‘Jazz Ambassadors’ on a European Tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Jazz at Lincoln Center to thank the people of Europe for their support of New Orleans and the Gulf Region. The countries included Bucharest, Germany, Lithuania and Ukraine.

The Washington Post boasts of her Kennedy Center performance, “Contributing intimate and thoroughly enjoyable interludes were . . . A poised, soulfully articulate vocalist, Jordan turned in a performance that warmly evoked the influence of Abbey Lincoln, Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae and other jazz greats.”

Stephanie Jordan performed for the inaugural International Jazz Day which was celebrated by millions worldwide on Monday, April 30, 2012 during an all-star sunrise concert in New Orleans' Congo Square that included jazz luminaries Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Ellis Marsalis, Kermit Ruffins and others. Presented by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, International Jazz Day encourages and highlights intercultural dialogue and understanding through jazz, America's greatest contribution to the world of music.

Stephanie has performed with and opened for Norman Connors, NaJee, Roy Ayres, Wes Anderson, and Howard Hewitt. She collaborated with her sister, Rachel in a fully staged concert with strings from the Louisiana Philharmonic and her Jazz Quintet entitled “Stephanie with Strings.” A version of this performance featuring her brother, Kent was repeated with the Alabama Symphony. She has performed with the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra during Jazzmobile’s “Great Jazz on the Great Hill” in Central Park, New York. Jordan performed a stunning concert with the Lionel Hampton Big Band during the Official Centennial Birthday Celebration in honor of Mr. Hampton at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art/University of New Orleans.

Stephanie made her debut at Takoma Station Jazz Club where she joined the Doug Carne Band. Within a few months she developed a loyal following and became much sought after. She has appeared live on NPR Talk of the Nation, the Kennedy Center, Jazz Standard, Club Dizzy’s, New York, Central Park, Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland, St. Croix Blue Bay Jazz Fest, The Setai - South Beach Miami, Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, Duke Ellington Festival, Washington, D.C., Chicago JazzFest Heritage, Glenwood Springs, Co., Adagio's Jazz Club in Savannah, Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, Sweet Lorraine's in New Orleans and is a regular at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Jordan has been inducted as a member of the New Orleans Magazine’s Jazz All-Stars for 2008.

In addition to the Lincoln Theater, Jordan has performed at many of the Washington, D.C. jazz haunts such as Twins Jazz Lounge, Blues Alley, and Carter Baron Amphitheater. Stephanie appeared at the opening of the Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library, the Langston Hughes Auditorium, Great Jazz on the Great Hill in New York, Marciac Jazz Festival in France, an extended engagement at “The Palace” Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, and Harrah’s Casino New Orleans among others.

Recognized internationally, the Sud Ouest French publication calls her “unbelievably superb.” The Washingtonian Magazine labeled her “JAZZHOT.”

Gambit Weekly Music declares, "Stephanie Jordan is a lady with a great set of pipes. Anyone who has ever romanced their honey to Johnny Adams's moody, lounge-lizard smoky vocals on 'You Don't Know What Love Is' will thrill to Stephanie's silk-between-the-fingers treatment of that song, the title cut."

All About Jazz adds, “Her tone is crisp, perfect, but not in that polished way that sounds like an opera singer attempting jazz. She is more like a master of technique, yet with plenty of soul.” Jazz critic Sandy Ingram writes “She’s a singer with poise and pizzazz, with a voice and an appealing look that bring to mind Carmen McRae and Lena Horn.” Stephanie's lyrical style has also been compared to Norah Jones and Diana Krall, while others say it’s more like living legends Cassandra Wilson and Dianne Reeves.

In 1995 Stephanie Jordan performed the title soundtrack "Season's Start" in the Tribecca Film release of Café Society staring Lara Flynn Boyle and Peter Gallagher.

Jordan is the fifth performer to emerge from a family of New Orleans bred musicians. As the daughter of saxophonist Sir Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Stephanie's musical roots run deep. Her siblings include flutist Kent, trumpeter Marlon, and classical violinist Rachel Jordan. A graduate of Howard University, Stephanie is also a certified fitness instructor and creator of the exercise technique known as Jazz Pilates.

www.StephanieJordan.com

Instrumentation

Mike Esneault, Arranger - keyboards, Piano, arranger
Bobby Campo - Trumpet
Tony Dagradi - Baritone Sax
Blake Daniels - Trumpet
Troy Davis - Drums, Percussions
B.J. McGibney - Trombone
Roderick Paulin - Tenor Sax
Maynard Chatters - Trombone (Guest)
Chris Severin - Bass
Steve Masakowski - Guitar (Guest)
Edward “Kidd” Jordan - Tenor Sax (Guest)
Kent Jordan - Flute (Guest)
Marlon Jordan - Trumpet (Guest)
Rachel Jordan - Violin (Guest)
John Bishop - Guitar (Guest)
John Jones - Drums
Jonathan Bloom - Percussion

Discography

1. Stephanie Jordan Sings A Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne; Yesterday When I Was Young (Vige Music).

2. You Don't Know What Love Is - Marlon Jordan featuring Stephanie Jordan.

3. Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Benefit CD - (Blue Note Records) Various Artists, "Here's to Life," The Jordan Family, track #13.

4. Out of This World - Kent Jordan, ( Funkshenal Art Media) "The Island"

Official Website

http://www.StephanieJordan.com

Links

• StephanieJordan.com

Audio

• On A Clear Day (Medley)
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• Stormy Weather
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• Good Life
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• From This Moment On
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• Joey/ Marlon Jordan featuring Stephanie Jordan
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• Here's To Life/ The Jordan Family - Stephanie, Marlon, Kent & Rachel Jordan
  Listen  

Video

Stephanie Jordan Big Band

Photo Gallery

Press

• Stephanie Jordan And Ellis Marsalis To Perform For Stevie Wonder At National Urban League’s Gala [+ Show ]
  

  NEW ORLEANS – Internationally acclaimed New Orleans’ jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan will be accompan...NEW ORLEANS – Internationally acclaimed New Orleans’ jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan will be accompanied by pianist Ellis Marsalis in a special rendition of one of Stevie Wonder’s tunes as the National Urban League pays tribute to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Bernette Johnson; and music legend Stevie Wonder during the 2012 National Urban League Conference’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Awards Masquerade Gala with Lifetime Achievement Awards.
  
  “Stevie Wonder is an artist and humanitarian. I remember learning how to hand dance to “My Cherie Amour”. On Saturday, I will be “Dancing to the Rhythm” of Stevie's tremendous spirit. I am living another dream to sing for a man whose talent and generosity is an example for all artists to emulate” said Stephanie Jordan.
  
  While Jordan has performed on stages such as the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the NBA All-Star Game, Chicago’s Harris Theater, the Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland and even the “Big Screen,” Jordan adds “singing to Stevie Wonder will be a special honor. A few years back Stevie Wonder and I appeared on the front page of our local newspaper on the same day, but now this is beyond belief.”
  
  Hosted by FOX New Anchor Arthel Neville, the Gala takes place on Saturday, July 28 from 7:00 – 10:00 PM at the Morial Convention Center and is the culminating activity for a week of events.
  
  Jordan and Marsalis performed together this past April 30 at the first annual International Jazz Day from New Orleans' Congo Square at Louis Armstrong Park. Celebrated by millions worldwide, the all-star sunrise concert led by UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock was broadcast live on CBS Morning News, and video streamed live at Jazz Day and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Jordan served as a replacement for Grammy Award-winner Dianne Reeves.
  
  Marsalis is regarded by many as the premier modern jazz pianist in New Orleans. In 2011, Marsalis and his family; sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo, and Jason Marsalis were awarded the highest honor in Jazz, NEA Jazz Masters, the first group award ever distributed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Marsalis continues to be active as a performing pianist leading, and occasionally touring, his own quartet. He has several recordings on the CBS-SONY label and currently releases recordings on his own recording label, ELM RECORDS, developed with his wife Dolores and son Jason.
  
  Jordan, whom critics have placed in the company of Nancy Wilson and Diana Krall, began to receive noted prominence following the national televised Jazz at Lincoln Center concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina. She recently released a self-produced debut CD on her Vige Music label; the “Stephanie Jordan Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne; Yesterday When I Was Young” album honors the legendary Grammy Award winner who starred in many films and whose one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981), was hailed as her masterpiece.
  
  No stranger to being requested to perform special dedications, Jordan was invited to sing at the private celebration ‘Oprah Winfrey and Friends of Susan Taylor’ in honor of Susan Taylor's 37 years of service to Essence magazine. Jordan sang Susan’s favorite jazz tune; Here’s to Life by Shirley Horn.
  
  Jordan’s capacity-filled concert with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at the Harris Theater where she served as a late minute replacement for Grammy Award-winning singer Ledisi led Chicago Tribune’s leading art critic Howard Reich to proclaim, “The woman can sing and indisputably knows how to reach out across the footlights . . . Jordan showed ample voice, bringing heft to music of the Gershwins and Cole Porter without pushing volume levels. Clearly she values plush sound and knows how to produce it.”
  
  Jordan is the fifth performer to emerge from a family of New Orleans bred musicians. As the daughter of saxophonist Sir Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Stephanie's musical roots run deep. Her siblings include flutist Kent, trumpeter Marlon, and classical violinist Rachel Jordan.
  
  For three and a half days the Urban League presented “Occupy the Vote: Employment & Education Empower the Nation,” the clarion call for all conference participants to be informed and deeply engaged in various elements of economic empowerment. The conference presented unique opportunities for attendees to experience the invaluable perspectives of business, political, and community leaders working towards the achievement of true and lasting prosperity.

• Local jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan sings Lena Horne's praises [+ Show ]
  

  The greatest compliment, jazz great Abbey Lincoln once told Stephanie Jordan, is for another vocalis...The greatest compliment, jazz great Abbey Lincoln once told Stephanie Jordan, is for another vocalist to sing your songs. By that measure, Jordan has paid the highest possible tribute to Lena Horne.
  
  Jordan, the daughter of local jazz saxophonist and educator Edward “Kidd” Jordan, devoted her first solo album to material either recorded or performed by Horne. “Stephanie Jordan Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne: Yesterday When I Was Young,” released independently this spring, finds Jordan applying her sumptuous, elegant voice to the likes of “The Lady is a Tramp,” “Just One of Those Things,” “Stormy Weather” and even “Believe in Yourself,” which Horne performed as Glinda the Good Witch in “The Wiz.”
  
  Jordan will showcase selections from the songbooks of Horne, Lincoln, Thelonious Monk and others on Saturday during her first-ever featured set at Snug Harbor. She’ll be backed by pianist and arranger Mike Esneault, her brother Marlon Jordan on trumpet, trombonist Steve Suter of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Bonerama, drummer Joe Dyson, and bassist Nori Naraoka.
  
  She considers her official Snug Harbor debut to be a career milestone akin to singing the national anthem at the 2008 NBA All-Star Game and gigs at the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Jazz Standard in New York. Her only previous appearance at Snug Harbor was as a special guest of the late clarinetist and educator Alvin Batiste, her uncle. “That’s when I felt like I was big-time,” she said. “So this show is real special to me.”
  
  Jordan was still in high school when she attended a 1983 Horne concert at the Saenger Theater.
  
  “I’ve never forgotten that show. I’d seen a lot of singers; my dad would always get us tickets to all these big-time singers. But until I saw that show, I had no clue what jazz singing was really all about. After I saw Lena, I had an idea about what I would like to do onstage.”
  
  From that point forward, Jordan strove to adapt qualities that Horne, who died in 2010, projected.
  
  “Lena was very definite. There’s nothing tentative about her presentation. She knew what she wanted to sing. She was decidedly herself. And her sound was so powerful. She didn’t do the damsel-in-distress character, the weepy, crying jazz singer. She came out there like gangbusters. Just, ‘I’m here. I’m alive. I’m living every moment to the fullest. I know who I am.’
  
  “But at the same time, she could do a quiet ballad, and do it with the same type of sincerity that she did the big numbers with the band screaming behind her.”
  
  Jordan came away from that Saenger concert feeling empowered. That the empowerment was elegantly attired made it all the more appealing.
  
  “I’m a diva,” Jordan confirmed, laughing. “No doubt. I love all the glitz and glamour. Lena Horne wore the most glamorous clothes in the world. Her look, I do emulate a lot.”
  
  While seeking material for “Yesterday When I Was Young,” Jordan revisited scores of Horne recordings, including duets with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.
  
  “I have a love for great male singers. As I started choosing material, and thought about the male singers that influenced Lena, I started thinking about the record in a different way.”
  
  For example, Horne performed, but never recorded, “The Good Life.” Jordan selected it for her album because of classic versions by Sinatra and Tony Bennett, vocalists that Horne admired.
  
  “This is a tribute record. I thought about it from both perspectives: songs that Lena sang, and songs that I thought she would like to hear.”
  
  When Jordan screened the finished project for Kidd Jordan, he suggested that she had enough material for two albums. She saw it differently.
  
  “I said, ‘Dad, it’s a full thought. I cannot divide this record.’ When you line it all up, it tells a story. Once I cover something, I probably won’t come back to that. I won’t be doing another Lena Horne tribute record. So I wanted it to be complete.”
  
  Jordan’s next album likely will be a collection of songs written by female singers, including herself. Meanwhile, she hopes “Yesterday When I Was Young” introduces new fans to one of the greatest singers of all time.
  
  “This project is not just about me doing a Lena Horne tribute and selling some records. I really want the legacy of Lena Horne to remain current and out front. I want other singers, first, to know her, because they need to know her.
  
  “And I want the general public to remember her. What she gave to this world was significant, and it should be remembered.”
  

• WHERE Y'AT Magazine July Music Reviews [+ Show ]
  

  Stephanie Jordan Big Band Stephanie Jordan: Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne Vige Music ...Stephanie Jordan Big Band
  Stephanie Jordan: Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne
  Vige Music
  
  
  What a voice! Big band jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan has a voice that is as pleasing to the soul as it is thrilling. Jordan pours out a pure and strong sound that stands amongst some of the best females in jazz.
  On her debut, she uses her skills to belt out classics such as “The Lady is a Tramp” while mixing them with soft, inspirational tunes like, “Believe in Yourself, “ creating a standout album.
  
  
  Her opera-like vocal strength, blended with the warm temperaments of jazz, creates such a fantastically soothing sound. Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne demonstrates Jordan’s ability to belt out some of the best jazz tunes trailed by the classic sounds of a big band. But don’t worry; Stephanie holds her ground amongst the instruments from the soft piano to the brass horns.
  
  
  Jordan’s remarkable vocal timing and tremendous pipes will put a smile on your face from the very first listen.—Kimmie Tubré
  

• Stephanie Jordan lights a fire in the Jazz tent at the New Orleans Jazz Fest [+ Show ]
  

  From the moment she stepped on the stage at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Stephanie Jordan lit up the t...From the moment she stepped on the stage at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Stephanie Jordan lit up the the Jazz Tent. Wearing a pale peach confection of a dress and a big smile, she opened with a medley of "On a Clear Day," "I'm Beginning To See the Light," and "Come Fly with Me," backed by her Big Band.
  
  Marlon Jordan, introduced by the consummate New Orleans jazz singer as "my baby brother," joined her on"Come Fly With Me."
  
  "It feels good to be here, not at my day job," she told the audience after the applause died down.
  
  Jordan's performance featured songs from her debut CD, a tribute to Lena Horne. It included guest appearances by Marlon, her "big brother" Kent, and her sister Rachel. The Jordans are one of New Orleans prominent musical families, headed by Edward "Kidd" Jordan, the avant garde jazz musician and dedicated teacher of young jazz musicians.
  
  Jordan followed up her opening number with"Love," a song with a tropical beat. Her brother Kent added the perfect touch with his piccolo solo. She explained that she added the song on her CD after a fan e-emailed her and suggested it.
  
  She talked just enough between songs to stay connected to the audience. "This was one of Lena Horne's greatest hits, and when I saw her perform it at the Saenger Theatre, I just loved it," she said, before performing a rousing version of "From This Moment On."
  
  She explained why the Jazz Tent was so special to her: "This is the first big stage I ever had the chance to sing on," she said.
  
  Jordan did all the jazz classics proud, including "Just One of Those Things" and "The Lady is a Tramp."
  
  When she sang "Watch What Happens," she told us we could hear her dad on that song if we listened to her CD.
  
  "Thank you, Daddy," she said. "He's my second biggest fan. My mom is my biggest fan."
  
  It was her mom who chose the name for Jordan's CD: "Stepanie Jordan Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne: Yesterday When I Was Young."
  
  "That's my mama's favorite song," Jordan said.
  
  It was mine, too. It was beautiful, sad, and unforgettable.
  
  But the highlight of the hour for me was her rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," with her sister Rachel accompanying her on the violin.
  
  She told us she sang to herself when she was in exile in Maryland after Hurricane Katrina.
  
  "This is the first time I've ever sung this song in public," she said.
  
  It was like hearing it for the first time. The audience gave her a standing ovation.
  
  Jordan and her classy Big Band ended the show with a rousing rendition of"The Good Life," and the hourlong concert was over much too soon.
  
  
  

• Ted Panken: Stephanie Jordan Sings A Tribute To The Fabulous Lena Horne [+ Show ]
  

  “I love a story,” Stephanie Jordan says. “As a matter of fact, if a song doesn’t communicate a real,...“I love a story,” Stephanie Jordan says. “As a matter of fact, if a song doesn’t communicate a real, true story, it’s hard for me to relate to it.”
  
  Which is one reason why this daughter of the Crescent City decided to dedicate her first album to Lena Horne (1917-2010), the iconic diva-actress who enchanted several generations of mid-century Americans, black and white, with a singular admixture of talent, beauty, integrity, and class, not to mention a unique ability to convey the essence of a lyric. Great lyrics permeate this beautifully rendered homage, and Jordan has the skill sets to do them justice—a voice that projects from a whisper to a scream, impeccable diction, dead-center pitch, fluid phrasing. Backed by a breathe-as-one 8-piece unit of top-shelf New Orleanians that sounds twice its size, and counterstated by a cohort of virtuoso soloists, she finds fresh, unfailingly swinging approaches to this well-traveled repertoire, melding into a personal argot elements garnered from such distinguished mentors as Shirley Horn, Abbey Lincoln, Nancy Wilson—and Lena Horne herself—while sounding like no one other than Stephanie Jordan. As she aptly puts it, “it’s a tribute, not a copy.”
  
  The program offers Jordan a magnificent platform on which to showcase her exuberant spirit and abundant talent, but also contains an autobiographical component. The back story starts in the spring of 1983, when Horne visited New Orleans for the third and final time, bringing her one-woman show to the Saenger Theater for several weeks. The contractor was Jordan’s father, Edward “Kidd” Jordan—best known as an outcat improviser who navigates the interstellar spaces of late period John Coltrane, but also a distinguished educator and first-call session musician. He procured tickets for his family.
  
  “I have witnessed hundreds of performances, by a lot of big-name singers and that one never left me,” says Jordan, who at 18 was confining her singing to the house, where her audience also included six siblings, among them world-class improvisers Marlon (trumpet) and Kent (flute), as well as Rachel, a strong classical violinist. These effusions were bedrocked by close listenings to her father’s blues records and her mother’s comprehensive collection of jazz and pop singers, spanning, among others, Nat Cole, Nancy Wilson, Arthur Prysock, and Gladys Knight.
  
  “That night was the first time I’d ever witnessed a true jazz singer with everything—the fame, the fortune, the beauty, the style, the wit, the charm, the big band.” Jordan continues. “After she did some subtle things where she talked about her life, she sang ‘From This Moment On,’ which blew me away. The whole theater was on edge. Then, when she sang ‘Yesterday When I Was Young,’ everyone jumped up and erupted. I had never witnessed one person on stage send an audience into a frenzy like that. It was like, ‘Oh! This is jazz singing, for real.’”
  
  Jordan began to sing for real in 1992. Then a resident of Silver Spring, Maryland (she’d graduated from Howard University as a communications major), she celebrated her birthday with a visit to a local club where Kent Jordan was performing with pianist Doug Carn. Earlier that day her brother asked, “jokingly,” if she’d sing a song. Jordan agreed, but, once on-site, got cold feet. “My sister was with me, and she said, ‘I’m tired of you just thinking you sound good. I dare you to go up there and do it.’ I asked Doug for ‘I Remember April.’ He figured out a key, the band kicked off, and I almost fainted. My eyes were shut tight, my knees were locked back, like a little girl, and I started singing. When I finished, the audience said, ‘Yeah! She’s good, we like her.’ The club-owner; Bobby Boyd told Doug, ‘Give her a gig.’”
  
  Thirteen years later, not long after Hurricane Katrina had destroyed her New Orleans home, Jordan, now the mother of a 9-year-old son, found herself back in Maryland, “walking down the street, crying, trying to get my life together.” Musical thoughts rose up, specifically Lena Horne’s early ‘60s recording of “Once In A Lifetime.”
  
  “It was the last CD I listened to before I evacuated,” she recalls. “I remember the lyrics—‘Just once in a lifetime a man knows his moment, one wonderful moment when fate takes his hand’—and then it ends, ‘All I know is, once in my lifetime, I’m gonna do great things.’
  
  “I couldn’t stop thinking about Lena. I remembered her singing to Dorothy in The Wiz, ‘Believe that you can go home; believe you can float on air.’ I’d cry, and sing that song to myself. Then I started remembering ‘Yesterday When I Was Young.’ That’s when I realized I needed to examine her music. In my moment of crisis and total pain, what came to my mind was, ‘believe that you can go home,’ and then ‘Yesterday when I was young, the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.’ I saw myself at 18, when I first saw Lena on the stage—life was beautiful. Now here I am in this nightmare, this Katrina hell. All I can think about is Lena Horne and that music.”
  
  After resettling in New Orleans in 2008, Jordan took the next step, collaborating with her musical director, pianist Mike Esneault (a former student of her uncle, the recently deceased master clarinetist Alvin Batiste), on tunes and treatments for a Lena Horne tribute that premiered at the 2009 edition of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
  
  The Hurricane Katrina subtext—Jordan’s grieving and recovery—is palpable in the opening medley, which she describes as “an outgrowth of believing I could go home.” On this quasi-overture, she flows from a clarion “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” (Horne didn’t record it), into Duke Ellington’s “I’m Beginning To See The Light” (Horne recorded it on the 1957 LP Live at The Waldorf Astoria) on which she dialogues with brother Marlon Jordan’s fiery obbligatos and pithy solo declamation, and into an ascendent “Come Fly With Me” (Horne didn’t record it).
  
  The album’s title track, a Charles Aznavour gem that Horne documented on the 1969 LP Lena and Gabor. Jordan’s sodium pentothal treatment—the truth WILL be told—is evocative of the magical phrasing of Shirley Horn, a close friend of Jordan from her D.C. days.
  
  “Shirley told me to hold back, but also know when to go full throttle—restrain your power so you can create tension with the audience and with the band,” Jordan told me a few years ago, foreshadowing her bravura treatment of this show-stopper. “It’s always a beautiful tension, a quiet control that you have to understand at all times. I love Abbey Lincoln—and Lena, too—because of the drama and power of their voice, the ability to deliver a song and draw the audience in.”
  
  Jordan channels her inner Dinah Washington on a pull-no-punches reading of “The Lady Is A Tramp” (Horne sang it to a Marty Paich arrangement on Lena Takes Requests, from 1961) that is notable for the bite of her attack and the absolute assurance of her time.
  
  She puts a samba-second line beat on “Love,” which appears on Horne’s The Lady and Her Music Live On Broadway, from 1981, and treats Michel Legrand’s ebullient “Watch What Happens,” a signature tune of Horne’s later career, as an up-tempo shuffle blues, building and building, giving way to a wild solo by her father, before reentering with in-tune scream. “That tune captures a lot about our family,” she says. “We love the blues; it’s at the heart of everything that we do, but we also have this edginess because each of us is very definite about who we are musically. My father taught us to be that way. Have your own identity, whatever you do.”
  
  Jordan follows her father’s dictum throughout the remainder of the program, comprising all American Songbook classics—“Just One Of Those Things,” “Stormy Weather,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man Of Mine,” “From This Moment On.”
  
  Her only regret is that Horne isn’t around to hear this heartfelt offering. “I was two years into doing tributes to her, when she died,” she says. “It was devastating to me.
  
  “I love intimate, quiet duos and trios, but I love the excitement and drama of Lena Horne with a lot of horns on stage. It’s a beautiful experience to witness it, and to do it is just beyond belief. Through this Lena Horne journey, I figured out that I love music and musicians more than I ever thought I could. It transformed me, and I’m hoping that my fans will be transformed by this experience.”
  

• New Orleans singer Stephanie Jordan thrives with Chicago Jazz Ensemble [+ Show ]
  

  Call it grace under pressure. Though the Chicago Jazz Ensemble has faced adversity in the past se...Call it grace under pressure.
  
  Though the Chicago Jazz Ensemble has faced adversity in the past several months, the band showed plenty of fighting spirit Friday night at the Harris Theater.
  
  Nothing less would have sufficed, considering the organization's recent history. Last year, the CJE lost its superb music director, Jon Faddis, whose contract was not renewed. Then the poplar R&B singer Ledisi – who had been announced as soloist for this concert – abruptly bowed out.
  
  This left the CJE scrambling to find a vocalist who could carry a program celebrating two of the foremost vocalists in the history of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Surprisingly, the ensemble didn't enlist any of the accomplished singers based in Chicago. Intriguingly, the band booked Stephanie Jordan, who belongs to one of the most admired musical families in New Orleans but remains little-known here.
  
  Until now. Acquitting herself handsomely, Jordan did her family name proud and brought plenty of high spirits her CJE debut . . . the woman can sing and indisputably knows how to reach out across the footlights.
  
  In truth, Jordan's style owes more to Nancy Wilson than to either Vaughan or Fitzgerald. You could hear it in the way she stretched phrases and leaned on blue notes and in the silvery quality of her upper register. Neither Vaughan's plush tones nor Fitzgerald's hyper-virtuosic scat singing were referenced here.
  
  But jazz honors individualists above all others, and Jordan, to her credit, made no attempts to impersonate anyone. The further she traveled into unconventional interpretations, the better she sounded.
  
  The high point came in the most famous tune penned by George Shearing, who died last Monday and always will be remembered for the indelible, indestructible "Lullaby of Birdland." Jordan's version sounded like no one else's, the singer starting and ending phrases at unusual moments: in the middle of a bar, at the end of an offbeat, whenever.
  
  Because most of this interpretation amounted to an extensive duet between Jordan and CJE music director/drummer Dana Hall, the singer had plenty of space in which to improvise – and made the most of it. At some points, the melodic contours and rhythmic syntax of the original were barely perceptible, Jordan inventing creative musical structures at every turn.
  
  Drummer Hall displayed characteristic wit, responding dexterously to Jordan one moment, coyly playing against her the next.
  
  Throughout the evening, Jordan showed ample voice, bringing heft to music of the Gershwins and Cole Porter without pushing volume levels. Clearly she values plush sound and knows how to produce it . . .
  
  As for the CJE, some moments were more successful than others. In several instances, the band did not launch pieces well, as in its misplaced voicings in "Our Love is Here to Stay." In Chaka Khan's reworking of Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia," the band virtually overwhelmed Jordan's vocals.
  
  Generally, each piece improved significantly as it unfolded, suggesting that music director Hall needs to hold a firmer rein as bandleader – right from the opening downbeat.
  
  hreich@tribune.com
  
  

• Jazz singer Stephanie Jordan to replace Ledisi at Ella Fitzgerald tribute [+ Show ]
  

  If you can be judged by the company you keep – or replace – local jazz singer Stephanie Jordan is op...If you can be judged by the company you keep – or replace – local jazz singer Stephanie Jordan is operating at a very high level.
  
  Acclaimed contemporary soul singer Ledisi was scheduled to sing with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble on Feb. 18 in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. However, the four-time Grammy nominee, who was born in New Orleans but moved away as a child, dropped off the bill after joining a tour featuring KEM and El DeBarge.
  
  So instead of performing with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on the Columbia College Chicago campus on the 18th, Ledisi will be with KEM et al at the Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie outside Dallas, Tex. The next night, Feb. 19, she joins KEM and El DeBarge at the UNO Lakefront Arena.
  
  With Ledisi suddenly unavailable, Jordan was invited to fill in. So she’ll sing the music of Fitzgerald and Vaughan – among the most cherished repertoires in jazz – in Chicago on Feb. 18.
  
  Jordan is the daughter of local jazz educator and avant-jazz saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan. Her siblings include trumpeter Marlon, flutist Kent and violinist Rachel Jordan. In 2008, Stephanie wowed a national television audience when she teamed with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and guitarist Jonathan Dubose on a jazzy, re-imagined "Star-Spangled Banner" prior to the NBA Allstar Game at the New Orleans Arena.
  
  

• Chicago Jazz Ensemble with Stephanie Jordan Live at Harris Theater [+ Show ]
  

  Story and Photos by James Walker, Jr., Copyright 2011 Paying homage to legendary singers Sarah V...Story and Photos by James Walker, Jr., Copyright 2011
  
  Paying homage to legendary singers Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald on the same show is a daunting objective to say the least. For the CJE, this task really became a challenge several weeks ago when scheduled featured Grammy nominated R&B vocalist Ledisi canceled her appearance, leaving Dana Hall and the CJE staff to scramble for a replacement.
  Having seen Ledisi perform recently at Jazz venues, this listener was really looking forward seeing the New Orleans native front the renowned CJE for such an important concert. To the surprise of many, another 'Nawlins native was available and eagerly took advantage of the opportunity to come to the Windy City on very short notice.
  
  Stephanie Jordan, lesser known member of the musical Jordan family from the Crescent City stepped in and simply mesmerized the near capacity Harris Theater crowd with a sparkling performance that surely put her in good stead with the astute Chicago audience. Stephanie's father, saxophonist Kidd Jordan was a frequent visitor to Chicago often performing with the late Fred Anderson at the now defunct Velvet Lounge, but Stephanie was an unknown.
  
  That's no longer the case as she performed as if it was second nature. She was at ease from her opening medley of "On A Clear Day," "I'm Beginning To See The Light" and "Come Fly With Me." Her infectious smile and charisma was ever present and she had this crowd on the edge of their seat until she left the stage several hours later singing "From This Moment On."
  
  Throughout the evening, CJE musicians were highlighted with extended solos, but Ms.Jordan was the "Star" of this show. This listener isn't sure how many rehearsals she had with the band, it appeared as if she was a regular member. They were all on point throughout and never appeared to miss a beat.
  
  Jordan never attempted to imitate Sarah or Ella ( scatting wasn't even attempted), she just unleashed beautiful music in her own style without committing musical sacrilege with these timeless songs. With such a sparkling vocal instrument, why not just do what you do best.
  
  CJE, based at Columbia College in downtown Chicago often showcases a student and on this occasion, trumpeter Sam Harris had the spotlight as he performed "Tenderly" with Ms. Jordan like a seasoned veteran. This young man was poised and made sweet music with Jordan. When not soloing, he complemented her with a nice soft touch in the background.
  
  Other highlights of the evening was trumpeter Art Hoyle's solo on "Autumn in New York". This was a number arranged by former CJE's director William Russo for the Stan Kenton Band. Also, Dizzy Gillespie's "Night in Tunisia" with lyrics by Chaka Khan allowed pianist Jeremy Kahn and Pharez Whitted demonstrate their varied skills as Jordan worked the entire stage as if she was at home.
  
  Although musical director /drummer Dana Hall never took an extended solo during this performance, his leadership was quite evident throughout and it appears that he has arrived as CJE's new leader and has this outstanding band headed in the right direction.
  
  

• Stephanie Jordan sings for Oprah Winfrey and Friends of Susan Taylor [+ Show ]
  

  (12/3/08) - Susan L. Taylor, former editor-in-chief of Essence was honored Tuesday night in a privat...(12/3/08) - Susan L. Taylor, former editor-in-chief of Essence was honored Tuesday night in a private celebration; Oprah Winfrey and Friends of Susan Taylor at New York City's ESPACE for her 37 years of service to the magazine which targets African-American women. The event featured a performance by New Orleans’ jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan. Invited specifically to sing Susan’s favorite jazz tune “Here’s to Life,” Jordan has turned the tune most identified with her mentor Shirley Horn into her signature song. As one critic pointed out, Jordan killed it on the mic.”
  
  Jordan first rose to national prominence following the national televised Jazz at the Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina. She followed that up with rendition of the national anthem during the 2008 NBA All-Star Game that has been called “the most smoldering rendition of the song since Marvin Gaye performed it at another NBA All-Star Game more than 20 years ago...”
  
  The night also served as a benefit for the National CARES Mentoring Movement that is dedicated to pairing vulnerable African-American children with a caring mentor. National CARES, which was founded by Taylor as Essence CARES, currently operates in more than 50 U.S. states.
  
  “Winfrey, who originally made a $500,000 commitment to the cause was so moved by the spirit of the evening that she doubled her donation-a total of $1 million-to undergird the mission.”
  
  Karu F. Daniels of BlackVoices.com adds, “Taylor … was elated with the grand contribution.”What a blessing Oprah's generosity is to the healing of so many young lives," she said. "Her extraordinary gift of love took my breath away."
  
  
  "With this kind of continued support, we will end the cycles of academic and social disengagement that are debilitating our communities and country," Taylor, said. "Mentoring is the answer. It is the best and most meaningful gift we can give this holiday season."
  
  Originally founded by Taylor as "Essence Cares" in 2006 in response to Hurricane Katrina, the organization is a mentor-recruitment movement that works to fill the pipeline of youth-supporting organizations throughout the country with mentors. Its mission is to save a generation by putting a caring adult in the life of every at-risk child and those who have already fallen into peril.
  
  Ruby Dee, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Common, Michael Eric Dyson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Roland S. Martin, Maurice DuBois, Lola Ogunnaike, Kephra Burns, Kevin Powell, Dr. Adelaide Sanford, Terrie M. Williams, Michelle Miller, Donna Richardson, Tommy Dortch, Julianne Malveaux, Sade Baderinwa, Malik Yoba, Allallah Shabazz, Melanie Campbell, Vincent Sylvain and Rev. Al Sharpton, were among the guests who turned out. The event was co- hosted by comedian/actress Phyllis Yvonne Stickney. Gospel music superstars Yolanda Adams and Donnie McClurkin were the celebrity performers.
  

• Cape May Jazz Festival - Spring [+ Show ]
  

  Over at Aleathea’s, an intimate restaurant located inside the charming Victorian-styled Inn of Cape ...Over at Aleathea’s, an intimate restaurant located inside the charming Victorian-styled Inn of Cape May, singer Stephanie Jordan cast a spell over listeners with her dramatic delivery and highly expressive voice. Laying back behind the beat while enunciating clearly in a style reminiscent of vocalist Jimmy Scott, Jordan imbued “You Don’t Know What Love Is” with deep feeling before turning Abbey Lincoln’s “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” into a stirring, cathartic vehicle. With her brother, trumpeter Marlon Jordan, echoing and shading her beautiful voice, Stephanie crept into Dinah Washington territory on a profoundly blue reading of “Stormy Monday” then interpreted Billie Holiday’s signature piece, “Good Morning Heartache,” with a rare balance of vulnerability and deep soul. Already a seasoned performer, the daughter of New Orleans musician and renowned educator Kidd Jordan is a singular interpreter of ballads and blues whose profile has been on the rise since her “coming out” appearance last year at the gala Katrina benefit held in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. Clearly, this gifted young singer is on a fast track to jazz stardom.

• FINDING HER VOICE: Singing was not always the No. 1 priority for Alvin Batiste's niece Stephanie Jordan [+ Show ]
  

  Saturday, May 03, 2008 By Susan Langenhennig On the last day of the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and He...Saturday, May 03, 2008
  By Susan Langenhennig
  
  On the last day of the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell, Branford Marsalis was backstage at the WWOZ Jazz Tent speaking with friends in a low, stunned voice.
  
  Just hours earlier, his mentor, Alvin Batiste, had died of a heart attack. Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr. and other musicians had quickly turned a scheduled performance into a tribute to Batiste, a revered composer, educator and clarinetist.
  
  On stage was jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan, Batiste's niece. Initially she'd planned to sing "Skylark," but changed at the last minute to honor her uncle with "Here's to Life." Tears coursed down her cheeks as her brother Marlon accompanied on trumpet.
  
  
  
  "So here's to life, and every joy it brings.
  
  "Here's to life, to dreamers and their dreams."
  
  Marsalis had known the Jordans since they were children, and he'd heard Stephanie perform before. But this time was different.
  
  "Funny how the time just flies,
  
  "How love can turn from warm hellos to sad goodbyes."
  
  Emotion was running high. Jordan's strong voice rode the tent's turbulent waves of joy and grief, captivating the audience and the backstage crowd.
  
  "We were all in shock" over Batiste's death, Marsalis recalled recently from his home in North Carolina. "Then Stephanie started singing. It was a level of wisdom, passion I hadn't heard before. I just had to stop and pay attention. "
  Months later, when the National Basketball Association asked Marsalis to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" on his soprano saxophone at the All-Star Game in the New Orleans Arena, he tapped Jordan to sing. Jonathan Dubose Jr. rounded out the trio on guitar.
  
  The invitation came as a shock, Jordan said.
  
  With just one month to prepare, she sang with Marsalis for the first time during a sound check a few hours before the performance was beamed into millions of living rooms around the country.
  
  "I don't think I've ever been that nervous," Jordan, 43, said with a laugh recently as she took her 11-year-old son, Paul, for a Plum Street snowball. "I was up there with these world-class musicians before a worldwide audience. To say I had the jitters would put it mildly."
  
  Dressed for the occasion
  
  It wasn't the singing that worried her. She'd performed on some of jazz's biggest stages, from Lincoln Center in New York to Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
  
  Jordan fretted over the perfect outfit. From the New Orleans Saks Fifth Avenue dressing room, she e-mailed photos of dresses through her Blackberry to her out-of-town aunt and pored over options with her mom.
  
  Finally, Jordan settled on a golden silk Nicole Miller sheath, a lone gold bangle on her right wrist, soft makeup and loose, shoulder-sweeping curls.
  
  On the night of Feb. 17, she took the microphone at center court, back arched, feet in a dancer's stance, the picture of a songbird cut from the Billy Holiday cloth.
  
  Her voice equally harked to the genre's golden age.
  
  "Stephanie sang with a solemnity you just don't hear in popular culture today," Marsalis said. "She has impact. She was singing to the nation. We're at war in two countries, and she got it. It was powerful melancholy.
  
  "When she sings, there's true emotion."
  
  Jordan comes from a family of musical talents. The fifth of seven children, she's the daughter of saxophonist and educator Edward "Kidd" Jordan and Edvidge Jordan (who plays piano but not professionally). Her sister Rachel is a violinist, brother Kent plays the flute and Marlon, the trumpet.
  
  Unlike her siblings, instruments weren't an early draw. Growing up in eastern New Orleans, Jordan took dance lessons at Ballet Hysell and tried the harp "for about a month before it became a decoration in the house," she said.
  
  She didn't even sing in the choir.
  
  Still music swirled around the house like a perpetual soundtrack.
  
  "There was always some instrument being played. It was a competition just to watch TV in peace," Jordan said.
  
  With her dad a prominent figure in the local music industry, the family got regular tickets to the big shows in town. The cast of "The Wiz" came to a party at her house, and she recalls being mesmerized by Lena Horne in concert in the early 1980s.
  
  In high school, Jordan loved Chaka Khan. But she equally revered Connie Chung.
  
  After graduating from McDonogh 35 High School, Jordan attended Loyola University, then transferred to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a degree in journalism.
  
  She interned at television stations and landed a job in radio after college.
  
  A birthday to remember
  
  Then on her 26th birthday, Jordan got a wild hair.
  
  Her brother Kent was playing at the Takoma Station Tavern jazz club in Washington. As a birthday indulgence, she asked if she could join him and pianist Doug Karn for a song.
  
  They said yes; she chose "I Remember April."
  
  The crowd loved it. Club owner Bobby Boyd signed Jordan for a weekly happy hour gig, and just like that, her career path took a sharp U-turn.
  
  "About a month later, I called my dad, and he said, 'I know what you're going to say,' " she said. "You want to quit your day job."
  
  Carrying on a family tradition, a shiny new microphone arrived shortly, a gift from dad, who also gave a trumpet, violin and flute to her siblings when they got their starts.
  
  Mom followed with packages filled with swanky dresses, strappy shoes and piles of sheet music.
  
  Even with family support, though, Jordan faced the harsh realities of a professional musician's life. Working temp office jobs helped to pay the rent.
  
  "By day I'd be answering the phone till I was blue in the face, and then at night I'd get all glammed up and perform," Jordan said. "I'd come home smelling of chicken and smoke. That's why I don't do a lot of clubs anymore. I prefer concerts and festivals now."
  
  A concert schedule is easier, too, for raising her son, Paul, who, true to his birthright, has taken up the saxophone but also favors basketball.
  
  After Katrina flooded their eastern New Orleans home, Jordan took Paul and relocated to Maryland for two years. They moved back to the Crescent City last fall.
  
  Family affair
  
  Jordan continues to perform with her siblings. In 2005, she and Marlon toured Europe as part of a goodwill trip sponsored by the State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She sang on Marlon's 2005 album "You Don't Know What Love Is," and the two are collaborating on a new classic jazz compilation, "On a Clear Day," to come out on the family's label Functional Art Media this fall.
  
  Jordan, who favors jazz standards, lately has been focused on bringing back the big band sound. "I love standing up there with all those musicians on stage and putting on a big show. You just can't beat that sound," she said.
  
  She performed two weeks ago with Jason Marsalis and Lionel Hampton's Big Band at the Ogden Museum. Before every performance, Jordan takes great care to make sure her hair and makeup are stage perfect.
  
  When she's off stage, though, she's most often clad in sweats and found on the floor teaching Pilates to sixth-, seventh- and eight-graders at McDonogh City Park Academy, where she's also the school's art director.
  
  "I grew up around teachers and musicians," she said. "I guess it's just come full circle."
  
  . . . . . . .
  
  Staff writer Susan Langenhennig can be reached at slangenhennig@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3379.
  
  
  
  
  

• Chris Rose: All Star weekend proves we still throw the best party [+ Show ]
  

  "Local chanteuse Stephanie Jordan set the anthem on a slow burn Sunday night, delivering the most sm..."Local chanteuse Stephanie Jordan set the anthem on a slow burn Sunday night, delivering the most smoldering rendition of the song since Marvin Gaye performed it at another NBA All-Star Game more than 20 years ago. I think a star was born. Another blazing light in our constellation. It was all just right, just right, so good, so New Orleans." - Chris Rose
  
  (http://blog.nola.com/chrisrose/2008/02/nba_all_star_event_celebrates.html)

• Standards Get Fresher; Singers Over Manhattan Series [+ Show ]
  

  NEW YORK, NY (10-20-2006) -- Last September 17th, a fortnight after Hurricane Katrina, an extraordin...NEW YORK, NY (10-20-2006) -- Last September 17th, a fortnight after Hurricane Katrina, an extraordinary cohort of singers-among them, in no particular order, Shirley Caesar, Aaron and Arthur Neville, Cassandra Wilson, Diane Reeves, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, James Taylor, and Bette Midler-convened at the Rose Theatre to perform a benefit relief concert for the victims of the catastrophic.
  
  On that memorable night; none sang with greater authority or emotional resonance than Stephanie Jordan, who enthralled the packed house and a national PBS NPR audience of millions with an ascendant reading of “Here’s To Life.” Framed by her siblings Marlon (trumpet), Kent (flute), and Rachel (violin), each, like their sister, a native New Orleanian newly uprooted from their home. Jordan brought the concert to its climax, rendering the Phyllis Molinary lyric-an instant classic when the late Shirley Horn recorded it in 1991—with impeccable diction, dead-center pitch, and a personal point of view, acknowledging Horn’s antecedent version while drawing independent conclusions about tempo, phrasing, and dynamics. In the process, Jordan—until her late twenties, her only singing was around the house, and she did not make a record until 2005—revealed a fully evolved tonal personality, one that can be mentioned in a conversation about such distinguished mentors and influences as Horn, Abbey Lincoln, and Nancy Wilson.
  
  “Shirley’s phrasing takes your breath away,” say Jordan, who attended Howard University during the 1980’s, and became friends with Horn while residing in the Washington, D.C. area until 1996. “She would tell me things like, ‘You’ve got to hold back, but know when to go full throttle, too’—restrain your power so you can create tension with the audience and with the band. It’s always a beautiful tension, a quiet control that you have to understand at all times. We had a lot of conversations about that. I love Abby and Lena Horne, too, because of the drama and power of their voices, the ability to deliver a song and draw the audience to you. First and foremost for me is the lyric. IF I don’t like the words, I’m not singing it.”
  
  A dancer earlier in life, Jordan never took a voice lesson, nor apprenticed in a band or choir. But the music is in her DNA.
  
  Her father is Edward “Kidd” Jordan, known internationally as an outcat tenor saxophonist, but also a respected session musician, classical soloist, and educator around New Orleans, who taught the fundamentals to such luminaries as Brandford Marsalis and Donald Harrison, as well as his own children. Her uncle is bebop-and-beyond clarinet visionary Alvin Batiste, who played during the 1950s in the American Jazz Quintet with Ellis Marsalis and Edward Blackwell, and in the 1960s founded the well respected jazz curriculum at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson, the former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (formerly LCJO) alto saxophonist whose quartet will be Jordan’s band for half of this evening, matriculated during the 1980s. Since his mid-80s retirement, Batiste has continued to perform, frequently hiring his niece for confidence-building gigs during the years when she was building her craft.
  
  “I never want to do the same thing the same way all the time,” Jordan says. “I’m always listening for some sound that’s going to take me into another direction. That’s the magic that is jazz.
  
  “I’ve walked away from it several times, but I’m a jazz singer. I can’t be anything else. After Katrina, I said, “This is it; I’m going for it now.’ My house is washed away. The city is washed away. What else can I do that I really enjoy, and also support myself? So I guess I’ll just go on ahead and sing.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ----------------------------------------
  National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation; Jordan Family Musicians Shape New Orleans Sound
  
  
  Nation, May 25, 2006 · Sir Edward "Kidd" Jordan was a champion of new styles of jazz in New Orleans, and now his children are making their mark on music.
  
  Guests:
  
  Marlon Jordan, trumpet
  
  Kent Jordan, flute
  
  Stephanie Jordan, vocals
  
  To Listen visit this link:
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5430737

• Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit [+ Show ]
  

  " . . . Another renowned New Orleans family, the Jordans, escaped Katrina, dispersed to different c..." . . . Another renowned New Orleans family, the Jordans, escaped Katrina, dispersed to different cities and reunited at this Higher Ground benefit. Featuring Marlon on trumpet, Kent on flute, Rachel on violin and Stephanie on vocals accompanied by LCJO members . . . , the children of New Orleans tenor sax titan and educator Kidd Jordan delighted the Rose Theater crowd with an affecting rendition of "Here's to Life."
  
  Singer Stephanie Jordan, a standout here, was the real discovery of the evening. Her haunting rendition of this bittersweet ode associated with Shirley Horn was delivered with uncanny poise and a depth of understated soul that mesmerized the crowd and registered to the back rows. Singing with a clarity of diction that recalled Nat “King” Cole, she offered an uplifting message of hope in her heartfelt reading . . . "
  
  This Higher Ground concert, seen nationally on PBS affiliates around the country, was also simultaneously broadcast on WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM and WNYC, New York Public Radio 93.9 FM, in the New York City area, and internationally via National Public Radio Worldwide. XM Satellite Radio carried concert live on its network from coast to coast on channel 70, the Real Jazz channel. The concert was also streamed live on www.npr.org, www.wbgo.org, and www.xmradio.com.
  
  Jazz At Lincoln Center Announces 2006-07 Season
  ALL ABOUT JAZZ
  
  Singers Over Manhattan
  Featuring Stephanie Jordan with the Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson Quartet
  
  October 20 & 21, 2006, 7:30pm & 9:30pm sets, The Allen Room
  Singers Over Manhattan returns to The Allen Room for a series of evenings with some of today's great jazz vocalists.
  
  New Orleans native Stephanie Jordan returns after her memorable appearance at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Higher Ground Benefit Concert.
  
  NEW YORK, NY (BlackNews.com) - Standards get fresher. Every so often a new voice stands up and proclaims itself, but few do so with such supreme depth and understated soul. Emerging from the New Orleans jazz family Jordan, Stephanie Jordan was last year's Higher Ground Concert's "real discovery" (JazzTimes). She's joined in sweet counterpoint by Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, whose buoyant saxophone voice continues to proclaim itself with unmatched joy and warmth.
  
  
  
  
  

• Jordan finds strength to go on [+ Show ]
  

  By Cheryl Kain Friday, August 4, 2006 For Stephanie Jordan's family, music is a way of life. Sh...By Cheryl Kain
  Friday, August 4, 2006
  
  For Stephanie Jordan's family, music is a way of life. She would say that music is her life. One of seven children, singer and jazz musician Stephanie Jordan was born and raised in New Orleans by her housewife mother and musician father. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Jordan spent nine years in Washington, D.C. This year marks her 10th year in the D.C. area, where she performed gigs with Cape drummer Bart Weisman.
  
  On Aug. 12, Jordan will be here on the Cape at the Provincetown Art Association Museum as part WOMR's second annual Provincetown Jazz Festival.
  
  
  
  Some areas of her now-abandoned suburban New Orleans neighborhood received up to 13 inches of water. "My house had 8 feet," says Jordan. Her family home of 37 years was completely devastated and has to be completely gutted, rewired and rebuilt. The musical family includes flutist Kent, trumpeter Marlon, and violinist Rachel. Trumpeter and frequent collaborator, brother Marlon Jordan lost his house (and was airlifted off his roof); violinist sister Rachel's (professor of music at Jackson State) roof was blown off. Her other sister, Christie, the family archivist, lost her home as well. Uncle Maynard Chatter's home survived; her other uncle Alvin Baptiste's New Orleans home did not. In Jordan's immediate and extended family alone, between 20-25 houses are gone, all relatives are dispersed around the country. She adds, "It's a beautiful community. We all hope to go back."
  
  "When folks think of Hurricane Katrina, they need to understand the devastation of a community as it affects families. Our story is one of many stories, and it's more than a loss of a house or home - it's the loss of a community, a loss of a way of life," says Jordan. For generations, the Jordan family has been making music, their primary source of income. Her father, saxophonist Edward "Kidd" Jordan, teaches at Southern University in New Orleans. "Our main industry is gone. Since we're musicians, my Dad's University has been shut down for the first time ever." The university did reopen, but the music department is literally history. Jordan's father is the only person remaining.
  
  "For many hurt by Katrina, it is not just about surviving the storm and rebuilding their houses; they must address quality of life issues. Rebuilding our cherished historical American city, New Orleans, is a political priority. The 'guts' of jazz are gleaned from basic human experience, and the city's vital importance as a cultural and jazz Mecca impacts all of us, even if we have not lost our homes. Over 400,000 residents are gone, and the majority of these are African Americans. New Orleans without the African American community is not New Orleans." Jordan says. "For me to no longer have access to my family and other musicians, it changes my perspective. I have been blessed with a lot and I took it for granted. I realize how incredible these musicians are -- to not be able to visit certain communities and not have jam sessions is heart-breaking. I need to be out here telling our story through music.
  
  Jordan just finished performing with brother Marlon and Rachel at The Kennedy Center in July. She held her own with vocalists Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson and others in Blue Note Records' Higher Ground CD, a historic evening mounted by Winton Marsalis that documents the Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Concert, which took place in the Rose Hall Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center last September. The whole Jordan music family is featured on the CD, and all proceeds from Higher Ground go to displaced Katrina musicians. Stephanie collaborates with brother Marlon (www.marlonjordan.com) on her acclaimed CD "You Don't Know What Love Is."
  
  
  
  At the PAAM concert, Stephanie will sing a song by one of her favorite artists, the great Abbey Lincoln, called "Throw it Away." For many people, music is an instant mood-changer. The right music soothes a savage day, inspires, or open us up to love; and for those touched by Katrina, music is not just a luxury but a necessity. "Music in general helps me cope," adds Jordan. "When I looked around and had to take account of what I physically own, I had my duffel bag, my nine-year-old son, and I had my voice. I could sing myself to sleep after I cried."
  
  Jordan's family is not only known for their enchanting music, but also for their mouth-watering soul food. One of the final remnants of her pre-Katrina life was her grandma's famous recipes. "I had her recipes in my head, and my songs in my heart," says Stephanie. She adds, "When I first settled into my apartment, I found myself making lots of grand mama's stuffed bell peppers and potato salad."
  
  Jordan's smoky vocals have been described as "silk-between-the-fingers" and fans liken her to Carmen McCrae and Lena Horne. Jazz critic Eugene Holly writes, "Stephanie's tone and diction combine Nancy Wilson's razor-sharp diction and phrasing with Shirley Horn's economy." Jordan's message when she performs is one of empowerment for women. "I feel my mission in jazz is to play to the higher [road] on earth, and create other positive experiences for people. We are in so much need of positive energy!"
  
  In spite of what would and has destroyed many people's spirits, Jordan is hopeful. "I'm a firm believer that these experiences are temporary. The trials don't last forever. It is going to shape us and make us better, if we allow it to."
  
  

• New Orleans' musical Jordans [+ Show ]
  

  The centerpiece of the new Louisiana Red Hot Records CD Marlon Jordan Featuring Stephanie Jordan is ...The centerpiece of the new Louisiana Red Hot Records CD Marlon Jordan Featuring Stephanie Jordan is the introduction of a new singer. Trumpeter Marlon Jordan, who hit the music world hard in the 1990s with three well-praised recordings on the Columbia label, features his sister Stephanie on vocals. Where has this lady been hiding?
  
  Stephanie Jordan has impressive agility as a singer. Listening to her waltz through these lyrics, displaying equal parts pleasure and pain, takes you into the lush side of the blues, when the force of love throttles the heart with pangs you never forget, but which you simply learn not to remember every waking hour.
  
  On the subtitle cut, “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” Stephanie works with lyrics that are entwined with the memory of Johnny Adams in his mellow years, the lounge lizard vein; her version is marked by a softening of the gruffer blues style for which that late singer was known.
  
  Johnny Adams, the self-styled “songbird of the South,” sang “You Don’t Know What Love Is” in the last decade of his career. Rounder Records producer Scott Billington insured that he had a stellar studio band and good arrangements. Adams’ voice, seasoned by years of cigarettes, took on a deep, husky, brooding suggestiveness, as if each phrase was tinged with the sorrow of “you-know-I-been-there-and-got-hit-hard.” Stephanie’s voice has the warmer, sensuous hues of youth. With lyrics by Don Raye and Gene DePaul, s/he sings:
  
  
  
  You don’t know
  
  What love is
  
  Until you learn the meaning
  
  Of the blues
  
  
  
  Stephanie Jordan’s interpretation, accompanied by Marlon’s sleek horn lines, conveys a young woman’s meditation on why love leads to sorrow — a view of the human experiment more focused on spring roots than the bluesman’s vista of winter rain. After the first few times I listened to Jordan’s take, I went back to the Adams version, switching between the two, wondering what it would be like to hear alternating passages of Stephanie singing to Johnny and vice versa, as Natalie Cole sang in response on those “Unforgettable” tracks laid down years ago by her long departed pére, Nat King Cole.
  
  The great drummer Art Blakey said that once a musician puts an idea into the world, the world owns it. He might have added that the better the idea, the more it will be reworked. “You Don’t Know What Love Is” stands as a stunning song in both renditions, Stephanie’s and Johnny’s. That sense of shifting ownership in the territories of jazz endows this new CD in other ways as well.
  
  Stephanie’s sister Rachel Jordan is the accomplished executive producer on this new CD. Rachel, who trained at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Md., and is a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, plays a silken violin on several cuts. As producer, Rachel oversaw a recording that registers a quality of high musicianship, particularly in the arrangements by pianist Darrell Lavigne.
  
  Marlon Jordan Featuring Stephanie Jordan is also a debut portrait of the larger family as influenced (guided may be too overarching a term) by patriarch Edward “Kidd” Jordan, the longtime SUNO jazz educator and driving force in the World Saxophone Quartet. Kidd’s wailing sax solo on “My Favorite Things” is a potent reminder that John Coltrane’s version of that famous song stands as a classic of jazz improvisation and (to borrow from Blakey once again) therefore subject to improvisation. The presence of Alvin Batiste’s poetic clarinet on “All Blues,” a Miles Davis composition from the “birth of the cool” era, is an echoing reminder of that small network of progressive jazzmen and composers – Kidd, Alvin Batiste, Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, the late Nat Perrilliat, James Black and Mel Lastie – who together forged a Crescent City modernist sound more than a generation ago.
  
  Following in that imposing tradition is Kent Jordan, the vaunted flutist who hit his stride as a jazz artist on the national scene in the early 1990s. Kent wields a mean piccolo on the cut “Now Baby, or Never.”
  
  Like the Humphreys, Adamses, Marsalises, Nevilles and other clans now synonymous with New Orleans music, the Jordans are advancing a tradition of music shaped by family ties. With due respect to the mystery of how artistic genes course through generations of such families, I think something else bears mention. Many years ago I asked Ellis Marsalis if his sons’ success stemmed from a family tradition. “No,” he said, deadpan. “It was the teaching.”
  
  Kidd Jordan might genially agree. He, Marsalis and Alvin Batiste are pioneering jazz educators. If every public school in this city had a band with good music teachers, a bonafide music industry would be immeasurably strengthened.
  
  In the meantime, keep your eye on Stephanie Jordan. She’ll pop up on your television on some national show one of these days – hopefully with kinfolk in tow. •
  
  
  

• Jazz family weathers storm [+ Show ]
  

  GLENWOOD SPRINGS. CO -- hen jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan sings "The Good Life" tonight, she'll mea...GLENWOOD SPRINGS. CO -- hen jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan sings "The Good Life" tonight, she'll mean every word of the old Frank Sinatra tune.
  
  Especially the lyrics about needing to "explore the unknown, like the heartache when you learn you must face them alone."
  
  "Just driving in, beholding the mountains and the canyons, it renews your hope that life is so much bigger," said Stephanie, who survived the nation's costliest hurricane last fall. "Katrina was such a contrast."
  
  Stephanie, whose lyrical style has been compared to Nora Jones and Dianne Krall, is one of four siblings in The Jordan Family. The seven-piece group plays the second Summer of Jazz show at 7 p.m. today at Two Rivers Park.
  
  Like her musician brothers and sister, the petite vocalist is rebounding from Katrina's destruction.
  
  "In our immediate family alone, seven dwellings were lost," Stephanie said. "I had eight feet of water in my house, and lost everything — pianos, sheet music, my entire wardrobe, a singer's wardrobe."
  
  
  On the road again
  
  For The Jordan Family, coming to Colorado — even just for a few days — helps them heal.
  
  "Economic development for performers is important. We've lost many venues in New Orleans," Stephanie said. "Opportunities in New Orleans are really down. To be able to travel and perform is a blessing. It will release some thoughts. ... After Katrina, I'm beginning to write."
  
  Trumpeter Marlon Jordan looks to his music for a sense of normalcy after nearly losing his life to the hurricane.
  
  "We're trying to rebuild," said Marlon, the youngest New Orleans band leader to ever sign with a major record label. "Everybody is trying to get back to what we were doing before — our livelihood."
  
  Marlon camped out on the roof of his New Orleans home for five days, waiting to be rescued.
  
  "I had a two-story house and my whole bottom floor was flooded," the 35-year-old said. "I had to bust a hole through the top of the roof and stay out there during the day so they would see us. I built a cabana out of a shower curtain."
  
  A long-line helicopter rescue mission pulled Marlon and his girlfriend from the roof. Not knowing the extent of his injuries, Marlon had two fractured ankles from swimming through flood waters and kicking mailboxes.
  
  "It's something I never want to go through again," he said. "At that point, you just want to get out of there. You're hot, you're hungry and you're dehydrated."
  
  Violinist Rachel Jordan is still recovering from Katrina's havoc. She lost two prized violins and several bows before suffering an accident on her way to see her damaged home.
  
  "I dislocated my shoulder and broke my arm in four places. I'm in a certain amount of pain, and it's still not 100 percent," said Rachel, a professor of violin/viola at Jackson State University in Mississippi. "I played my first chamber music concert recently, and it felt better. They taped me up like a football player."
  
  A violinist since age 7, Rachel has followed a musical path through life. She regrets that Katrina claimed many of her documented memories of her journey.
  
  "I still can't find the tape where I played with the New Orleans Symphony for the first time," she said. "I lost a lifetime of music — I need to start collecting concertos and sonatas."
  
  
  A family affair
  
  Music, especially New Orleans jazz, is a way of life for Rachel, Marlon, Stephanie and their brother, flutist Kent Jordan. They are all children of saxophonist Edward "Kidd" Jordan, who the French government recognized with a knighthood for his contribution to the European performing arts.
  
  Sir Kidd Jordan also lost irreplaceable music mementos.
  
  "My father lost 50 or 60 saxophones," Marlon said. "He's been playing since he was 20 years old."
  
  Soon after the hurricane, Stephanie and her siblings performed during Jazz at Lincoln Center's Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit broadcast nationwide. This fall, she and Marlon are touring Europe as part of the U.S. State Department's Higher Ground relief effort.
  
  For now, The Jordan Family, with drummer Ocie Davis, pianist Mike Esneault and bass player Roland Guerin — who played with Michael White's quartet at last week's Summer of Jazz concert — are enjoying "The Good Life" in Glenwood Springs.
  
  "We'll play stuff people recognize, some Billie Holliday and Frank Sinatra," Stephanie said.
  
  "And Marlon will play a couple blues songs from New Orleans. Maybe we'll do a little Latin flavor for a nice mix."
  
  
  Contact April E. Clark: 945-8515, ext. 518
  aclark@postindependent.com
  
  
  * * * * *
  Summer of Jazz profile
  
  Every Wednesday, the Summer of Jazz concert series hosts free concerts from 7-9:30 p.m. at Two Rivers Park. This year, Summer of Jazz is in tribute to New Orleans music and its heritage. Each week the Post Independent profiles the featured musicians and acts. For more information on The Jordan Family, visit www.summerofjazz.com.
  
  • Name: The Jordan Family
  • Ages: 35 to 47
  • Type of jazz played: classic New Orleans-style
  • What’s the most irreplaceable item you lost in Hurricane Katrina? “Mainly it’s the family pictures that kill you,” violinist Rachel Jordan said.
  

• Marlon & Stephanie Jordan give official "Thank You" to Europe [+ Show ]
  

  Nov. 8, 2005 To say "Thank You" to Romanians for their support for the victims of Hurricane Katr...Nov. 8, 2005
  
  To say "Thank You" to Romanians for their support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Marlon Jordan Quartet of New Orleans, in cooperation with the American Cultural Center of the U.S. Embassy, gave two concerts on November 4 and 5. In Bucharest, after attending a reception at the Cultural Center, where the group met with leading political and cultural personalities, the Marlon Jordan Quartet, featuring vocalist Stephanie Jordan, performed at the Event Club, a leading jazz venue. In Ploiesti, the ensemble performed at the city’s Philharmonic Hall before an audience of 300 jazz fans.
  During this tour, the Marlon Jordan Quartet also performed in Germany, Lithuania, and Ukraine to say thanks for the support from those countries. The quartet’s performances in Romania were part of the “New Orleans Jazz Heritage Tours” sponsored by the U.S. State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
  
  The Quartet’s Bucharest performance will be broadcast soon on Radio Romania, while the Ploiesti concert will be shown in the near future on Senso TV.
  
  In Germany, the Marlon Jordan Quartet featuring Stephanie Jordan gave a jazz concert on November 7, 2005 in Berlin at the Rotes Rathaus. The Marlon Jordan Quartet performed before an audience of 350 invited guests, including representatives of relief organizations, businesses, schools and other institutions that so generously helped the people of New Orleans in their time of need. After the concert, U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, William R. Timken hosted a reception for all invited guests.
  
  U.S Ambassador Timken added "as we band together to offer humanitarian relief to communities affected by natural disasters — whether in the United States, Pakistan, Central America or Africa — it is important to offer help to repair the human spirit . . . Tonight, we welcome a group of talented musicians from the New Orleans area. Their music is an integral part of the spiritual strength of the people of this region."
  
  The project gives musicians from the New Orleans area who have lost their usual venues an opportunity to share the music that so vividly expresses the region’s melting of cultures. Based on their performance during the Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Benefit, Marlon and Stephanie Jordan were invited by the United States Embassy to participate in the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Tour.
  
  The children of New Orleans tenor sax titan and educator Kidd Jordan who delighted the Rose Theater crowd with an affecting rendition of Shirley Horn's "Here's to Life" appears as track #13 on the official Blue Note Records release of select performances from that night's event. The cut features Marlon on trumpet, Kent on flute, Rachel on violin and Stephanie on vocals accompanied by LCJO members. You may obtain a copy of the benefit CD by visiting www.bluenote.com.
  
  

Setlist

A Typical Set last 1 hour with songs from the following selections.

1. You Don't Know What Love Is
2. Here's to Life
3. Joey
4. My Favorite Things
5. Portrait
6. You Leave Me Breathless
7. Now Baby, Or Never
8. The Island
9. All Blues
10. The Good Life
11. Old Devil Moon
12. How High the Moon
13. Lover Come Back to Me
14. Throw It Away
15. Rainbow
16. September in the Rain
17. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
18. Spain
19. You Are Too Beautiful
20. The Great City
21. Both Sides Now
22. Come a Little Closer
23. Wild Is the Wind
24. Tenderly
25. Lover Man
26. Lover
27. Too Late Now
28. Killer Joe
29. What You Won't Do For Love
30. Feeling Good
31. Stormy Weather
32. Love Me or Leave Me
33. Nature Boy
34. On A Clear Day
35. Night In Tunisia
36. Guess Who I Saw Today
37. Betcha By Golly Wow
38. Valentine Love
39. Night in Tunisia
40. Yesterday When I Was Young
41. Beginning To See The Light
42. Come Fly With Me
43. The Lady Is a Tramp
44. Whatch What Happens
45. Just One of Those Things
46. Believe In Yourself
47. Stormy Weather
48. Good Life
49. Can't Help Lovin’ Dat Man
50. Love
51. From This Moment On

Basic Requirements

Calendar