Jordan Carp

Jordan Carp’s latest release The Dark Architecture is a tapestry of beautiful melodies crafted over inticately woven musical textures. Dark yet hopeful songwriting with stark lyrical imagery is set against lush guitar playing with a sonic resonance. This is Jordan Carp’s third album and his news songs show the depth and growth of his already polished songwriting abilities. Jordan’s musical acumen combined with the guidance of the ultra talented producer JP Bowersock (Ryan Adams, the Strokes) makes The Dark Architecture his finest effort yet and has him poised to leap from being a Boston artist to a burgeoning American songwriter. So far the critics agree…The Boston Globe writes, “A homegrown source of inspiration with the low growl of Peter Gabriel and the guitar chops of Suzanne Vega and we don’t hand out such compliments lightly.” While the Aquarian Weekly writes, “Carp makes full use or rich, harmonic textures, contrapuntal melodies, and jazz pop progressions. All 11 songs on this album utilize some sort of tool to take the listener to a place they just couldn’t go with their “everyday” CD collection. Grade: A.”
“My dad is a classical musician so it was always in the house and that sparked the motivation behind my quest for a musical voice.” Jordan remembers, “This formed my sense of Harmony and Melody and i began discovering all the odd chord voices that have found there way into my own writing. I was listening to Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell. Before really getting into harmony though, I played guitar and would learn Bob Dylan songs and later became a huge Elliot Smith fan.”

The Son of an Oboist/English horn player, Jordan grew up taking piano lessons. During High School he played the drums in various rock bands and school musicals. He purchased a guitar when he was 15 and began learning rock and pop songs and made his first attemps at singing by trying to immitate the vocal style of as Peter Gabriel.
After High School he moved to New Orleans where he spent 4 years bartending in a live music venue, exploring Jazz and writing songs. He began taking traditional music and creative writing classes during the third year in “The Crescent City”.

Jordan then enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in 1998 and while mastering his craft in compostion/guitar, he played hundreds of shows throughout the Northeast, building a following on the College music scene while also Busking (street performing) in Harvard Square (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Jordan managed to sell over one thousand copies of his self produced records in 2005 at shows and during street performances.

Where Jordan may have made his greatest strides as a musician is during his live performances. With all of his songwriting prowess Jordan has crafted a live shows that should not be missed. Whether it’s solo or with his band, Carp’s energy and years of hard work, draw on his musical influences, studies and travels to make his music come alive and engage audiences everywhere.

But Jordan doesn’t stop there. He was commissioned by film makers Phil Lane and John Givens to score the documentary “Working Title” about the lives of five artists, one of whom is Jordan Carp. His career is on the rise and the release of his third album The Dark Architecture brings his harmony and subtle freshness to the world of music that has Jordan on the verge of reaching many people.