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Clifford Jordan

Clifford Jordan was born in Chicago in 1931. A self-taught musician, his love of jazz had him performing in his home town until the late 1950's, when he moved to New York. His first album was appropriately titled "Blowing in from Chicago," and Horace Silver and Art Blakey.

In the 60's, his range broadened, as he played with Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Kenny Dorham, Lloyd Price, and James Brown. He toured Europe as a soloist and conducted his own music for radio and studio orchestras in 1966. A year later, he was toured West Africa and the Middle East for the U.S. State Department with Randy Weston. 1968 saw Cliff forming Frontier Records, through which he produced albums for Wilbur Ware, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Payne, Charles Brackeen, Ed Blackwell and their groups.

Cliff Jordan was very interested in public work, and he became music consultant for Bed-Sty Youth in Action and Pratt Institute. He was the music director of the first Dancemobile in 1968 and faculty member at Henry Street Settlement.

1969 was time of change throughout the world, and Europe was becoming a hotbed for American jazz. This led Clifford Jordan to move with his wife and daughter from Brooklyn to Belgium. That year, he played there as well as throughout Africa. But the pull of the States was strong, and he returned in 1970, and started leading his own groups in clubs across the country. He also performed with Cedar Walton's trio [Billy Higgins, Sam Jones]. He played the role of Lester Young in "Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1972.

Europe was still a big draw, so he once again toured that continent. He also gave New York public school kids a thrill, giving concerts for them. He also taught reed instruments, flute, and conducted bands for Jazzmobile School, and participated in lecture-concert series in public schools for Jazz Interactions in 1975.

Cliff has performed on television and at major jazz festivals worldwide. He performed and recorded during the late 70's with Wilbur Ware, Chris Anderson; worked with Wilbur Campbell, Kenny Clarke and others. He worked and recorded during the 80s with Art Farmer, Barry Harris, Philly Joe Jones, Dizzy Reece, Tommy Flanagan, and led his own groups with artists like Vernel Fournier and Barry Harris. He performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Percy and Jimmy Heath, and many others in an All-Star Indepedence Day celebration for Pres. Senghor in Senegal in 1980.

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4
Album Review

Clifford Jordan: Drink Plenty Water and Walk Slow

Read "Drink Plenty Water and Walk Slow" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Clifford Jordan, the iconic American jazz tenor saxophonist, has left an indelible mark on the world of jazz. Known for his dynamic playing style and innovative compositions, his album Drink Plenty Water and Walk Slow is a testament to his unparalleled musical prowess. The original album was recorded in 1974 for Strata-East as an LP but did not make it to the catalogue during this period. However, his wife, Sandy Jordan, unearthed this gem, which was remastered for presentation in ...

4
Album Review

Clifford Jordan: Drink Plenty Water

Read "Drink Plenty Water" reviewed by Dave Linn


In August 1974, Clifford Jordan entered the studio for what was to be the follow-up to his acclaimed 2-LP set, Glass Bead Games (1973) for his third album on the Strata-East label. Sadly, the label folded in 1975, and the album was never released. Now, 49 years later, Drink Plenty Water, has finally seen the light of day. It is a time capsule of that collaborative era when jazz stretched its boundaries. It features an all-star roster with a front ...

10
Album Review

Clifford Jordan: These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly

Read "These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly" reviewed by Chris May


These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly is an oft overlooked item in the canon of tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, whose chef d'oeuvre was undoubtedly Glass Bead Games (Strata-East, 1974), one of the most exalted jazz albums of its era. But These Are My Roots, which was originally released on Atlantic in 1965 and has in 2021 been reissued on vinyl by British audiophile label Pure Pleasure, is of more than passing interest. The hard bop ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975

Read "@ Bremen 1964 & 1975" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


"In questo paese--sentenziò Charles Mingus--percepisco ancora intatto il puzzo delle camere a gas e dei campi di concentramento. Ma non fatevi troppi problemi: gli Stati Uniti d'America sono anch'essi un grande campo di concentramento." Il paese era la Germania Ovest, la città era Brema, l'anno il 1964. La dichiarazione è riportata da Joachim Ernst Berendt in un articolo del 1979 e ripresa come incipit dell'indimenticabile Charlie Mingus di Mario Luzzi (Lato Side, 1983) Dichiarazione ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975

Read "@ Bremen 1964 & 1975" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It is 1964 and the big bass emperor rules the old continent as he commanded every stage he set foot on. So @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 just does not sound right. Charles Mingus Swings Bad Ass and Liberates Your Body and Your Mind @ Bremen sounds way more like it. For—as much as anything in his grand, sweeping arc serves to highlight how mercurial and spot-on his real time genius was—this previously unreleased four-disc joy bomb will certainly be ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975

Read "@ Bremen 1964 & 1975" reviewed by Chris May


Four hours of previously unissued, premier-league music by Charles Mingus is something to shout about, and @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 is about as good as the bassist and composer's posthumously released live albums get. Four CDs chronicle two extended, intense performances recorded in Germany by Radio Bremen. Both gigs featured all-star bands and both are typically and gloriously uplifting Mingus melanges of through-composition and in-the-moment improvisation touching on blues and roots, bop, hard bop, New Orleans marching band, swing, ...

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My Blue Note Obsession

Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore: Blowing in From Chicago – 1957

Read "Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore: Blowing in From Chicago – 1957" reviewed by Marc Davis


Imagine if Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, at the height of their popularity in 1957, invited a couple of sax guys you've never heard of to play with them. The result would be Blowing in From Chicago--a lively, wonderful record firmly in the Blue Note bop tradition. The rhythm section is extremely familiar: Art Blakey on drums, Horace Silver on piano and Curly Russell on bass. It's the same rhythm section that powered the Jazz ...

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1

Recording

Clifford Jordan’s Long Lost 1974 Vocal Jazz Album Released

Clifford Jordan’s Long Lost 1974 Vocal Jazz Album Released

Source: David Lindsay

After 49 years on the shelf, Drink Plenty Water, a long-lost jazz recording from the late tenor sax master Clifford Jordan has been issued. Originally recorded for the Strata-East label in 1974, it is the only release in the Chicago native’s catalog that is primarily a vocal recording, with inventive arrangements courtesy of bassist Bill Lee. Joining Jordon on tenor are Dick Griffin on trombone, Bill Hardman on trumpet, Charlie Rouse on bass clarinet, Strata East co-founder Stanley Cowell on ...

Recording

Clifford Jordan: Royal Ballads

Clifford Jordan: Royal Ballads

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan is probably best known for the eight live and studio recordings he made in 1964 with the sextet led by bassist Charles Mingus. But there was much more to Jordan. A prolific recording artist, Jordan had a big, round sound from the start in March 1957, when his Blowing in From Chicago album was released on Blue Note. Jordan played as a sideman on the albums of several dozen jazz greats and recorded more than 35 ...

Recording

Clifford Jordan: Blowing In

Clifford Jordan: Blowing In

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Clifford Jordan doesn't get the attention or praise he deserves. I'm not sure why. The tenor saxophonist was born in Chicago and spent most of his early years there, playing with touring artists who came to town. At age 26, Jordan moved to New York, where he recorded five albums for Blue Note in 1957 and '58, including on Horace Silver's Further Explorations. Albums with trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist J.J. Johnson followed before Jordan began recording for Riverside and ...

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Interview

A Clifford Jordan Revival

A Clifford Jordan Revival

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Rifftides reader Debra Kinzler's notice that a quartet of Clifford Jordan's admirers will revive his Glass Bead Games prompts me to post a slightly revised version of a 2007 piece about a landmark recording that became unavailable for too long. Ms. Kinzler informs us that tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist Eric Reed, drummer Billy Drummond and bassist Dezron Douglas will perform Jordan's work in an engagement May 17-22 at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in New York. She describes the 1974 album ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Drink Plenty Water

Harvest Song Records
2023

buy

Drink Plenty Water...

Harvest Song Records
2023

buy

These Are My Roots:...

Pure Pleasure
2021

buy

@ Bremen 1964 & 1975

Sunnyside Records
2020

buy

Glass Bead Games

Harvest Song Records
2007

buy

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