Kidd Jordan
Edward Kidd Jordan's multi-faceted legacy is among of the most influential and enduring in the history of improvised music. An integral part of the seminal musical tapestry of New Orleans, he is the patriarch of one of the city's most respected musical families and his parallel careers as a performer and educator span the past six decades. Now 73, he has worked most of his life outside the mainstream spotlight, tirelessly sustaining the jazz continuum through both his teaching and his cutting edge performances all around the globe with like-minded improvisers.
Born on May 5th, 1935 in Crowley, Louisiana, about two and a half hours Northwest of New Orleans, Jordan grew up in Cajun country listening to zydeco and blues music before hearing Charlie Parker, Lester Young and other jazz musicians while in high school. By his freshman year in college at Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he studied music, he was playing professionally with local groups. After graduating in 1955, he relocated to New Orleans and began pursuing two of the trademark elements of his career: teaching music and working in pit bands and pick-up groups with the wide variety of prominent musicians passing through the city. That year he also became the brother-in-law of life-long musical partner, and fellow New Orleans jazz legend, Alvin Batiste.
After teaching music in high schools, and eventually college, during the day, he spent his nights performing with groups ranging from the casts of traveling Broadway shows to the major jazz, soul, blues and Motown artists of the time. The list includes Tony Bennett, Big Maybelle, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Billy Eckstine, Guitar Slim, Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, Earl King, Gladys Knight, Esther Phillips, The Four Tops, The O'Jays, The Temptations, Big Joe Turner, Nancy Wilson and Stevie Wonder among others. Living and working in New Orleans, he also performed and recorded with the city's most recognizable local talent, including Johnny Adams, the Neville Brothers (in an early band called The Hawkettes) and Professor Longhair. He would later perform as a featured soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic.
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Album Review
- Garden Party by Giuseppe Segala
Radio
Album Review
- A Night In November - Live in New Orleans by Dave Wayne
- Trio and Duo in New Orleans by John Sharpe
- Trio and Duo in New Orleans by Glenn Astarita
- A Night In November - Live in New Orleans by Glenn Astarita
- On Fire by John Sharpe
- On Fire by Hrayr Attarian
Live Review
- The Kidd Jordan Quartet Brings Free Jazz to Douglas Beach House, CA
- The Kidd Jordan Trio in Amherst, MA
July 31, 2016
Abbey Rader & Kidd Jordan Release First Album Together - "Reunion"
December 09, 2011
Kidd Jordan - On Fire (Engine, 2011)
May 30, 2010
Ellis Marsalis, T. S. Monk, Kidd Jordan, and the Jordan Family of Jazz...
March 01, 2010
New Orleans' Kidd Jordan Featured at 15th Other Minds Music Festival
May 31, 2009
Kidd Jordan to Receive 2009 Asante Legend Award
June 08, 2008
Saxophonist Kidd Jordan Profiled at AAJ
June 16, 2008
Kidd Jordan's Sax is Honored at the Clemente Soto Velez
June 13, 2008
Reviews of Kidd Jordan at Vision Festival XIII
May 06, 2008
Vision Festival XIII to Honor New Orleans Jazz Legend Kidd Jordan June...
February 24, 2008
New CD! Kali. Z. Fasteau & Kidd Jordan - Live at the Kerava Jazz...
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