Sheila Jordan

All Music Guide:

One of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers, Sheila Jordan has a relatively small voice, but has done the maximum with her instrument. She is one of the few vocalists who can improvise logical lyrics (which often rhyme), she is a superb scat singer, and is also an emotional interpreter of ballads. Yet despite her talents, Jordan spent much of the 1960s and '70s working at a conventional day job. She studied piano when she was 11 and early on, sang vocalese in a vocal group. Jordan moved to New York in the 1950s, was married to Duke Jordan (1952-62), studied with Lennie Tristano, and worked in New York clubs. George Russell used her on an unusual recording of "You Are My Sunshine" and she became one of the few singers to lead her own Blue Note album (1962). However, it would be a decade before she appeared on records again, working with Carla Bley, Roswell Rudd, and co-leading a group with Steve Kuhn in the late '70s. Jordan recorded a memorable duet album with bassist Arild Andersen for SteepleChase in 1977, and has since teamed up with bassist Harvie Swartz on many occasions. By the 1980s, Sheila Jordan was finally performing jazz on a full-time basis and gaining the recognition she deserved 20 years earlier. She recorded as a leader (in addition to the Blue Note session) for East Wind, Grapevine, SteepleChase, Palo Alto, Blackhawk, and Muse, resurfacing in 1999 with Jazz Child.

Wikipedia:

Sheila Jordan (b. Sheila Jeanette Dawson; November 18, 1928, Detroit, Michigan) is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Jordan has recorded as a session musician with an array of critically acclaimed artists in addition to a notable solo career.

Although her mainstream success has been somewhat limited, Jordan's music has earned praise from many critics, particularly for her ability to improvise entire lyrics; Scott Yanow describes her as "[o]ne of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers."

Biography

Early career

Sheila Jordan grew up in Summerhill, Pennsylvania before returning to her birthplace in Detroit in 1940 playing the piano and singing semi-professionally in jazz clubs. She was influenced by Charlie Parker and was part of a trio called Skeeter, Mitch and Jean (she was Jean), which composed lyrics to Parker's arrangements. Sheila also claimed in her song "Sheila's Blues" that Charlie Parker wrote the song, "Chasin' the Bird" for her, as she and her friends were known to chase him around the jazz clubs in the 1940s.

In 1951, she moved to New York and started studying harmony and music theory, taught by Lennie Tristano and Charles Mingus. From 1952 to 1962 she was married to Charlie Parker's pianist, Duke Jordan.

1960s

In the early 1960s, she had gigs and sessions in the Page Three Club in Greenwich Village, where she was performing with pianist Herbie Nichols, and was working in different clubs and bars in New York.

In 1962, she was discovered by George Russell with whom she recorded the song, "You Are My Sunshine" on his album The Outer View (Riverside). Later that year she recorded her Portrait of Sheila album (recorded on September 19 and October 12, 1962) which was sold to Blue Note.

Over the next decade, Jordan withdrew from music to raise her daughter. She supported herself by working as a legal secretary.

Later in the decade, she sang jazz-inflected liturgies in different churches such as Cornell and Princeton, NYC. Jordan played with Don Heckman (1967–68), Lee Konitz (1972), Roswell Rudd (1972–75) and began her long working relationship with Steve Kuhn around this time.

1970s to current years

In 1974, she was "Artist in residence" at the City College and was teaching there in 1975. On July 12, 1975, she recorded Confirmation. One year later she did the duet album simply called Sheila with Arild Andersen (bass) for SteepleChase in the end of 1976. In 1979, she founded a quartet with Kuhn, Harvie Swartz and Bob Moses. During the 1980s, she was working with Harvie Swartz as a duo and played on several records with him. Until 1987 she worked in an advertising agency and recorded Lost and Found in 1989.

Sheila Jordan is also a songwriter and is able to work in both bebop and free jazz. In addition to the musicians previously mentioned, she has recorded with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band (TCB, ECM), Harvie S (MA Recordings), Cameron Brown, Carla Bley (Escalator over the Hill) and Steve Swallow (Home). In addition to Blue Note, she has led recordings issued by Eastwind, Grapevine, SteepleChase, ECM, Palo Alto, Blackhawk and Muse.