It started in Toledo, OH in the early 1950’s. Sheila Jordan was sitting in with Charles Mingus and Lee Konitz:
“But there’s no piano.”, she said. “You don’t need a piano.”, said Mingus.
She sang - and she was hooked - on the sound, the silence, the transparency, the freedom. It became her favorite way to perform.
Nearly twenty years ago, she approached Cameron to join her. It was a dream come true for him. Not only because it was Sheila, not only because he knew how much it would mean to his growth as a musician, not only because of his love for the human voice, but because it fit with his affinity for the transparent sound he had found playing with Don Cherry. ...
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It started in Toledo, OH in the early 1950’s. Sheila Jordan was sitting in with Charles Mingus and Lee Konitz:
“But there’s no piano.”, she said. “You don’t need a piano.”, said Mingus.
She sang - and she was hooked - on the sound, the silence, the transparency, the freedom. It became her favorite way to perform.
Nearly twenty years ago, she approached Cameron to join her. It was a dream come true for him. Not only because it was Sheila, not only because he knew how much it would mean to his growth as a musician, not only because of his love for the human voice, but because it fit with his affinity for the transparent sound he had found playing with Don Cherry.
Sheila performed jazz operas with Don Cherry, shares a birthday with him and has written lyrics to his songs. You’ll hear these as well as jazz standards, original music, lyrics and poetry. Sheila and Cam take you back to her dear friend, Charlie Parker; as they delight in having the history of modern jazz at their fingertips. This duo format colors everything they play with intensity, intimacy and poignancy.
Sheila Jordan
http://www.sheilajordanjazz.com/
In 2012 Sheila was named by The National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Jazz Master, honoring her lifetime of extraordinary work...and her extraordinary life!
One of the most consistently creative jazz singers of all time, Jordan is a superb scat singer, an emotional interpreter of ballads, and one of the few singers to lead her own Blue Note album (1962).
Jordan's first great influence was Charlie Parker and, indeed, most of her influences have been instrumentalists rather than singers. After moving to New York in the early 50s, she married Parker's pianist, Duke Jordan, and studied with Lennie Tristano. By the late 70s jazz audiences began to understand her uncompromising style and her popularity increased - as did her appearances on record, which included albums with pianist Steve Kuhn, and an album, "Home", comprising a selection of Robert Creeley's poems set to music and arranged by Steve Swallow.
Her unique musical trademarks, such as frequent and unexpected sweeping changes of pitch, still tend to confound an uninitiated audience. Her preference for the bass and voice set led to another remarkable collaboration with bassist Cameron Brown, with whom she has been performing worldwide for more than ten years. They have released live albums “I’ve Grown Accustomed to the Bass” and “Celebration”. Entirely non-derivative, Jordan is one of only a tiny handful of jazz singers who fully deserve the appellation and for whom no other term will do.
Cameron Brown
http://www.jazzhalo.be/musicians-files/cameron-brown/ Bassist, composer and educator Cameron Brown began his career in the mid-nineteen-sixties, recording in Europe with George Russell and Don Cherry. In the mid-seventies he recorded live in Montreux with Archie Sheep and made a DVD with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in Orvieto.
Brown spent the entire eighties with George Adams, Don Pullen and Dannie Richmond; thereafter, 9 years with Dewey Redman and three with Joe Lovano and Idris Muhammad. He performs now in duo with one of his early mentors, Sheila Jordan, and with Lovano’s Nonet, Don Byron’s Quartet, Jane Ira Bloom, Jason Rigby, Jay Clayton, Valentina Marino, Niels Vincentz and Billy Mintz. He leads two other ensembles: "Cameron Brown and the Hear and Now" and "Cameron Brown and Dannie’s Calypso." He has appeared on more than 200 recordings.
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