Louis Jordan - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Louis Jordan (born on July 8th, 1908 - died on February 4th, 1975) was a musician of Jazz, Blues and American R&B. It received the nickname “King of the juke-box” thanks to his great popularity, which lasted of the years 1930 until worms the years 1950. It was one of the first black musicians to obtain a great success in the white musical market of the United States.

Are its most known discs probably Caldonia (also emitted under the title Caldonia Boogie ) and Is You Is gold Is You Ain' T My Baby? . It influenced Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Bill Halley, inter alia.

Biography

Beginnings

Louis Jordan was born the July 8th in Brinkley, in the Arkansas. His/her father, Jim Jordan, are musician and play in the Tennessee. About the year 1918, Louis from time to time will play of the clarinet and the saxophone at the Rabbit Foot Minstrels , sometimes with his/her father. It is firstly provided education for with the local college, then, towards 1925, it goes in the Arkansas Baptist College to Little Rock, with the options music and sport. There, it practices several instruments with sheer, with like preference the alto saxophone. It stops the college in 1928. The same year, it is engaged at the Imperial Serenaders , directed by Jimmy Pryor.

At the time of its first true round with New York in 1929, it meets Chick Weeb, and records with him. It meets also Hilton Jefferson; then it goes back to Little Rock. Louis Jordan starts to have notoriety. He is engaged by Charlie Gaines with Philadelphia (where he settles) in 1932. He tries out his practice of the Blues. In December 1932, with Charlie Sheaths, it meets and accompanies Louis Armstrong in the New Jersey, precisely in Camden. Two years later, it records I Can' T Dance, I Got Ants In My Pants with Clarence Williams. In 1935, Louis Jordan returns to Leroy Smith and his orchestra. The music which he plays over there is a little more different from that which it with the practice to play; it is more “soft”.

In 1936, important date, Louis Jordan obtain the chart of the trade union of the New musicians yorkais. Thanks to this chart, musical prospects open with him. It meets in new Chick Webb, become very known.

On the front of the scene

Louis Jordan meets Ella Fitzgerald (having played with Chick Webb in Savoy d' Harlem) in these years there. Chick Webb, it and she play New York in Elks. Free Louis Jordan for good Chick Webb in 1938 and creates his own group. This last is firstly called Louis Jordan' S Elks Rendez-vous Band , in reference to the place where he played front. Then it re-elects its group Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five . Its recording company is Decca where it signs in 1938. Little by little, during the following years, it becomes him and its disciples, one of largest the stars of the world.

Of 1942 with 1950, it is very famous and records many tubes with success. It is called “ King off the Jukebox ”. The reason of its glory comes from its style of music: it mixes the Blues, the Jazz, the Country music, humor inter alia forming one “bubbling” Rhythm and Blues. Among does its greater pieces of the time, one retain primarily Caldonia (also known under the title “Caldonia Boogie”), Is You Is gold Is You Ain' T My Baby? , Let The Good Times Roll , Early In The Morning for example. It influenced a great number of musicians, and it is regarded as the “grandfather of the Rock' N Roll”. He plays sometimes accompanied by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, etc… Its success is such as in November 1946, it occupies simultaneously the first four places of classification R&B with “Choo Choo Ch' boogy”, “Ain' T That Just Like has Woman”, “Stone Cold Dead In The Market” and “That Chick' S Too Young To Fry”. During its years, it is one of the only black musicians (with Nat King Cole) to bore in the hit-parades white. It also appears in many musical films.

But starting from the Years 1950, it is the decline.

Decline

As we said, Louis Jordan is on a downward slope. Several causes are responsible: personal problems, of health, and in all that a wearied public which would like that it changes and modernizes its music. It is also the time when the Rock' N Roll is born. During this time, it tests its music in Big Band. Its principal pieces of the time are Baby, It' S Cold Outside , I' L Never Be Free inter alia. In 1954, its contract with Decca expires and is not renewed.

During following years, in spite of concerts a little everywhere in the world (England, France, the Far East), he does not know any more glory of front. He continues sporadically to record discs for various labels until 1974. After a first infarction in September 1974, he dies in Los Angeles on February 4th, 1975 of an heart attack. Currently little known, it was, during the great time of Rhytm and Blues, very famous. It is classified among the “five larger musicians black of Rhytm and Blues”: Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations and him.

It is included to the Rock-and-roll Hall off Famed in 1987 in the category “ Early Influence ”. In 1999, the bluesman B.B. King devotes an album homage to the idol of its youth: Let The Good Times Roll, The Music Off Louis Jordan .

Discography

Principal individual

Jan. 1942: I' m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Off Town
Jan. 1944: G.I. Jive/Is You Is Or Is You Ain' T
May 1945: Caldonia boogy
Oct. 1945: Buzz Me
March 1946: Beware
June 1946: Stone Cold Dead in the Market (He Had It Coming) (with Ella Fitzferald)
juil. 1946: Choo Choo Ch' boogy
Feb. 1947: Open the Door, Richard
Nov. 1946: Ain' T Nobody Here Drank Custom, Chicken/Let The Good Times Roll
Sept. 1949: Saturday Night Fish Fry
June 1952: Jordan For President

Albums

Exhaustive list. At that time, the artists recorded primarily the individual ones and seldom complete albums.

August 1946: Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five
March 1948: Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five, vol. 2
Feb. 1957: Somebody Up There Digs Me
Jan. 1958: Man, We' Re Wailing
avr. 1958: Like Blow Your Horn

Available out of CD

Here the list of the principal discs recorded by Louis Jordan

40 Great Tracks (European importation)
Let the Good Times Roll (European importation)
Jumpin & Jivin'
V-disc Recordings (Dutch importation)
5 Guys Named Moe (the USA gold Canadian importation)
One Sided Coils/sakatumi (European importation)
Five Guys Named Moe-18tr- (the USA gold Canadian importation)
No Moe! /16 Greatest Hits (the USA gold Canadian importation)
Golden delicious Options (Dutch importation) 8,
Essential Recordings (European importation)
Final Jumpers (Japanese importation)
Live Jive (the USA gold Canadian importation)
Louis & His Tympa Jordan Jukebox Hits 1942-1947 v. (European importation)
Louis & His Tympa Jordan Jukebox Hits 1947-51 v.2 (European importation)
Louis & His Tympa Jordan Saturday Night Fish Fry (European importation)
Jazz Files 206 (Dutch importation)
Let the Good Times Roll (the USA gold Canadian importation)
G.i.jive (Dutch importation)
Rock'n'roll “Roll With (Dutch importation)
Louis/tympany 5 JordanMan Alive, It' S Jumping J (European importation)

See too

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