Sheila Jordan at SOhO
By Stanley Naftaly
Last Sunday afternoon, at the Jazz Society’s monthly concert, one of the two living legends of jazz still performing (Sonny Rollins is the other), delivered a consummate two-set, seminar on the history of jazz. Sheila Jordan, at 84 years of age, showed why she’s always been one of the top vocalists in the world. It was particularly appropriate for this master to be here at this moment since Kathryn Stockbridge, the society’s president for the last six years, had passed away suddenly earlier in the week.
With the trio of Ian Bernard at the piano, Richard Simon on bass and Paul Kriebich on drums backing her, she immediately took charge of the proceedings in her relaxed, yet powerful way. Early on, she vocalized, “I’ve never met these cats, but they sure can play,” in the midst of a tune and it only got cleaner and tastier from there on.
Jordan started off with Oscar Brown Jr’s tune, “Hum-Drum Blues”, a tale of the vicissitudes of life, and followed with, a swinging, scat-filled version of “Falling in Love With Love,” Thus, from the beginning, she showed her inherent power and mastery of the music. The Lady knows it all.
By any yardstick, it was a virtuosic performance from one end to the other. Next up was an Abby Lincoln song, “Bird Alone,” a paean to emotional freedom. Jordan is known for her love of duets with the string bass and Richard Simon lit her up. “The Touch of Your Lips” became a love song between them.
Jordan is one of only two jazz vocalists I know of, and the other is Ella Fitzgerald, who can leave a song in mid-stride and tell a story without missing a note or a beat, and she exhibited this ability on several occasions during the show.
Vocalese is the art of singing lyrics to instrumental lines. Eddy Jefferson invented it and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross popularized it. Sheila used it often to insert stories into songs and thus make them willing vehicles for her thoughts and feelings.
She taught the audience to scat and got each of the musicians to scat. It was wonderful. This is not only a living legend of jazz, but a beautiful human being. Everyone in the audience, your writer included of course, was profoundly in love with Jordan by the time we gave her two standing ovations. Congratulations to the Santa Barbara Jazz Society for for bringing us this harmonious and exciting afternoon.