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Louis Jordan
- University of Arkansas Press
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Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan, one of the most amazing Arkansans in the field of music, was born July , , in Brinkley, Monroe County. Jordan was not only a popular and successful black entertainer but also an innovator whose work impacted more than one genre of modern American music. Jordan’s father, James Aaron Jordan, was leader of the Brinkley Brass Band and an agent for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. At the beginning of the last century, most towns of any size had some sort of town band, and cities like Brinkley, with its large black population, might have had more than one black band. Adell Jordan, Louis’s mother and a native of Mississippi, died when he was young. In addition to attending public school, Jordan studied music under his father and was gifted with both the clarinet and saxophone. Later he played professionally in his father’s band, including summer tours out of state. Jordan studied music at Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock for a short time,but he mostly played in his father’s band or with Little Rock groups, including Jimmy Pryor’s Imperial Serenaders. The oil boom put Union County on the touring map, and Jordan played with Bob Alexander’s Harmony Kings in El Dorado and Smackover. He later relocated to Hot Springs, where he played at the Eastman Hotel among other places. By , Jordan moved to Philadelphia, where he played saxophone with the band of Clarence Williams and clarinet in the Charlie Gaines band. Jordan received a break in when Chick Webb asked him to join the Savoy Ballroom Orchestra in New York City. This prestigious band, which was broadcast on radio, gave Jordan the opportunity to work with a wide variety of talented entertainers, including a young Ella Fitzgerald, who was then gaining prominence as Webb’s lead female vocalist. It was apparently during this time that Jordan developed his own distinctive style,which included sophisticated saxophone playing and talented singing, all performed with a certain unselfconscious comedic flair. His performance of “Rusty Hinge” was recorded in March . Jordan and Webb worked together closely for two years before Webb discovered that Jordan was trying to woo Ella Fitzgerald and others to his new band. Thus was born Jordan’s longtime band, the Tympany Five. Stephen Koch, a keen student of Arkansas music and leader of an effort to reestablish Jordan’s prominence, noted that this band, “which changed American popular music, was always called the Tympany Five, regardless of the number of pieces.” Landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous Club on Lenox Avenue in Harlem gave Jordan a base from which to work,and his fame spread. He had his first recording date for Decca Records in December . Three months later, Jordan and his band made more recordings, including “Keep a-Knockin,” which Little Richard made famous. In January , Decca recorded two more Jordan classics, “You’re My Meat” and “You Run Your Mouth and I’ll Run My Business.” Interestingly,in ,Decca created a new line of records featuring artists with “crossover potential,” meaning performers who could appeal to both white and black audiences. Jordan and his band, as well as the Nat King Cole Trio, disappeared from Decca’s “race label,” though certainly his appeal remained strong on the “race charts.” Jordan’s first record to reach the top of the Harlem Hit Parade came in December with “What’s the Use of Gettin’ Sober (When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again).” Jordan’s release “Five Guys Named Moe,” which has been described as “a comical call-andresponse number,” was a hit both in America and with its soldiers fighting overseas. Altogether, Jordan and his Tympany Five had fifty-four singles on the Rhythm and Blues charts during the s.Eighteen songs reached number one status. “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” topped the charts for eighteen weeks, while “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” stayed on top for seventeen weeks. “Caledonia,” which featured Jordan’s falsetto voice, reigned for nearly two months at number one. As the titles suggest,Jordan enjoyed having fun with his music.He wore outlandish clothes, used exaggerated moves on stage, and had a certain cartoonish aspect. Old black and white film footage—he was Louis Jordan [3.144.95.240] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 22:34 GMT) the subject of and appeared in several films—shows an energetic performer who obviously enjoyed his work. Music historians note that Jordan’s “swinging shuffle rhythms...