![]() He recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, and Louis Armstrong and appeared in films. ĭuring the 1940s Jordan and the band became popular with such hits as " Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", " Knock Me a Kiss", " Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby", and " Five Guys Named Moe". Because of a "hernia condition" he was classified " 4F". Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the draft except for a four-week Army camp tour. He appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas. In 1942, Jordan and his band moved to Los Angeles, where he began making soundies, the precursors of music video. Jordan in New York, July 1946, shortly after getting second billing to Glen Gray at the Paramount In 1938 he started a band that recorded a year later as the Tympany Five. With the Chick Webb orchestra he sang and played alto saxophone. He recorded with Clarence Williams and briefly was a member of the Stuff Smith orchestra. In the early 1930s he played in Philadelphia and New York City with Charlie Gaines. ![]() In his teens he was a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and was playing professionally in the late 1920s. At an early age he studied clarinet and saxophone with his father. He was raised by his grandmother Maggie Jordan and his aunt Lizzie Reid. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young. His father, James Aaron Jordan, was a music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. Jordan was born on July 8, 1908, in Brinkley, Arkansas. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve significant crossover in popularity with the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, having simultaneous Top Ten hits on the pop charts on several occasions. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he had at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan ranks fifth in the list of the most successful African-American recording artists according to Joel Whitburn's analysis of Billboard magazine's R&B chart, and was the most popular rhythm and blues artist with his "jump blues" recordings of the pre-Rock n' Roll era. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including " Rock Around the Clock". These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music of the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and exerted a strong influence on many leading performers in these genres. With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock-and-roll genres with a series of highly influential 78-rpm discs released by Decca Records. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of the electronic organ. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, but he became known as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of jump blues, a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. He was an instrumentalist who played all forms of the saxophone but specialized in the alto. Jordan was also an actor and a film personality-he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips) He also made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his time, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an "early influence" in 1987. Known as " The King of the Jukebox", he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. ![]() Louis Thomas Jordan (J– February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.
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