“Not a typical blues recording, but if you listen closely every piece has that thread running through it,” says Jordan. “There’s an optimism in the way we play that embodies the blues spirit.”
Certainly, if one takes Willie Dixon’s famous line that “the blues is the truth” as a credo, we find deep and unvarnished truths in the original tunes: the moody hope of Jones’s “The Storm Will Pass,” the sweetness and yearning of Jordan’s “Escapatoria,” and the soulful celebration of the bassist’s “The Art of Blakey.” Yet there’s no less a channeling of the blues in their haunting transformation of “Autumn Leaves,” a truly unique rendition that calls forth the power of a Bessie Smith or a Robert Johnson in its stark, deconstructive arrangement.
The album also includes “Small Portion,” a composition by Mulgrew Miller (who attended Memphis State University) whose blues and soulful immersion is obvious from the beginning. The same is true of Gigi Gryce’s “Minority”; though the late alto saxophonist never lived in Memphis, his tune has more than enough tasty morsels for the musicians to cook with it.
If Memphis blues imparts anything to Jordan and the other movers and shakers behind “Memphis Blue,” it’s the music’s combination of a plainspoken message with its spirit of community and camaraderie. “There’s nothing pretentious about the way we play,” says Jordan. “It’s always about the group, and we are really happy to be playing together…. This recording is a look back and salute to Memphis.”
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Rodney Jordan was nurtured from the beginning by the rich musical heritage of that city. He played bass in church, performed in the Memphis Youth Symphony, and studied the instrument in the music programs of Memphis City Schools (in part under the tutelage of legendary Memphis musicians and educators Charles Harris and Emerson Able).
While still an undergraduate at Mississippi’s Jackson State University, Jordan reaped the benefits of his lifelong classical music education by becoming the assistant principal bassist for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. However, he never confined himself to the classical tradition: His teachers in Mississippi included the explorative jazz musicians London Branch, Alvin Fielder, and Kidd Jordan (New Orleans), who cultivated his mastery of the bebop idiom as well as the outward-leaning experimental avenues that sprang from it.
With a degree in Music Education in hand from Jackson State, Jordan duly became an educator himself, chairing the string program for Dougherty County (Georgia) Public Schools and earning the principal bass chair for the Albany Symphony Orchestra. In his off-hours, he would travel a few hours north to work as a freelance bassist in Atlanta.
In 2001, however, the Jazz Studies program at Florida State University came calling. Jordan moved to Tallahassee, FL to become the school’s Professor of Jazz Bass and Coordinator of Jazz and Commercial Music. There he met another faculty member, the celebrated pianist Marcus Roberts, of whose trio Jordan has been a member (with drummer Jason Marsalis) for more than 15 years. He also tours regularly with esteemed vocalist Rene Marie. Jordan has staked out a career as a composer as well, including the 2024 commission “The Medgar Evers Suite.” As a leader, he recorded his debut, “Playing Jazz,” in 2017; “Memphis Blue” is his second album.
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SOURCE Baxter Music Enterprises
