Louis Jordan

Jordan was born on July 8, 1908, in Brinkley, Arkansas. His father, James Aaron Jordan, was a music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young and his grandmother Maggie Jordan and his aunt Lizzie Reid raised him. In his teens, he joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. He studied at Arkansas Baptist College, where he majored in music. ==Career==

By the late 1920s Jordan was playing professionally. In the early 1930s, he played in Philadelphia and New York City with Charlie Gaines, 's Casa Loma Orchestra at the Paramount. In 1942, Jordan and his band moved to Los Angeles where he began making soundies, the precursors of music videos. He appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs for the Armed Forces Radio that were distributed to American troops overseas. Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the draft except for a four-week Army camp tour. Because of a "hernia condition" he was classified "4F". During 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". Jordan's raucous recordings were notable for using contemporary narratives. This is perhaps best exemplified on "Saturday Night Fish Fry", a two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78 rpm record. It was one of the first popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to feature a distorted electric guitar. Many sources describe this recording, and some others by Jordan, as "jump blues", because "it literally made its listeners jump to its pulsing beat", according to NPR. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 as an "early influence". He is described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "The Father of Rhythm & Blues" and "The Grandfather of Rock 'n' Roll". The Hall also states that "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is "an early example of rap and possibly the first rock and roll recording". Not all critics agree with the importance of his work as a rock and roll influence. For example, Rolling Stone offers this take on Jordan's recordings from the late 1940s: "... the early idol of both Berry and Bill Haley, came closest, but his jump 'n' jive story songs were aimed as much at adults as teens, and any hillbilly flavor in his records was strictly a comedic device". The article agrees with Sam Phillips that rock and roll "specifically addressed and was tailored to teenagers". Another source describes Jordan's jump blues style as combining "good-natured novelty lyrics (some with suggestive double meanings); [pushing] the tempo; [strengthening] the beat and [layering] the sound with his bluesy saxophone and playful melodies." During this period, Jordan crossed over on the popular music charts placing more than a dozen songs nationally though his greatest success was with the Tympany Five dominating the 1940s R&B charts, or (as they were known at the time) the "race" charts. In this period, Jordan had eighteen Number 1 singles and fifty four in the Top Ten. According to Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard magazine charts, Jordan ranks fifth among the most successful musicians of the period 1942–1995. From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan had five consecutive number one songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks. Jordan was certainly a significant figure in the development of rhythm and blues. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he and Big Joe Turner laid the foundation for R&B in the 1940s, "cutting one swinging rhythm & blues masterpiece after another". Stepping away from his rhythm and blues style, Jordan started a big band in the early 1950s that was unsuccessful. On June 20, 1954, he and his Tympany Five returned for the tenth Cavalcade of Jazz concert. Jordan signed with Aladdin for which he recorded 21 songs in early 1954. They released nine singles from these sessions; three of the songs were not released. In 1955, he recorded with "X" Records, a subsidiary of RCA, which had changed its name to Vik Records while Jordan was with them. Three singles were by released by "X" and one by Vik; four tracks were not released. In the early 1960s, he toured in England with Chris Barber. According to a Billboard book cited by the Blues Hall of Fame, Jordan had "18 No. 1 hits on the race and R&B charts spent a total of 113 weeks in the top slot, almost twice as many weeks as any other artist in the history of rhythm & blues". One publication of the Smithsonian Institution provided this summary of Jordan's music.One important stylistic prototype in the development of R&B was jump blues, pioneered by Louis Jordan, with his group Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five. Jordan's group ... consisted of three horns and a rhythm section, while stylistically his music melded elements of swing and blues, incorporating the shuffle rhythm, boogie-woogie bass lines, and short horn patterns or riffs. The songs featured the use of African American vernacular language, humor, and vocal call-and-response sections between Jordan and the band. Jordan's music appealed to both African American and white audiences, and he had broad success with hit songs like "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" (1944). Films Jordan and the Tympany Five perform "Deacon Jones" in the 1944 film Meet Miss Bobby Socks. The release of the 1945 musical short film Caldonia boosted Jordan's career due to roadshow screenings in support of his live performance. In addition to his performances in other mainstream films, such as Follow the Boys (1944), Jordan's appearance in Caldonia (1945) and that film's success led to roles for him in other race films, including those made by Astor Pictures: Beware! (1946), Reet, Petite, and Gone (1947), and Look-Out Sister (1947). == Personal life ==

Marriages Jordan was married five times. His first wife, Julia (also called Julie) was from Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Soon after their wedding, Julia gave birth to a daughter, Patty, who turned out to be another man's child. In 1932, Jordan met Ida Fields, a Texas-born singer and dancer, in Hot Springs. They married that year. Ida was six years his senior and a member of a traveling dance troupe called the Florida Orange Blossoms. Ida sued Jordan for bigamy in 1943. He claimed she was aware that he was still married. Ida was awarded a $70,000 judgment, later reduced to $30,000. She began billing herself as "Mrs. Louis Jordan, Queen of the Blues, and her Orchestra" before Jordan stopped it by stalling payments. In another court case, Ida was awarded a settlement of $50,000. In 1961, the Internal Revenue Service filed an income tax lien against Jordan. As a result, he sold property well below its worth to pay off debts. Musician Ike Turner stated in his autobiography, ''Takin' Back My Name'', that he heard about his tax problems and contacted Jordan's booking agency in Chicago. Turner convinced the president of the company to send Jordan a check for $20,000. Jordan was unaware of this deed. Jordan wrote or co-wrote many of the songs he performed, but he did not benefit financially from them. Many of the hit songs he wrote, including "Caldonia", he credited to Fleecie Moore to avoid an existing publishing arrangement. Their marriage was acrimonious and short-lived. After their divorce, she retained ownership of the songs. However, Jordan may have taken credit for some songs written by others, he is credited as the co-writer of "Saturday Night Fish Fry", but Tympany Five pianist Bill Doggett claimed he wrote it. == Death ==

Jordan died of a heart attack on February 4, 1975, in Los Angeles. He is buried at Mt. Olive Catholic Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, the hometown of his wife Martha. ==Awards and legacy==

On June 23, 2008, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution introduced by Arkansas Representative Vic Snyder honoring Jordan on the centenary of his birth. The United States Postal Service featured Jordan and his film for Caldonia in 2008 as part of its tribute to Vintage Black Cinema. "Vivid reminders of a bygone era will be celebrated in June through Vintage Black Cinema stamps based on five vintage movie posters. Whether spotlighting the talents of entertainment icons or documenting changing social attitudes and expectations, these posters now serve a greater purpose than publicity and promotion. They are invaluable pieces of history, preserving memories of cultural phenomena that otherwise might have been forgotten. The stamp pane was designed by Carl Herrman of Carlsbad, California." The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame states that two of the most important originators of rhythm and blues were Big Joe Turner and Louis Jordan with his Tympany Five. The two artists helped to lay "the foundation for R&B in the 1940s, cutting one swinging rhythm & blues masterpiece after another". The Hall of Fame considers "his classic 'Saturday Night Fish Fry' (1949) as an early example of rap and possibly the first rock and roll recording". Chuck Berry said that he modeled his musical approach on Jordan's. Berry changed the lyric content from black life to teenage life, and substituted cars and girls for Jordan's primary motifs of food, drink, money and girls. Berry's iconic opening riff on "Johnny B. Goode" bears a striking similarity to the intro played by the guitarist Carl Hogan on the 1946 hit "Ain't That Just Like a Woman"; Berry has acknowledged the debt in interviews. Other sources also indicate that Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, the artist said Caldonia was the first non-gospel song he learned; and the shriek (or "whoop") B.B. King cites Jordan as an influence and recorded an album of his tunes called Let the Good Times Roll: The Music of Louis Jordan. The band included Earl Palmer, drums, Dr. John, piano, Hank Crawford, alto sax, David "Fathead" Newman, tenor sax, and Marcus Belgrave, trumpet. Jordan was inducted into both the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame; The Academy believes that he "led the way for rock and roll in the 50s. His recordings in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame include: 'Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens', 'Caldonia Boogie', 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie', and 'Let The Good Times Roll'". According to Cleveland.com, "Louis Jordan had a profound impact on several African-American music genres that evolved during the first half of the 20th century ... He helped make jump blues, jazz and boogie-woogie mainstream forces. Jordan's legendary work would serve as a precursor to modern blues, rock and roll and R&B music". In 1990, Five Guys Named Moe, a musical built around the songs of Louis Jordan, opened in London's West End and ran for over four years, winning a Laurence Olivier Award. It opened on Broadway in 1992 and received two Tony Award nominations. Tours and revivals continued into the 2020s. ==Discography==

Charting singles ==Footnotes==