SHEILA JORDAN (1928 – 2025): MILLION-DOLLAR EARS
Notes by Steve Elman
Sheila Jordan was the last performing member of the original bebop generation. She has influenced hundreds of other singers, and many instrumentalists as well. Charlie Parker said she had “million-dollar ears” – it was true when he said it in the 1950s and it was true to her dying day, August 11, 2025.
Videos:
There are many Sheila Jordan performances available on line via YouTube, but one in particular is worth your attention. It is a sparkling duo performance of Jordan with bassist Harvie S on Charlie Parker’s “Quasimodo,” a contrafact of “Embraceable You,” with lyrics by Jordan. The video credits WERS in Boston for a simulcast of the performance, which suggests that it occurred in Boston. Jordan appears very fit and her voice is in top form. I would date it from the late 1970s at the earliest, perhaps in the early 1980s.
I recommend these other videos as well:
August 19, 1971: with Jan Garbarek, ts / fl; Bobo Stenson, p / e-p; Arild Andersen, b; Jon Christensen, dm. From the Norwegian television show Torsdagsstoner (Thursday Sounds), probably originating in Oslo.
This is a magnificent artifact, a complete and utterly stunning set, with Jordan in superb voice. It was recorded in Norway, on the cusp of her first years as a successful professional, before she had left her day job in New York City. I suspect this gig came about through George Russell’s influence; he was resident in Norway at the time and all the supporting players were among those within his circle there.
Throughout her life, Jordan had a great fondness for songs with a child’s point of view. She introduces this set as a group of songs connected thematically with children, but these are anything but “children’s songs.” The version of “God Bless the Child” is totally original, not even glancing at Billie Holiday’s version, but realized in Jordan’s fully mature style, with some daring melody changes. Her rendition of “Because We’re Kids” (with lyrics by, yes, THAT Dr. Seuss) is heartbreaking in its vulnerability. Note her careful and proper pronunciation of the names of her Norwegian bandmates at the end of the set – this should school everyone that the saxophonist’s name is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable and with a slight roll of the Rs.
Tunes:
1. “God Bless the Child” (Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog Jr.)
2. “Dat Dere” (Bobby Timmons / Oscar Brown, Jr.)
3. “Inch Worm” (Frank Loesser)
4. “Because We’re Kids” (Friedrich Hollaender / Theodore Seuss Geisel [“Dr. Seuss”])
July 16th, 2012: w. Mike Jellick, p; Marion Hayden, b; Sean Dobbins, dm, Orchestra Hall, Detroit, MI
“Sheila’s Blues” (Jordan), with a long sung-story of her hearing Charlie Parker in Detroit as a teenager.
This B&W video documents Sheila’s guest appearance at Don Was’s Detroit All Star Revue, which was part of the 20th Concert of Colors. The home-town vibe is infectious and Sheila is clearly delighted with the reception and with the musicians on stage with her.
January 3, 2022: with Emmett Cohen, p; Russell Hall, b; Kyle Poole, dm
This is a complete two-hour house concert, featuring Jordan as guest artist with Emmett Cohen’s trio, recorded at Cohen’s apartment in NYC. The sound quality is very good. Cohen is a fine pianist and the band provides very sympathetic support. The set includes Jordan’s reminiscences of Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Robert Creeley, Tommy Flanagan, and many examples of Jordan’s singing-biography.
Tunes:
1. “Tin Tin Deo” (Gil Fuller / Chano Pozo) (trio only)
2. “Song of Joy” (Billy Preston) / “Humdrum Blues” (Oscar Brown, Jr.)
3. “How Deep Is the Ocean” (Irving Berlin)
4. “I Concentrate On You” (Cole Porter)
5. “Fair Weather” (Kenny Dorham)
6. “The Bird” / “Tribute” (Sheila Jordan)
7. “Confirmation” (Charlie Parker / Skeeter Spight / Leroy Mitchell)
8. “Lolita” (Barry Harris)
9. “Bird Alone” (Abbey Lincoln)
10. “She Was Young” (Steve Swallow / Robert Creeley)
11. “Dat Dere” (Bobby Timmons / Oscar Brown, Jr.)
12. “‘Round Midnight” (Thelonious Monk / Bernie Hanighen)
13. “The Touch of Your Lips” (Ray Noble)
14. “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” (Jimmy Webb)
15. “Workshop Blues” (Sheila Jordan)
16. “Sheila’s Blues” (Sheila Jordan)
17. “The Crossing” (Sheila Jordan)
On-line resources:
Sheila Jordan’s website, updated after her death, is a trove of beautiful photos and appreciations. A fine short biography can be found there by clicking on the box under “Music saved my life!” https://www.sheilajordanjazz.net/
Commentary, criticism, and appreciations:
I provided some of my own reminiscences of Jordan the person and the artist in a piece I wrote for The Arts Fuse the day after her death: https://artsfuse.org/315157/jazz-artist-appreciation-sheila-jordan-1928-2025/
I wrote this 2021 review of an early recording date, previously unknown to the experts and forgotten by her. I also provide some perspective on her later recordings and some biographical details we were unable to cover in the podcast:
I also reviewed Jordan performances on two occasions:
A 2011 performance with Steve Kuhn: https://artsfuse.org/45487/fuse-jazz-review-two-paths-converge-again-sheila-jordan-and-steve-kuhn/
A 2016 performance with Yoko Miwa’s trio: https://artsfuse.org/153230/fuse-review-sheila-jordan-with-the-yoko-miwa-trio-at-thelonious-monkfish/
James Gavin provided a comprehensive review of Jordan’s career in a brilliant obituary essay, published in JazzTimes a few days after her death:
Barry Singer also wrote a beautiful obituary for her in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/arts/music/sheila-jordan-dead.html
Interviews:
Undated: “20 Questions” “lightning round”-style written interview by an uncredited interviewer from Twenty Questions Music blog: https://www.twentyquestionsmusic.com/blog/sheila-jordan#:~:text=I%20grew%20up%20in%20an,I%20would%20sing%20about%20it.
April 6, 2015: New Music USA written interview conducted by Frank J. Oteri: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/sheila-jordan-music-saved-my-life/
2021: Video interview conducted by Kristin Marion in France and Colette Schryburt (aka Coco Jazz) in Montreal for the French blog Vue sur le jazz international. It is introduced in French, but the interview is conducted in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnWL5mUsVdM
The interviewers ask Jordan to reminisce about many aspects of her career and her art. As always, she is unpretentious and completely frank. One of the most telling moments in the interview is Jordan’s story of her resolve to join a program to give up alcohol and drugs in what she calls a “spiritual awakening,” around 1985. She says she had been on a “dry drunk” for eight years, still occasionally doing cocaine but yearning for alcohol, when a voice spoke to her, saying, “I gave you a gift – this voice. If you don’t take care of it, I’m gonna take it away.”
Books:
Ellen Johnson’s Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) is a definitive biography, as far as it goes. We can hope for a revised version that will tell the stories of the last decade-plus of her life. With a little luck, it might appear before Jordan’s 100th birthday, in 2028.
Films:
Sheila Jordan: In the Voice of a Woman (Cade Bursell, 1995) is cited by some sources (notably MUBI) as a documentary about Jordan, but it is difficult to find any information about its current availability.