Description
Label Review.
1978 album. Jazz.
Our Overview.
Spectacular - and not before time - limited edition reissue of a classic 1978 SteepleChase LP “Duke’s Artistry from the exceptional American jazz pianist Duke Jordan and his Quartet. this release is on standard weight vinyl, cut from the original lacquers.
Duke Jordan was the quintessential bop player has played in Charlie Parker’s best group in 1947 and he contributed numerous inspiring tunes to the jazz literature. Jordan was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn where he attended Boys High School. An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regular member of Charlie Parker's quintet during 1947–48, which also featuring Miles Davis. He participated in Parker's Dial sessions in late 1947 that produced "Dewey Square", "Bongo Bop", "Bird of Paradise", and the ballad "Embraceable You". These performances are featured on ‘Charlie Parker on Dial’.
Jordan had a long solo career from the mid-1950s onwards, although for a period in the mid-1960s he drove a taxi in New York. After periods accompanying Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz, he performed and recorded in the trio format. His most notable composition, "Jordu", became a jazz standard when trumpeter Clifford Brown adopted it into his repertoire.
Beginning in 1978 he lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, having recorded an extensive sequence of albums for the SteepleChase label; his first record date for the company was in 1973. He was reported not to have changed his style over the course of his career. Some of his best live recordings are available on SteepleChase, or Marshmallow Records, a Japanese label.
During the late 1970s and throughout 80s Duke Jordan and SteepleChase’s collaboration produced several of outstanding albums. This recording from 1978 made in New York featured the trumpeter / flugelhornist Art Farmer who was like Jordan an expatriate at the time residing in Vienna, Austria. Farmer who was a co-founder of famed Jazztet was known for his lyrical and smooth sound on his horn.
Band Members: Duke Jordan (piano), Art Farmer (flugelhorn), David Friesen (bass),Philly Joe Jones (drums)