7 December 2008

Kidd Jordan Quartet plus at Vision 2008



There seems to be an interest in Kidd Jordan, so to accommodate that interest, we bring a set from this year's Vision Festival in New York. Jordan was honoured with an whole evening and played four out of five seats, in sweltering heat to judge from reports from the scene.

Jordan, a long-time New Orleans resident, was one of the many having to relocate due to the massive floods in the wake of Katrina and his property in the Upper Ninth Ward was completely devastated. He is now a Baton Rouge resident. Instead of moving to the jazz capitals of the US, he remained in New Orleans and worked for many years as a jazz instructor at the Southern University in New Orleans, from which he retired in 2006. He was awarded the French Chevalier order by the Ministry of Culture in 1985 for his teaching and his performances.

The set we have here was the penultimate one of the evening and has Jordan on tenor, Fred Anderson on tenor and the ubiquitous William Parker on bass and Hamid Drake on drums. Anderson is in the left channel and Jordan in the right. At about the 15-minute mark they are joined by Billy Bang on violin and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre on tenor. The three tenors at Vision!

There is only one piece, clocking in over 40 minutes. It starts off with Anderson and Jordan trading licks among each other, Anderson with longer, fluid lines in mid- and lower registers and Jordan with shorter, sharper, more staccato phrases in the upper registers, often reaching into atonal shrieks. McIntyre appears roughly in the middle of the mix and the second half has them all shooting off at each other, switching from free improvisation to nods in the direction of blues and traditional jazz idioms. Underneath is Parker and Drake, laying down a solid groove which sets them feet a-tapping, no matter what.

This was recorded on 14 June 2008 and later transmitted by BBC's Jazz on Three programme. This is only an except of the whole programme and I've left out an interview, which I can always add, if desirable. Thanks to Tom Phillips for recording the programme and to the BBC crew for recording and airing the performance. We'll have some more Kidd Jordan here in a little while.

17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Many thanks for sharing this. I usually try and record the Jazz On 3 special performances, but I missed this one, so I'm especially pleased you got it. And, yes, I'd be interested in the interview.

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  4. Nice one kinabalu. I got the other three sets from dime. Audience recordings, not brilliant quality, but worth having as they are unique examples of Kidd's work (also good to hear Bluiett):

    Trio
    Dave Burrell piano
    Kidd Jordan tenor
    Hamiet Bluiett Baritone

    http://rapidshare.com/files/170136031/KJtrio.rar

    Quartet
    Blly Bang Violin
    Kidd Jordan tenor
    William Parker Bass
    Hamid Drake drums

    http://rapidshare.com/files/170144622/KJ4tet.rar


    Quintet
    Kidd Jordan tenor
    Joel Futterman Piano
    Clyde kerr tpt
    William Parker Bass
    Gerald Cleaver drums

    http://rapidshare.com/files/170158367/KJ5tet.rar

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  5. Thanks for those, Boromir. I grabbed sets 2 and 5 (the one posted here), but not the others.

    And here's the interview:

    http://tinyurl.com/6faypu

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  6. Thanks so much to all of you for this great stuff. I wanted desperately to make it to these performances, but couldn't get away. Your collective generosity is wonderful.

    I should also say that criticism of the Anderson-Jordan quartet with Billy Bang and Kalaparusha sitting in was pretty biting in the days after the show. Upon hearing it myself, I have to say that it sounds awfully good.

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  7. I was there and yeah, the heat was brutal. Thankfully you could zip out between sets to sit outside or grab a beer or whatnot. I'm excited to hear these again. I remember the Jordan / Bang / Drake / Parker set as being particularly explosive.

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  8. Also, re: criticism of the Anderson/Jordan set: Jordan unfortunately spent most of the set, iirc, trying to fix his broken horn (people from the audience were getting up and trying to give him rubber bands and shit to help), so yeah, there was some disappointment there. And Kalaparusha seemed kind of frail and not up to playing much. But it's always a pleasure to hear Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake together, regardless of whomever they're playing with or what's going on around them.

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  9. Thanks for the Kidd Jordan at Vision XIII. BTW, those are my drums that Hamid is playing. If you want to help Kidd with his organizations, you may wish to mail him contribution :

    "Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp"

    Kidd Jordan

    P.O. Box 74737

    Baton Rouge, LA 70874

    Best, Gus

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  10. This is wonderful - thank you!! These greats sound fabulous together even though, as previous posters noted, Kalaparusha and Jordan had to lay out from time to time. Thank you so much for your generosity.

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  11. Thank you all.

    Any chance for new links for the Trio and Quintet sets mentioned here? They've expired due to lack of use (says RS)...

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    I got the other three sets from dime. Audience recordings, not brilliant quality, but worth having as they are unique examples of Kidd's work (also good to hear Bluiett):

    Trio
    Dave Burrell piano
    Kidd Jordan tenor
    Hamiet Bluiett Baritone


    Quintet
    Kidd Jordan tenor
    Joel Futterman Piano
    Clyde kerr tpt
    William Parker Bass
    Gerald Cleaver drums

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  12. Great stuff. Here I am a year too late mourning the loss of the Trio and Quartet links. Much appreciated on the others though.

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  13. Thanks a bunch for the whole shebang! Sometimes it pays off to stick around 5 years...

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