Sheila Jordan 1928 - 2025
Jazz's corporate memory (and so much more) has departed...
“My quizzical kid, she doesn't want anything hid
She's forever demanding to know
Who and what and why and where
Inquisitive child, and sometimes the questions get wild
Like mommy can I have that big elephant over there?”1
Sheila Jordan was one of the last musicians living with a working corporate memory reaching to the birth of bebop. We are now without that extravagant and ill-earned luxury. Shelia Jordan was a diamond-hard piece of perfection, and her exit leaves us with more than that much less. Rave on, Ms. Jordan, wherever you are.
1
“Dat Dere” Bobby Timmons and Oscar Brown, Jr. (lyrics adapted by Sheila Jordan) from Portrait of Sheila (Blue Note Records, 1963), Steve Swallow on bass.