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Artist
Clifford Jordan
12+ albums
jazzsaxophoneHard Bop60sstrata-east
about
Clifford Laconia Jordan (September 2, 1931, Chicago - March 27, 1993, Manhattan) was a jazz saxophone player. Jordan had his own sound on tenor saxophone almost from the start. He gigged around Chicago with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some R&B groups before moving to New York in 1957. Jordan immediately made a strong impression, leading three albums for Blue Note (including a meeting with fellow tenor John Gilmore) and touring with Horace Silver (1957-1958), J.J. Johnson (1959-1960), Kenny Dorham (1961-1962), and Max Roach (1962-1964). Jordan also recorded with these musicians. After performing in Europe with Eric Dolphy and in the 1964 Charles Mingus Sextet, Jordan worked mostly as a leader, but tended to be overlooked since he was not overly influential or a pacesetter in the avant-garde. A reliable player, Jordan toured Europe several times, was in a quartet headed by Cedar Walton in 1974-1975, and during his last years, led a big band. Clifford Jordan recorded as a leader for Blue Note, Riverside, Jazzland, Atlantic (a little-known album of Leadbelly tunes), Vortex, Strata-East, Muse, Frontier Records, SteepleChase Records, Criss Cross Jazz, Bee Hive, DIW, Milestone, and Mapleshade The arrival of Clifford Jordan’s big band was not only a milestone for the New York City jazz scene at the opening of the 1990s; it also marked the dawning of a new era in the career of the tenor saxophone giant. “There was a bigger goal than to just have a gig,” Jordan explains. “I’ve been
