Stephanie Jordan Performs with Wess ’Warmdaddy’ Anderson

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Singers Over Manhattan returns to the romantic setting of The Allen Room with it's breathtaking views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The first performance in the series features New Orleans sweetheart, vocalist Stephanie Jordan with the incredible sounds of Brooklyn born saxophonist Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, who later settled in Baton Rouge. Mr. Anderson will lead a quartet, including Aaron Diehl on piano, Kengo Nakamura on bass and E.J. Strickland on drums. Two performances each night on October 20 and 21 begin at 7:30pm and at 9:30pm.

Stephanie Jordan is a premier jazz vocalist. She performed during the nationally televised Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert. As part of the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Tour, sponsored by the US State Department, Ms. Jordan embarked on a European tour. Her latest album, You Don't Know What Love Is, can best be described as classic jazz. Recently, Ms. Jordan has appeared with the New Orleans Ladies of Jazz, at Adagio's Jazz Club in Savannah, Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, and Sweet Lorraine's in New Orleans. Ms. Jordan has opened for NaJee, Roy Ayres, and Howard Hewitt. She has collaborated with her sister, Rachel Jordan, in a fully staged concert with strings from the Louisiana Philharmonic and her jazz quintet entitled Stephanie with Strings. A version of this performance featuring her brother, Kent Jordan, was repeated with the Alabama Symphony.

Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson, former longtime member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, is associate professor of jazz studies at Michigan State University School of Music. Anderson (alto and sopranino saxophones) began playing the saxophone at age 14. He attended Jazzmobile workshops in Harlem, studied with Frank Wess, Frank Foster, and Charles Davis, and frequented jam sessions led by saxophonist Sonny Stitt at the Blue Coronet. Before entering Southern University, where he studied with clarinetist Alvin Batiste, Anderson met Wynton and Branford Marsalis. In 1988, he became a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, with which he toured and recorded for seven years, and from 1992 to 2005 was a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. As a leader, Anderson has recorded and released three solo albums entitled Warmdaddy in the Garden of Swing (1994), The Ways of Warmdaddy (1996), and Live at the Village Vanguard (1999). Anderson is a frequent participant in Jazz at Lincoln Center educational events, and he served on the faculty of the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies.

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