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| Stephanie Jordan & the Marlon Jordan Quartet in South Florida by Ron Weber, South Florida Jazz  Stephanie Jordan & The Marlon Jordan Quartet will perform at the Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL on Saturday, March 17th. Stephanie Jordan is one of six performers in a prominent family of New Orleans-bred musicians. She is the daughter of saxophonist Edward "Kidd" Jordan and classical pianist Edvidge Jordan, and sister to trumpeter Marlon, flutist Kent, and violinist Rachel. While they have pursued separate careers, the family frequently collaborates, with Stephanie and Marlon most likely to work together as they will on this date with Stephanie singing with Marlon's quartet featuring Darrell Lavigne on piano, Kurt Zarwell, bass, and Dylan Hicks, drums.Stephanie, a winner of the prestigious Billie Holliday Competition, has a nearly perfect voice with a healthy dose of soul. Her style has been compared by some to Dianna Krall and Norah Jones while to others it evokes Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves and even Nat Cole. Her stage presence is dazzling a la Lena Horn. Stephanie was the standout performer at nationally televised Jazz at Lincoln Center hurricane relief benefit concert, Operation Higher Ground. This performance was hosted by Wynton Marsalis less than three weeks after the Katrina disaster that devastated New Orleans. Her rendition of "Here's to Life, " accompanied by Marlon and Kent, was selected from that concert for the Blue Note Records' Higher Ground CD. She and Marlon participated in a U. S. State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center tour in the fall of 2006 to thank the Europeans who helped with hurricane relief. Marlon Jordan, the youngest of seven children, began playing saxophone, violin and drums before settling on the trumpet. Marlon recalls his father taking him to gigs " even before I really knew how to play. He'd introduce me to all the musicians, and they'd call me up on the stand. They'd say, 'Come on that's Kidd's son... let him play.'" As he continued his musical studies he had the day-to-day inspiration of Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, and many others to draw on. The young musicians often hung out at the Jordan household where they would practice music with Kent Jordan and take lessons from Kidd Jordan. Marlon graduated from the famed New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. An accomplished classical musician as well, Marlon has performed solo with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra, but his true joy is his constant jazz performance in the streets and nightclubs of New Orleans and also Brazil. Marlon, signed to a Columbia Records contract at just 17-years-old Marlon Jordan has been called "The best trumpeter of his generation." You can hear Jordan's clean, boppish lines laced with power and infused with an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire jazz trumpet tradition, but signed in his own unique musical signature. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |