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| Stephanie Jordan in Daytona Beach. Fl  New Orleans jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan didn't get her initial inspiration from Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday or Nancy Wilson. "As a little girl I wanted to be Lena Horne, " Jordan said on the website ejazznews.com, in an interview commemorating Horne's death in May."I will never forget her electric performance at the Saenger Theater which has influenced my interpretation of songs and my stage presentation, " Jordan said. "Watching her perform with my father, Kidd Jordan, in the horn section that evening was the first time I imagined myself as a professional singer."In Lena Horne, I saw everything that a jazz singer was supposed to be." Jordan, who performed a tribute to Horne at the 2009 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, will be in concert June 6 at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach. Akin to other New Orleans musical families (the Marsalis clan, the Connicks), Jordan has lots of familial musical company: Besides her father, saxophonist Edward "Kidd" Jordan, her family includes siblings Kent, a flutist; Marlon, a trumpeter; and Rachel, a classical violinist. In 2005, Stephanie, Marlon and Kent teamed up with other musicians to record the album "You Don't Know What Love Is." In the wake of Hurricane Katrina that year, she and her three siblings performed "Here's to Life, " singer Shirley Horn's signature song, during the Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert. A recording of their performance appears on the Blue Note Records live album that captured the event (the CD is titled the same as the concert). Jordan performed the national anthem with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and guitarist Jonathan Dubose at the 2008 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. Along with performing at venues throughout the country, including the Kennedy Center, Jordan also has played an extended engagement at the Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, and at Marian's Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland. I write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Jazz News :: home page |