Hotel Monteleone presents Songstress Stephanie Jordan

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Vocalist Stephanie Jordan, whom critics have compared to Nancy Wilson, Norah Jones and Diana Krall will perform at the Hotel Monteleone's Carousel Bar & Lounge every Wednesday during the month of December from 8:00 pm - 12:00 Midnight. Located in the heart of New Orleans' famed French Quarters at 214 Royal Street, the Carousel Bar & Lounge is a long-time favorite New Orleans hotspot and the city's only revolving bar, known for luring guests in to taking a spin on its 25-seat, bright circus-clad Merry-G-Round. It features large fan windows overlooking Royal Street which have been a favorite of both local and tourists.

Heralded as a singer with poise and pizzazz, Jordan's prominence rose after her performance at the nationally televised Jazz at Lincoln Center benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina. She has performed throughout the world, including an extended engagement at The Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, the Langston Hughes Auditorium in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Marciac Jazz Festival in France. Jordan is also a regularly featured performer at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

While Jordan has performed on stages such as the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the NBA All-Star Game, Chicago's Harris Theater, the Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland and even the big screen such as in Lee Daniels' production of The Paperboy; Jordan says that "there truly is no place like home."

In addition to traditional jazz standards, the Stephanie Jordan Jazz Ensemble will perform some tunes from her recently released CD on her Vige Music label, "Stephanie Jordan Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne; Yesterday When I Was Young" which honors the legendary Grammy Award winner who starred in many films and whose one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981), was hailed as her masterpiece.

Noted jazz critic Ted Panken writes, "Great lyrics permeate this beautifully rendered homage, and Jordan has the skill sets to do them justice-a voice that projects from a whisper to a scream, impeccable diction, dead-center pitch, fluid phrasing . . . she finds fresh, unfailingly swinging approaches to this well-traveled repertoire, melding into a personal argot elements garnered from such distinguished mentors as Shirley Horn, Abbey Lincoln, Nancy Wilson-and Lena Horne herself-while sounding like no one other than Stephanie Jordan. As she aptly puts it, "it's a tribute, not a copy."

The album offers Jordan a magnificent platform on which to showcase her exuberant spirit and abundant talent, but also contains an autobiographical component. The back story starts in the spring of 1983, when Horne visited New Orleans for the third and final time, bringing her one-woman show to the Saenger Theater for several weeks. The contractor was Jordan's father, Edward "Kidd" Jordan-best known as an outcat improviser who navigates the interstellar spaces of late period John Coltrane, but also a distinguished educator and first-call session musician. He procured tickets for his family.

"I have witnessed hundreds of performances, by a lot of big-name singers and that one never left me, " says Jordan.

"That night was the first time I'd ever witnessed a true jazz singer with everything-the fame, the fortune, the beauty, the style, the wit, the charm, the big band." Jordan continues. "After she did some subtle things where she talked about her life, she sang 'From This Moment On, ' which blew me away. The whole theater was on edge. Then, when she sang 'Yesterday When I Was Young, ' everyone jumped up and erupted. I had never witnessed one person on stage send an audience into frenzy like that. It was like, 'Oh! This is jazz singing, for real . . .'"

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