Jordan was born in Brinkley on July 8, 1908. Soon after his birth,
his mother, Adell, passed away, leaving James to raise the boy alone. As a
result, the young child was very close to his father, inheriting his love of
music. The elder Jordan had been an accomplished musician in his own right in
Brinkley, mastering all the instruments in the big band orchestras popular at
the time. Louis acknowledged his influence when a reporter asked him about his
father’s talent. Jordan pointed to his father and said, “Here’s the original
and I am only the imitation.”
The young Jordan took up the saxophone as his instrument of
choice, playing in local bands around the Brinkley area, including his father’s
band. After graduating high school, he attended Arkansas Baptist College,
majoring in music. In 1936, he joined the Chick Webb Orchestra, a band which
featured a teenaged Ella Fitzgerald on vocals. Between 1936 and 1938, the Chick
Webb Orchestra was a staple at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, where they entertained
intellectuals and musicians involved in the Harlem Renaissance including such
luminaries as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
In 1938, he was ready to strike out on his own and formed
the Elks Rendez-Vous Band. He later renamed his band The Tympany Five. His band
was smaller than most jazz orchestras of the time. To make sure that his
smaller band had the same power of a larger band, he emphasized a more
syncopated rhythm, making the beat punchier. As a result, his small band could
move a crowded dance floor into a frenzy. Soon, he was filling dance halls
throughout the country as people were attracted to his innovative “jump blues”
style of music.
Much of his success was the result of his showmanship. He
bantered with his band and his audience, telling funny stories. Many of his
songs had a comedy bent to them, including “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens,”
and “Open the Door, Richard.” He always
sang with a smile on his face, transferring the joy he felt for the music to
his audience. It was hard to watch Louis Jordan without a smile on your face. Melba
Joyce, who sang with Jordan’s band in the 1960s and early 1970s, told a
reporter for the New York Daily News, “He was a consummate musician, and
all of his players knew it. But he also knew his audiences liked partying and
having a good time.” Music writers began
referring to him as “Mister Personality.”
In 1941, Jordan recorded what would become his first big
hit, a song called “Knock Me a Kiss.”
That hit was followed with a string of hits that shot him into the
stratosphere of fame: “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town,” “Five Guys
Named Moe,” “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” “Caldonia” and “Somebody Done
Changed the Lock on My Door.” The decade
of the 1940’s was very good to Jordan. Between 1943 and 1949, around a third of
the number one hits of the decade were Jordan records. His songs were at the
top of the Rhythm and Blues charts for a record 113 weeks, more than any other
African American artist. This feat has not been repeated by any musician since.
In 1946, he translated his musical fame to the big screen,
starring in the film, Beware, a production which featured an all African
American cast. In the film, Jordan portrays a successful band leader who
returns to his college to put on a benefit show to save his alma mater from
financial hardships. He went onto star in other film productions, including Caldonia,
which featured a song in which Jordan wondered, “Caldonia, Caldonia, what makes
your big head so hard?”
Despite his success, he never forgot about his hometown. When he would return to Brinkley to visit his father, Jordan was known to swoop into town driving his large white Cadillac. He would take time to buy the local children ice cream (he never drank alcohol, preferring ice cream as his vice). When he discovered that the local segregated park was off limits to black children, he bought a tract of land for a park for African American children.
Jordan’s influence on music is undeniable. Jazz great Sonny
Rollins said that he was drawn to the saxophone by watching Jordan. Outside of
Jazz, his influence would be even more profound. Jordan’s recording producer,
Milt Gabler, realized that Jordan’s up-tempo rhythm and blues could be used to
innovate other styles of music. Gabler worked with a singer from Michigan named
Bill Haley, infusing Haley’s country sounds with Jordan’s jump blues. What
resulted was a marriage of the two, with Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock
Around the Clock” being credited as one of the first rock ‘n roll records. Jordan
recognized his influence on what became rock ‘n roll. “The only difference
between what we did originally and what became rock ‘n roll was that the beat
grew,” he asserted in 1969. “Essentially the music didn’t change . . . they
just put more juice behind it.” Chuck Berry
took much of his penchant for showmanship from Jordan.
However, with the dawn of rock ‘n roll, Louis Jordan’s
stardom began to fade. Chuck Berry and Little Richard began replacing Jordan on
the charts. He slowed down his touring schedule in 1952, leading Jet magazine
to erroneously report that he had retired. In response, Jordan remarked, “I am
not retired. I am taking a vacation. I have been working ten years straight
without a vacation, and now I’m taking one.”
Sensing that the false news of his retirement might mark the end of his
career, he quickly traveled to New York to hire new musicians for a new band
and then hit the touring circuit.
By 1960, sales had slowed enough that Jordan lost his record
deal with Decca Records and was hopping from small independent label to small
independent label. With the decline in sales, Jordan also slowed his touring
schedule. He was happy to stay home with his wife in their home in Phoenix,
Arizona, but he was always open to touring. “Don’t worry,” he told Jazz writer
Leonard Feather in 1961, “I’m available; but I’m very satisfied the way things
are. In fact, I’ve never been happier.”
Jordan passed away of a heart attack in 1975 in Los Angeles.
He was buried in the Mount Olive Cemetery in St. Louis. Upon his passing, his
widow, Martha Jordan, remarked, “He was before the concept of rock ‘n roll. But
everything they did had almost the same beat as Louis had. He was way before
his time.” In 1987, Jordan was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an influence on the music, referring to
him as “The Supreme Ruler of 1940s R&B.”
