Wednesday, July 08, 2009

LOUIS JORDAN, O REI DO JUKEBOX.
O musico pioneiro do blues, rhythm &blues, jazz, compositor, bandleader Louis Jordan nasceu no 8 de julho de 1908 em Brinkly, Arkansas e foi muito famoso na década de 30 até o inicio dos anos 50. Foi conhecido como “O Rei do Jukebox” e gozava de ampla popularidade tanto entre as platéias brancas quanto as negras, no final da era do swing.


No ano de 2004 a Revista Rolling Stone o colocou na 59 posição na lista dos 100 maiores Artistas de Todos os Tempos.
Depois de Duke Ellington e Count Basie, Jordan foi o bandleader mais popular e mais bem sucedido de seu tempo. Em contraste com os demais músicos de todas as raças, tinha uma personalidade marcante, era um animador completo, marcado por grandes e diversas conquistas. Foi também cantor, com muita picardia e líder de sua banda por mais de vinte anos. Entre as suas composições destaque para “Caldonia”.

Foi um grande instrumentista. Tocava saxofone, piano e clarineta e foi pioneiro na introdução do órgão elétrico na sua banda e na popularização do “jump blues”.

Gravou duetos com Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong e Bing Crosby. Teve participação em alguns filmes, inclusive em dois musicais escritos especialmente para ele.

Louis Jordan morreu em Los Angeles em 1975.


Clique para ve-lo em ação com "Caldonia".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR6pHtiNT_k

Pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader Louis Jordan was born July 8, 1908 in Brinkly.Arkansas and enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004,Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time

Louis Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful black bandleader of his day. But in contrast to almost all of his colleagues of all races, he was a major personality in his own right, an all-round entertainer of enormous and diverse accomplishments.
Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality -- he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who specialized in the alto saxophone but played all forms of the instrument, as well as piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, many of the songs he wrote or co-wrote became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.
Although Jordan began his career in big band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electric organ.
With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".

Jordan died in February 1975
NOTA DO BLOG - Jukebox são as caixas de música, muito utilizadas ainda hoje nos bares americanos, onde o cliente escolhe a musica que quer ouvir, pagando por isso algumas moedas.

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