Stanley Jordan
Encyclopedia
Stanley Jordan is an American
jazz
/jazz fusion
guitarist
and pianist
, best known for his development of the tapping
technique for the guitar.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois
, and he received a BA in digital music composition from Princeton University
in 1981, studying under computer-music
composers Paul Lansky
and Milton Babbitt
. Stanley Jordan began his music career at age six, studying piano, then shifted his focus to guitar at age eleven. He later began playing in rock and soul bands. In 1976, Jordan won an award at the Reno, Nevada, Jazz Festival. While earning a degree from Princeton in 1981 he played with Benny Carter
and Dizzy Gillespie
.
Jordan has performed at many jazz festivals, including: Kool Jazz Festival (1984), Concord Jazz Festival
(1985), and the Montreux International Jazz Festival (1985). During the 1980s Jordan played with Quincy Jones
, Michal Urbaniak
, and Richie Cole
. Since working at Birdland
in New York in 1989–1990, Jordan has maintained a lower profile. Stanley Jordan has four Grammy Nominations.
. One hand presses down a guitar string behind a chosen fret
to prepare the note, and the other hand either plucks or strums the string to play that note. Jordan's touch technique is an advanced form of two-handed tapping
. The guitarist produces a note using only one finger by quickly tapping (or hammering) his finger down behind the appropriate fret. The force
of impact causes the string to vibrate enough to immediately sound the note, and Jordan executes tapping with both hands, and with more legato
than is normally associated with guitar tapping. The note's volume
can be controlled by varying the force of impact: tapping with greater force produces a louder note.
A helpful analogy
to visualize this technique is the distinction between a harpsichord
and a piano
. A harpsichord produces sound
by plucking its strings, and a piano produces sound by striking its strings with tiny hammers. However, while notes produced on a harpsichord or piano sustain after the pick has plucked or hammer has struck, fingers must remain on a tapped note for the sound to continue. This similarity is what led Jordan to attempt such a technique in the first place; he was a classically trained pianist before playing guitar and wanted greater freedom in voicing chords on his guitar.
Jordan's two-handed tapping allows the guitarist to play melody
and chords
simultaneously. It is also possible, as Jordan has demonstrated, to play simultaneously on two different guitars, as well as guitar and piano. Another feature of Jordan's playing is the tuning he uses: from bass to treble EADGCF (all in fourths as on the Chapman Stick, compared with the standard EADGBE), so the patterns for chords are the same wherever they are played on the fretboard.
Stanley Jordan's main guitar was built by Vigier Guitars
in 1988: it is an Arpege model on which Vigier made a flat fingerboard, allowing it to have a very low action (0.5/0.7mm). The low action facilitates the tapping technique.
Jordan was the first artist to be signed by Bruce Lundvall when the latter became president of Blue Note Records
in 1985 and, consequently, Magic Touch was the first release (not reissue) of the rejuvenated label
.
, California
.
Stanley Jordan is currently a resident of Sedona
, Arizona. He attends Arizona State University
, working toward a master's degree
in music therapy
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
/jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, best known for his development of the tapping
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...
technique for the guitar.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and he received a BA in digital music composition from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1981, studying under computer-music
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
composers Paul Lansky
Paul Lansky
Paul Lansky is an American electronic-music or computer-music composer who has been producing works from the 1970s up to the present day .-Biography:...
and Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
. Stanley Jordan began his music career at age six, studying piano, then shifted his focus to guitar at age eleven. He later began playing in rock and soul bands. In 1976, Jordan won an award at the Reno, Nevada, Jazz Festival. While earning a degree from Princeton in 1981 he played with Benny Carter
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
and Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
.
Jordan has performed at many jazz festivals, including: Kool Jazz Festival (1984), Concord Jazz Festival
Concord Jazz Festival
The Concord Jazz Festival is an annual event that was established in 1969 in Concord, California.The festival was launched by Carl Jefferson, a car dealer and jazz enthusiast, who managed to get a group of friends to support the concept. The city agreed to pay for half the cost...
(1985), and the Montreux International Jazz Festival (1985). During the 1980s Jordan played with Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Michal Urbaniak
Michal Urbaniak
Michał Urbaniak is a Polish jazz musician and composer born in Warsaw, playing mainly the violin, lyricon and saxophone during concerts and recordings...
, and Richie Cole
Richie Cole
Richard Cole was an Australian rules footballer for the Collingwood and Essendon Football Clubs in the Australian Football League....
. Since working at Birdland
Birdland (jazz club)
Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979...
in New York in 1989–1990, Jordan has maintained a lower profile. Stanley Jordan has four Grammy Nominations.
Two-handed tapping technique
Normally, a guitarist must use two hands to play each noteNote
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....
. One hand presses down a guitar string behind a chosen fret
Fret
A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
to prepare the note, and the other hand either plucks or strums the string to play that note. Jordan's touch technique is an advanced form of two-handed tapping
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...
. The guitarist produces a note using only one finger by quickly tapping (or hammering) his finger down behind the appropriate fret. The force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
of impact causes the string to vibrate enough to immediately sound the note, and Jordan executes tapping with both hands, and with more legato
Legato
In musical notation the Italian word legato indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence...
than is normally associated with guitar tapping. The note's volume
Amplitude
Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...
can be controlled by varying the force of impact: tapping with greater force produces a louder note.
A helpful analogy
Analogy
Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...
to visualize this technique is the distinction between a harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. A harpsichord produces sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
by plucking its strings, and a piano produces sound by striking its strings with tiny hammers. However, while notes produced on a harpsichord or piano sustain after the pick has plucked or hammer has struck, fingers must remain on a tapped note for the sound to continue. This similarity is what led Jordan to attempt such a technique in the first place; he was a classically trained pianist before playing guitar and wanted greater freedom in voicing chords on his guitar.
Jordan's two-handed tapping allows the guitarist to play melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
and chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
simultaneously. It is also possible, as Jordan has demonstrated, to play simultaneously on two different guitars, as well as guitar and piano. Another feature of Jordan's playing is the tuning he uses: from bass to treble EADGCF (all in fourths as on the Chapman Stick, compared with the standard EADGBE), so the patterns for chords are the same wherever they are played on the fretboard.
Stanley Jordan's main guitar was built by Vigier Guitars
Vigier Guitars
-History:1978: Patrice Vigier sets up as an independent luthier.1980: Exhibits at his first music show in Paris introducing the Arpege series and the following: A/ Trapezoid through body neck B/ Metallic reinforcement under the fretboard...
in 1988: it is an Arpege model on which Vigier made a flat fingerboard, allowing it to have a very low action (0.5/0.7mm). The low action facilitates the tapping technique.
Jordan was the first artist to be signed by Bruce Lundvall when the latter became president of Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
in 1985 and, consequently, Magic Touch was the first release (not reissue) of the rejuvenated label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
.
Market frustrations
After Jordan's unique technique and obvious musicianship thrust him into the spotlight, he became frustrated with market constraints and demands placed on him and his music. Several music factions wanted to claim the Jordan sound as its own and encouraged him to follow in the track of other artists. In the early 1990s, Jordan was upset with the rigid adherence to previously-entrenched musical categories and the limitations usually placed on artists by major labels. Stanley Jordan abandoned his management team and went into deep study of music therapy and is now a member and spokesperson for the American Music Therapy Association.Personal life
Jordan has one daughter, Julia, from his brief marriage. Julia Jordan is a singer/songwriter living in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Stanley Jordan is currently a resident of Sedona
Sedona, Arizona
Sedona is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino and Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona...
, Arizona. He attends Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
, working toward a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in music therapy
Music therapy
Music therapy is an allied health profession and one of the expressive therapies, consisting of an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their...
.
Discography
- Touch Sensitive, Tangent Records (1982)
- Magic TouchMagic Touch (album)Magic Touch is the Blue Note Records debut album by jazz musician Stanley Jordan. Allmusic critic Daniel Gioffre has described the album as "[a]n instant classic, and one of the definitive moments of modern jazz guitar."- Track listing :...
, Blue NoteBlue noteIn jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
(1985) - Standards, Vol. 1 (1986)
- Flying Home (1988)
- Cornucopia (1990)
- Stolen Moments (1991)
- Bolero (1994)
- The Best of Stanley Jordan (1995)
- Stanley Jordan Live in New York (1998)
- Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations, I (2003)
- Ragas (2004)
- Dreams of Peace (2004)
- State of Nature (2008)
- Friends (2011)
External links
- StanleyJordan.com
- Wilson & Alroy: Critical reviews of discography
- Stanley Jordan playing "Eleanor RigbyEleanor Rigby"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by The Beatles, simultaneously released on the 1966 album Revolver and on a 45 rpm single. The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney...
" - Stanley Jordan on the show Innovation
- http://www.musictherapy.org/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3gHtPLXQOI Stanley Jordan on 'Letterman'
- Stanly Jordon at the Iridium Jazz ClubIridium Jazz ClubThe Iridium Jazz Club is a jazz club located on Broadway in New York City. The club hosts weekly performances by John Colianni, and also featured weekly performances by Les Paul for nearly fifteen years.- History :...
- Stanley Jordan at Vigier guitars