In 1973, Ebony magazine ran a story titled “Whatever Happened
to Louis Jordan?” Two decades earlier, the genial singer-saxophonist
was one of America’s biggest pop stars. Not only did 18
of his 78s reach the top of the black pop charts between 1942 and 1950,
but several of them, including “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens,”
“Caldonia,” and “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” “crossed over” and
became hits with white listeners as well. In addition, Jordan was widely
admired by his colleagues. In his heyday, he made duet recordings with
Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and Ella Fitzgerald. His later fans
included James Brown, Ray Charles, and B.B. King—as well as Sonny
Rollins, the celebrated jazz saxophonist, who called Jordan “a fantastic
musician” and “my first idol.”
But the Tympany Five, Jordan’s combo, fell out of fashion in the
mid-1950s, and Jordan himself was largely forgotten by the time of his
death in 1975. It was not until 1992 that Five Guys Named Moe, a
Broadway revue whose score consisted of two dozen of his hits,
triggered a revival of interest in his music that continues to this day.
Even so, his career has been ignored by jazz scholars, and if any of
the major histories of jazz mentions him, it is only in passing.
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