Rkkre[tkero[tkStanley Jordan

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Stanley Jordan

Stanley Jordan, September 9, 2006

Background information
Born

July 31, 1959 (age 56)

in Chicago, United States

Genres

Jazz, jazz fusion

Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter

Years active

1982present

Labels

Blue Note/Capitol/EMI
Records, Arista Records, Mack
Avenue Records

Website

StanleyJordan.com

Notable instruments
Vigier Arpege
Stanley Jordan (born July 31, 1959) is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and pianist.
Contents
[hide]

1History

2Film and television

3The touch technique (two-handed tapping)

4Additional and most recent work

5Personal life

6Discography

7List of television appearances

8Papers and presentations

9References

10External links

History[edit]
Stanley Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois. He began his music education at age six,
studying piano, then shifted his focus to guitar at age eleven.[1] He later began playing in rock
and soul bands. In 1976, Jordan won an award at the Reno, Nevada, Jazz Festival. He earned

a BA in music from Princeton University in 1981, where he studied theory and composition
with composer Milton Babbittand computer music with composer Paul Lansky.[2][3] While at
Princeton in 1979 he played with Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie.[1]
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. Magic Touch was No. 1 on Billboard's jazz chart for 51
weeks, setting a new record. Jordan also made the startup sound for the
old Macintosh computers,Power Macintosh 6100, Power Macintosh 7100, and Power
Macintosh 8100.
Jordan has performed in over 60 countries on 6 continents. He 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 withQuincy
Jones, Michal Urbaniak, and Richie Cole. Stanley Jordan has four Grammy Nominations. His
2011 album "Friends" was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
Film and television[edit]
Jordan made a cameo appearance in the Blake Edwards movie Blind Date (1987), starring
Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. In 1995 he created the score for the short film "One Red
Rose", starring Hill Harper and Victoria Rowell, directed by Charlie Jordan. In 1996 he
created the score for an ABC afternoon TV special, "Daddy's Girl", directed by Diane
Wynter. SInce the mid 80s he has performed on numerous television shows, including The
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The David Letterman Show and the Grammy Awards. A
more complete list appears below under List of Television Appearances.
The touch technique (two-handed tapping)[edit]

Normally, a guitarist uses two hands to play each note. 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, the volume can be controlled by varying the force of impact.
Jordan executes tapping with both hands, and more legato than is normally associated with
guitar tapping.
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;[citation needed] he was a classically trained pianist before playing guitar
and wanted greater freedom in voicing chords on his guitar.
Jordan's touch technique 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.
He plays guitar in all-fourths tuning, from bass to treble EADGCF (all in perfect fourths as
on the bass guitar) rather than the standard EADGBE. He has stated that all-fourths tuning
"simplifies the fingerboard, making it logical".[4]
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.

Additional and most recent work[edit]

In 2004, Stanley Jordan released the album Dreams of Peace[5] with the Italian band
Novecento. The record, produced by Lino Nicolosi and Pino Nicolosi, Nicolosi Productions,
was released in the USA on the Steve Vai label Favored Nations. After keeping a lower
profile from 1995 to 2007, Jordan signed with Mack Avenue Records and released State of
Nature in 2008 and Friends in 2011. He has maintained an extensive international touring
schedule, including numerous live appearances with jam bands including The Dave Matthews
Band, The String Cheese Incident, Phil Lesh, Moe and Umphrey's McGee.
Personal life[edit]
Stanley Jordan has one daughter, Julia Jordan, who is a singer/songwriter living in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania.[6]
Stanley Jordan is a resident of Sedona, Arizona.[7] He attends Arizona State
University working toward a master's degree in music therapy.[6]
Discography[edit]
As Leader

Touch Sensitive,[8] Tangent Records (1982)

Magic Touch, Blue Note (1985)

Standards, Vol. 1 (1986)

Flying Home (1988)

Cornucopia (1990)

Stolen Moments (1991)

The Blue Note Concert VIDEO (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)

The Paris Concert VIDEO (2007)

State of Nature (2008)

Friends (2011)

As Co-Leader:

Duets (2015) - with Kevin Eubanks

As Band Member

Various Artists "One Night With Blue Note" (1985)

Various Artists "Total Happiness (Music from the Bill Cosby Show, Vol. 2)" (1986)

Stanley Clarke "Hideaway" (1986)

Artists Against Apartheid "Sun City" (1986)

Kenny Rogers "Heart of the Matter" (1986) Song: Morning Desire

Various Artists "Blind Date Film Soundtrack" (1987)

Charnett Moffett "The Beauty Within" (1987)

Charnett Moffett "Net Man" (1987)

Rebbie Jackson "R U Tuff Enuff" (1988)

Dionne Warwick "Sings Cole Porter" (1990)

Les Paul & Friends: "He Changed The Music: LIVE At The Brooklyn Academy Of
Music In New York" VIDEO (1991)

Cody Moffett "My Favorite Things" (2002)

Ray Benson "Beyond Time" (2003)

Novecento, Dreams of Peace (2004)

Will Calhoun "Native Lands" (2005)

Julia Jordan "Urban Legacy" (2007)

Charnett Moffett "Treasure" (2010)

Sharon Isbin "Guitar Passions" (2011)

List of television appearances[edit]

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Late Night with David Letterman

The Grammy Awards

VH1 Video Music Awards

The David Brenner Show

The Dick Cavett Show

The Merv Griffin Show

The Arsenio Hall Show

Regis and Kathy Lee

Austin City Limits (1989)

NOVA/PBS program on computers and music (1986)

Bravo Network, "Stanley Jordan Live in Montreal" (1991)

Papers and presentations[edit]

"APL For Music," APL Quote Quad, 1989

"Musical Syntactic and Semantic Structures in APL," APL Quote Quad, 1990

"Foundations of Suitability of APL2 for Music," IBM Systems Journal, 1991

"Toward a Lexicon of Musical APL2 Phrases," APL Quote Quad, 1991

"Introduction to the Chromatic System for Guitar, Downbeat Magazine, July 2009

"Listening to the Marketan Introduction to Technical and Fundamental Analysis by

Sonification," keynote presentation, The Chicago Quantitative Alliance, 2009

"An Introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Music Therapists," selfpublished at stanleyjordan.com 20002002

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Yanow, Scott. "Stanley Jordan: Biography". Allmusic.
Retrieved November 28, 2011.
2. Jump up^ W. Craig: "Stanley Jordan: Two-handed Jazz Technique," GP,
xvii/9 (1983)
3. Jump up^ C. Deffaa: "Stanley Jordan," Coda, no.208 (1986)
4. Jump up^ Ferguson (1986, p. 76): Ferguson, Jim (1986). "Stanley Jordan".
In Casabona, Helen; Belew, Adrian. New directions in modern
guitar. Guitar Player basic library. Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation.
pp. 6876?. ISBN 9780881884234.
5. Jump up^ [1]
6. ^ Jump up to:a b "Biography". The Official Stanley Jordan Site. Retrieved 8
November 2015.
7. Jump up^ Meredith, Bill (May 2008). "Stanley Jordan: The
Healer". JazzTimes. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
8. Jump up^ "Jordan, Stanley Biography". Bluenote.com. Blue Note Records.
Retrieved November 13, 2009. After releasing a solo album on his own, he
signed with Blue Note and made his major label debut in 1985 on Magic
Touch.
External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons
has media related
to Stanley Jordan.

Official website

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WorldCat Identities

VIAF: 59272441

LCCN: n92041199

ISNI: 0000 0000 5514 7385

GND: 134420152

BNF: cb13930824z (data)

MusicBrainz:6ba7dd48-a5fe-46a3-947a-057919dbe989

Categories:

20th-century guitarists

21st-century guitarists

American jazz guitarists

African-American guitarists

American buskers

Princeton University alumni, 19801989

Arizona State University alumni

People from Sedona, Arizona

Blue Note Records artists

1959 births

Living people

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Biography
In a career that took flight in 1985 with commercial and critical acclaim, guitar virtuoso Stanley
Jordan has consistently displayed a chameleonic musical persona of openness, imagination,
versatility and maverick daring. Be it bold reinventions of classical masterpieces or soulful
explorations through pop-rock hits, to blazing straight ahead jazz forays and ultramodern
improvisational workssolo or with a groupJordan can always be counted on to take listeners on
breathless journeys into the unexpected.
Key to Jordans fast-track acclaim was his mastery of a special technique on the guitars fretboard.
Instead of conventional strumming and picking, Jordan's innovative "touch technique" is an
advanced form of two-handed tapping. While a handful of other players were using similar
techniques, Stanleys fluid, multi-layered textures and sheer virtuosity raised the bar for
excellence. But his technique, though impressive, is always a means to a musical end. His music is
imbued with a warmth and sensitivity that has captured the imagination of listeners worldwide. A
classically trained pianist before playing guitar, Jordan wanted greater freedom in voicing chords
on his guitar, so he applied piano principles to do so. Jordan's touch technique allows the guitarist
to play melody and chords simultaneously with an unprecedented level of independence. It also
allows Jordan to play simultaneously on two different guitars, or even on guitar and piano. He says
that I think of it as a single instrument, but one with a wide range of tonal colorsthats why I do
it.
To date Jordan has performed in over 60 countries on 6 continents. He has performed at many
festivals, including the Kool Jazz Festival, the Concord Jazz Festival, and the Montreaux
International Jazz Festival. During the 1980s he collaborated with a diverse array of artists,

including performances with Art Blakey and Richie Cole and recordings with Stanley Clarke and
Kenny Rogers. The track with Rogers, "Morning Desire", became America's #1 country song in
1986. Later Jordan became a frequent guest with Les Paul during Paul's legendary Monday nights
at Iridium in New York. Today Jordan performs frequently as a soloist and with his band, as well as
collaborating with other guitarists such as Kevin Eubanks, Sharon Isbin and Muriel Anderson. He's
also a frequent guest with jam bands such as the Dave Matthews Band, the String Cheese
Incident, Phil Lesh, Moe and Umphrey's McGee.
Jordan has received four Grammy nominations. His most recent album "Friends" was nominated
for an NAACP Image Award. Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote, Genius is a
word often tossed around in musical circles, but it has been rightfully applied to Stanley Jordan.
Stanley Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began
his music career at age six studying piano, then shifting his focus to guitar at age eleven. He then
began playing in rock and soul bands. In 1976, while still in high school, Jordan performed with
Quincy Jones and tied for first place as a soloist at the Reno International Jazz Festival. In 1981 he
earned a BA in music from Princeton University, where he studied theory and composition with
composer Milton Babbitt and computer music with composer Paul Lansky. While still at Princeton,
Jordan performed with Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie.
Jordan came to prominence with the release of his 1985 album Magic Touch, a revolutionary
project that placed him at the forefront of re-launching legendary Blue Note Records into a
contemporary entity in jazz and beyond, as also established the then-twenty-something Jordan as
among the most distinctive and refreshing new voices of the electric guitar. Jordan had begun
applying his unique technique to his already exemplary traditional playing ten years prior to
the Magic Touch album. Though Jordan showcased the technique in a variety of musical styles
from swing to rock, it was smooth jazz radio support for his singular versions of The Lady in My
Life (first recorded by Michael Jackson) and the Beatles Eleanor Rigby that sent Magic Touch to
the top of Billboards jazz chart for a stunning and record-breaking 51 weeks. The album became a
gold-seller (over 500,000 sold in the U.S. alone) - outstanding for any jazz or instrumental CD.
Subsequent albums found Jordan ushering his audience into deeper levels of his artistry and
stretching his music beyond stylistic boundaries. These projects included a solo guitar album
titledStandards Volume 1 (1986) where Stanley made the bold statement that songs by the likes
of Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix deserved recognition as standards just as much as older
chestnuts like Hoagy Charmichaels Georgia On My Mind. He followed that with the dance-pop
album Flying Home (1988) and the especially edgy Cornucopia (1990), which spanned the gamut
from straight-ahead jazz recorded live to multi-dimensional originals recorded in the studio. Still
later in 1994 after a move to Arista Records (then helmed by pop music maverick Clive Davis), he
recorded the bracingly eclectic Bolero album, featuring covers of Herbie Hancocks Chameleon,
Jimi Hendrixs Drifting, his original Platos Blues and the CDs centerpiece, a 17-minute
arrangement of Ravels Bolero, which flowed seamlessly between rock, African, Latin, groove
and industrial sections. During this era, Jordan also made history by creating the seminal
startup sound for the first generation of Power Macintosh computers.
In 2002, Stanley released the album Dreams of Peace with the Italian band Novecento. It was
remixed and re-released in the USA in 2004 on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label. Independently,
he recorded two CDs: Ragas (a collaboration with musicians from India featuring Jay Kishor on
sitar) and Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations Volume 1, an audio extension of his interest in
music therapy. In 2007 Jordan signed with Mack Avenue Records and released State of Nature in
2008 andFriends in 2011. For Friends, he invited musical guests including guitarists Bucky
Pizzarelli, Mike Stern, Russell Malone and Charlie Hunter; violinist Regina Carter; saxophonists
Kenny Garrett and Ronnie Laws; trumpeter Nicholas Payton; bassists Christian McBride and
Charnett Moffett; and drummer Kenwood Dennard. The results proved truly outstanding on

numbers ranging from a Bela Bartok piece to a Katy Perry pop smash, a heady original blues and
three jazz classics spanning swing, cool, samba and modern.
Jordan has been known to TV and film audiences as well. In 1987 he made a cameo appearance in
the Blake Edwards movie Blind Date, starring Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. In the tribute
film, Les Paul: He Changed the Music Jordan performed with a guitar supergroup including Les Paul
himself, Eddie Van Halen, BB King, Steve Miller, David Gilmour, and Brian Setzer. In 1995 Jordan
created the score for the short film One Red Rose, starring Hill Harper and Victoria Rowell, directed
by Charlie Jordan. In 1996 he created the score for an ABC afternoon TV special Daddy's Girl,
directed by Diane Wynter. Since the mid 80s he has performed on numerous television shows,
including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The David Letterman Show and the Grammy
Awards. One notable appearance was a duet on the Tonight Show with the late rock superstar
Robert Palmer.
Stanley is committed to music as an artistic, spiritual, and even health-promoting endeavor. He
has been immersed for more than a decade in music therapy, towards which he is now working for
a masters degree at Arizona State University. His involvement with music therapy leads him to do
outreach in schools, hospitals and other venues wherever he tours. He is an artist-spokesperson
for the American Music Therapy Association, and he has done numerous lectures and
demonstrations on the healing applications of music.
Jordan has maintained an extensive and consistent international touring schedule. In between tour
stops he is now at work on his next highly anticipated album from Mack Avenue Records, for
release next year.
Jordan is currently a resident of Sedona, Arizona. He has one daughter, Julia. Julia Jordan is a
singer/songwriter living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania who sometimes collaborates with her dad.

Publicity

Date

Type

Media

Author/Host

Feature

2015/4/3

Interview

Magazine: Guitar
Connoisseur

Aman Khosla

Artist Interview

Stanley
Jordan - Freedom
and Experimentation in Venue
Music
Date
City
2015/3/31

Album review

Web Site: Gina Loves

Jazz

Kevin2016/4/8
Eubanks & Stanley
Jordan(Italy)
Duets
Teramo,
2015/3/31

Interview
2016/4/9

Web
Site: Guitar.com
Morbegno,
(Italy)

Stanley
Jordan Interview:
Jammin
And Jazzin
2016/4/10
Milan,
(Italy)
2015/3/26

2015/3/24

Album2016/4/11
review

Web
Site:(France)
Associated
Paris,
Press / Yahoo News

Format

Matthias Kirsch2016

Lets Get Lost

solo

Adam
St. James
Auditorium
S. Antonio
Blue Note

solo
solo

Charles
J Gans
Duc Des
Lombards

Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"

2016/4/12
Paris, (France)
Duc Des Lombards
Review: Eubanks, Jordan display special chemistry on new CD

Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"

2016/4/14
Album review

Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"

Zagreb, (Croatia)
Web Site: JazzHQ

Jazz HR
Mike

2016/4/16
Praia, (Cape Verde)
Kriol Jazz Festival
Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"
Kevin Eubanks and Stanley Jordan Duets album March 24, 2015 Mack Avenue Records
#jazz
2016/4/20
London, (UK)
Ronnie Scott's
Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"
2015/3/23

Album review
2016/4/22

Web Site:
Tallinn, (Estonia)
Examiner.com

Carol Banks
Jazzkaar
Weber

Music

Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"

2016/4/23
Athens, (Greece)
Half Note
Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"
Kevin Eubanks, Stanley Jordan exude everlasting kindness in first-ever Duets
2015/3/21

2016/4/24
Interview
2016/4/25

Athens, (Greece)
Web Site: NYC Radio
Live!
Athens, (Greece)

Half Note
DAVID
ELLENBOGEN
Half Note

Jazz

Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"

Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"

STANLEY JORDAN DROPS SOME KNOWLEDGE AND A NEW ALBUM WITH KEVIN
EUBANKS:
PODCASTAthens,
136 (Greece)
2016/4/26
Half Note
Guest with Charnett Moffett's "NeTTwork"
2015/3/20

Interview
2016/4/29

Web
Site: WBGO
Delray
Beach, FL
(USA)

Gary
ArtsWalker
Garage

2015/2/27

KEVIN EUBANKS & STANLEY JORDAN LIVE AT WBGO: LISTEN NOW

2016/4/30
Delray Beach, FL
Arts Garage
solo + guest: Vitali Imereli
(USA)
Interview
Web Site: Radio Times
Marty MossRadio Times in Review
(NPR)
Coane
2016/5/25
Kaluga, (Russia)
Kaluga Guitar Festival
solo

solo + guest: Vitali Imereli

Radio Times in Review: Neurologist Oliver Sacks, Swimmer Lynne Cox, Musician Kevin
Eubanks
2016/6/9
Yountville, CA (USA)
Lincoln Theater
solo
2015/2/27

2015/2/8

2015/1/26

2015/1/14

Concert
2016/6/11
Preview

Newspaper:
Tampere, Daily
(Finland)
Record

EdTampere
CondranGuitar Festival
Entertainment
solo

2016/7/3
Budapest, (Hungary)
Margaret Island
Stanley Jordan partners with Kevin Eubanks for album, tour

solo + guests: Alegre Corra, Kornl Horvth

& Gbor Drnyei

Article2016/7/9

solo

Web
Site: Critical
Jazz
Newport,
VT (USA)

Brent
BlackVermont Jazz
Newport
Festival

Kevin Eubanks and Stanley Jordan Duets Mack Avenue 2015

2016/8/5
San Antonio, TX
Wonderland of the
trio
(USA)
Americas
Article
Web Site: AXS
Carol Banks
Weber
2016/8/29-9/2 Stanleyland Music Camp (for all instruments) in Big Indian, NY (USA). Immerse yourself in cutting
edge knowledge and learning methods with Stanley Jordan, Kenwood Dennard, Owen Brown, Julia Jordan Kamanda.
Kevin Eubanks, Stanley Jordan put their guitars together in minecraft of Duets
2016/9/3
Album review
2016/9/9

Charlotte, NC (USA)
Web Site: Something
Else Reviews
Bangalore, (USA)

Romare Bearden Park

NICK DERISO

trio

Windmills Craftworks

solo

Kevin Eubanks + Stanley Jordan, Lights from Duets (2015): One Track Mind
2016/9/10
Bangalore, (India)
Windmills Craftworks
solo

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illboard Albums

Album

Chart

Peak

Year
2011

Friends

Jazz Albums

22

2008

State Of Nature

Top Jazz Albums

11

1994

Bolero

Top Contemporary Jazz Albums

1991

Stolen Moments

Top Contemporary Jazz Albums

10

1990

Cornucopia

Top Contemporary Jazz Albums

1988

Flying Home

R&B Albums

83

1988

Flying Home

The Billboard 200

131

1988

Flying Home

Top Contemporary Jazz Albums

1987

Standards Volume 1

R&B Albums

52

1987

Standards Volume 1

Top Contemporary Jazz Albums

1987

Standards, Vol. 1

The Billboard 200

116

1986

Standards Volume 1

Top Jazz Albums

Album

Chart

Peak

Year
1985

Magic Touch

R&B Albums

31

1985

Magic Touch

The Billboard 200

64

1985

Magic Touch

Top Jazz Albums