Louis Jordan

Uncommon card · No. 150780

Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American jazz, blues and jump blues saxophonist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "the King of the Jukebox", he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. Specializing in the alto sax, Jordan played all forms of the saxophone, as well as piano and clarinet. He also was a singer with great comedic flair, and fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his time, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, coming to the public's attention as part of Chick Webb's hard swinging band, though he became better known as an innovative popularizer 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...

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