Search - Duke Jordan :: Solo Master Pieces 1

Duke's Delight

Daniel Dropko | Vermilion, OH United States | 07/05/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Duke Jordan has long been known in the jazz community as one of our finest expatriate musicians, having spent much time in Europe (especially Denmark) playing with the best European musicians (notably Nils-Henning Orsted Pederson). His modest but swinging accounts of jazz standards are milestones of taste and musicianship. But in addition to his performance of other peoples' material, Jordan's own compositions are delightful and original musical miniatures. Though the best-known of these, "Jordu", is not included in this collection, many of the rest are here and in the companion Volume Two. Recorded in 1979, these little gems are tuneful, toe-tapping exercises in straight-ahead jazz harmonics. In much the same way that Vivaldi explored 18th century harmony in his multitude of concertos, or Bach showed us what counterpoint could do in the Art of Fugue, Jordan takes us on a myriad of journeys through the musical language of bebop and blues, each tune adding a new twist or variation to well-known and popular harmonic progressions. I could do without the strange and uninspiring cover art, but this is music that will make you smile and brighten your day."