Sheila Jordan

Early career

Sheila Jeanette Dawson was born in Detroit, on November 18, 1928.^[5][6][7] Her father left soon after her birth and remarried. (She later met her half-siblings.) Her mother struggled with alcoholism,^[6] and she was soon sent to live with her maternal grandparents in Summerhill, Pennsylvania, a small coal mining town in the Allegheny Mountains.^[6] Her grandparents raised her with little warmth or affection, and her grandfather also struggled with alcoholism. She recalled their hardship and poverty:^[6][8]

We were probably the poorest people in a poor town [...]. [... W]e had an outhouse and no water in the house [...]. In the wintertime [we'd] sleep in one bedroom without any sheets or pillowcases on the beds; we just had blankets.

Jordan returned to live with her mother in Detroit by 1942,^[6][7][8] performing as a jazz club singer and pianist.^[7] She helped write lyrics to Charlie Parker's music in the trio Skeeter, Mitch, and Jean (Skeeter Spight, Leroi Mitchell, and Sheila "Jean").^[7] They met Parker at his Detroit performances, and he invited them to sing.^[9]

Jordan moved to New York City in 1951, studying music theory with Lennie Tristano and Charles Mingus.^[7] She focused on the music of Parker, whom she befriended and considered a teacher,^[10] later recalling: "I guess I was chasin' the Bird [Parker]."^[11] Asked if the song "Chasin' the Bird" was written for her, she said: "No. I don't know how that rumor got started."^[11] In 1952, she married a Parker bandmate, pianist Duke Jordan.^[5][12][8]

Later career (1960–2025)

In the early 1960s, she performed at the Page Three Club in Greenwich Village with pianist Herbie Nichols^[13] and at other New York venues. Duke Jordan's heroin addiction contributed to their 1962 divorce, but they had a daughter, Tracey, whom she "could truly love" and was "sure would love me back".^[8] Jordan partly withdrew from clubs in the 1960s to raise Tracey, and sang in church instead. She worked as a typist and legal secretary for 20 years, with less time for music until she was aged 58.^[14][5] In 1962, she recorded "You Are My Sunshine" with George Russell on his album The Outer View (Riverside)^[15][16] and also recorded her debut album Portrait of Sheila, released on Blue Note in 1963.^[1] She began a long collaboration with Steve Kuhn in the early 1960s^[17] and played with Don Heckman (1967–68), Lee Konitz (1972), and Roswell Rudd (1972–75).^[12]

In 1974, Jordan was Artist-in-Residence at the City College of New York, and taught there from 1978 to 2005. She received the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, while celebrating 28 years as an adjunct professor of music.^[18] She also taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Vermont Jazz Center, Interplay Jazz and Arts, as well as teaching international workshops.^[12][19]

On July 12, 1975, she recorded Confirmation.^[7] One year later she released the duet album Sheila, with Arild Andersen for SteepleChase. In 1979, she founded a quartet with Steve Kuhn, Harvie S, and Bob Moses. During the 1980s, she worked with Harvie S as a duo and played on several records with him. Until 1987 she worked in an advertising agency and recorded Lost and Found in 1989.^[7]

Jordan was a songwriter who worked in bebop and free jazz. In addition to the aforementioned musicians, she recorded with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band,^[20] Cameron Brown,^[21] Carla Bley,^[22] and Steve Swallow.^[23] Jordan led recordings for Blue Note, East Wind, ECM, Grapevine, Muse, Palo Alto, and SteepleChase.^[24]

In 2012, she received the NEA Jazz Masters Award.^[25] Her biography, Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan, written by vocalist and educator Ellen Johnson, was published in 2014. Jordan describes her own struggles with addiction in the book.^[26]

Jordan died at her apartment in New York City, on August 11, 2025, at the age of 96.^[27]

As leader

As featured vocalist

With Carla Bley

• Escalator over the Hill (JCOA, 1971)^[22]

With Cameron Brown

• Here and How! (OmniTone 1997)^[21]
• I've Grown Accustomed to the Bass (HighNote, 2000)^[5][24][23]

With George Gruntz

• Theatre (ECM, 1983)^[20]

With Bob Moses

• When Elephants Dream of Music (Rykodisc, 1982)^[34]

With Roswell Rudd

• Flexible Flyer (Arista/Freedom 1974)^[35]
• Blown Bone (Philips, 1979)^[36]
• Broad Strokes (Knitting Factory, 2000)^[37]

With Steve Swallow

• Home (ECM, 1980)^[23]

With Harvie Swartz

• More Mistletoe Magic (Palo Alto Records PA 8047, 1985)