Comes Love: Lost Session 1960 (CAPRI)
Sheila Jordan
Released September 17, 2021
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kFT_tvTrMbDguxjo2vGGrFCzTVtaRN8o0
Spotify:
About:
Sheila Jordan’s life has been a romance with jazz. She has lived and breathed the music for most of her life. At 15 she first heard Charlie Parker and had a spiritual awakening. Living in Detroit as a teenager she would write lyrics to Bird’s tunes and then sit in with Bird and Dizzy when they come to town. She befriended many Detroit musicians at the time including Barry Harris, Paul Chambers, Kenny Burrell and Tommy Flanagan, among others. She ultimately moved in with Frank Foster but when he went off to serve in the Korean War, she decided to move to New York. She got an apartment on 26th street and later Barry, Poul and Doug Watkins came to stay with her until they found their own places.
She met Duke Jordan in Detroit when he was playing with Bird. Sheila and Duke didn’t talk much at that gig but when she moved to New York they met again, become friends and later were married. Through Duke, she met Mingus who suggested she study with Lennie Tristano. She was scheduled to make her first album with Duke for Transition Records but had a bad cold the day of the session and. had to cancel. The label went out of business shortly thereafter and the date never happened. Her first recording was on Looking Out with English bassist Peter Ind, although it wasn’t under her name. She did 4 tunes, including an amazing version of Yesterdays.
This recording was made June 10, 1960 at Olmsted Sound Studios where many classic recordings were made. Sheila was working regularly with John Knapp at the time in a club in the Village called the Page 3. Ziggy Willman was the drummer and Steve Swallow and Gene Perlman were the alternating bassists. Of course there’s no way to know for certain if they participated in this recording. Whoever the musicians are, they are quite adept in their accompaniment.
When I sent her the music, she couldn’t recall the musicians backing her on the recording. At 921 imagine it would be difficult remembering all the details of something that happened over 60 years ago. Mind you, she’s still mentally very sharp and has maintained great singing chops. Had this been released at the time, it would have been the first album under her name, preceding Portrait of Sheila on Blue Note by 2 years. It would have never been heard had it not been for a couple of record dealers from Albuquerque who found it in a record collection in New York. Jeremy Sloan and Hadley Kenslow of SloLow Records were kind enough to allow me to release it on Capri. It’s a wonderful insight into the evolution of a unique vocalist and innovator at an early stage in her career.
Thomas Burns
Track Listing:
1. I’m the Girl (James Shelton) 04:05
2. It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing (Duke Ellington) 01:38
3. Ballad of the Sad Young Men (Fran Landesman, Tommy Wolf) 04:46
4. Comes Love (Charles Tobias, Lew Brown, Sam Stept) 02:12
5. Don’t Explain (Arthur Herzog, Jr., Billie Holliday) 03:00
6. Sleeping Bee (Harold Arlen, Truman Capote) 02:37
7. When the World Was Young (Johnny Mercer, Philippe-Gérard) 04:28
8. I’ll Take Romance (Ben Oakland, Oscar Hammerstein) 01:41
9. These Foolish Things (Eric Maschwitz, Jack Strachey) 03:59
10. Glad to Be Unhappy (Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers) 03:21
11. They Can’t Take That Away from Me (George & Ira Gershwin) 02:25
Personnel:
Sheila Jordan: vocals
(unidentified piano, bass, drums)
Recorded on June 19, 1960 at Olmsted Sound Studios NYC
Produced by Thomas Burns
Mastered by David Glasser, Airshow Mastering, Boulder, CO
Design & layout: Todd Reid
Cover painting: John Heard
Review:
Sheila Jordan has long been a beloved singer, educator and interpreter of song, who recently touring Europe at the age of 92. She sang in Detroit in the late 1940s, moved to New York in 1951, was a friend of her mentor Charlie Parker, was married to Duke Jordan during 1952–’62, recorded “Yesterdays” with Peter Ind in November 1960, waxed a haunting version of “You Are My Sunshine” with George Russell and made what was believed to be her first album as a leader, Portrait Of Sheila, for Blue Note in 1962. Yet, despite all of that, she would not become a full-time jazz singer until the 1970s. However her history now has to be amended a little. Comes Love, which is subtitled “Lost Session 1960,” unearths a long forgotten and unheard session from June 10, 1960, that is Jordan’s true recorded debut. Joined by an unidentified rhythm section (possibly led by pianist John Knapp), the 31-year old Jordan shows that she was already a top-notch vocalist although not yet that recognizable. Performances such as the slow ballad “I’m The Girl” and her scat-filed “It Don’t Mean A Thing” would be perfect for a Blindfold Test. Jordan sounds closer to herself on a pair of Billie Holiday-associated songs (“Comes Love” and a magnificent version of “Don’t Explain”), as well as her reshaping of “A Sleeping Bee” and her passionate take on a very slow “When The World Was Young.” Her voice is a little higher than the one audiences came to know later in her career, but Jordan already had something personal and special to contribute to these standards, making the 61-year-old Comes Love an important discovery.
Scott Yanow (DownBeat)
