The legendary saxophonist Kidd Jordan is acclaimed internationally
as one of the true master improvisers still performing today.
He was recognized as a jazz maverick back in the 1940s intent
on exploring jazz rooted music's outer reaches. He was born
in Crowley, Louisiana and played in various bands throughout
elementary school and high school. His first instrument
was the C-melody saxophone followed by the alto saxophone
which remains one of his favorite horns. He also plays the
soprano, sopranino, baritone saxophone and clarinets. But
it is the tenor saxophone that allows Kidd the range to
express what he wants to express. He started playing by
ear almost from the start playing licks he picked up from
the recordings of Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt. He went
to Southern University in Baton Rouge where he studied music
education and played in various stage and dance bands, as
well as playing baritone saxophone in rhythm and blues bands.
Yet, Kidd was always driven to search for something different
musically. Even his solos with the R&B groups were noted
as "different" by his fellow musicians. He moved
away from playing "tunes" in his effort to discover
his own musical convictions. He has always been focused
on being a musician first and mastering the technique of
his horns. For Kidd, technique allows him the freedom to
play the saxophone the way he wants to play it. It is the
"aesthetic" or feeling of playing that drives
Kidd's playing. As Kidd has said "styles are born out
of people's technique." When people have enough technique
then they can do some things." To this day, Kidd still
practices his instruments seriously. He has been known to
practice by playing musical phrases in response to bird's
and other sounds of nature. For Kidd creating music is all
about developing one's ear. As he says, "you have to
hear what your trying to get at." Asked to define his
work, Jordan calls it "creative improvisational music."
Kidd has been a music educator for over 30 years and is
an associate professor of music at Southern University in
New Orleans where he directs the jazz studies program. He
received OffBeat's first Lifetime Achievement Award for
Music Education. In recognition of his great musical achievements,
knighthood was bestowed on him by the Republic of France
recently where he holds the title Chevalier des Artes et
Lettres.
Kidd organized the first World Saxophone Quartet in 1976
that included Julius Hemphill and David Murray. He has amassed
a discography of over 30 recordings and has performed in
jazz and music festivals around the world including Germany,
Netherlands, Finland, France, and Africa, has been a featured
performer with the New Orleans Philharmonic, as well as
performed with various "pit bands" in support
of shows that come through New Orleans. Kidd has been a
regular performer at the Visions Festival in New York each
Spring. He has played with a diverse range of musical artists
including Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Ornette
Coleman, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Peter Korvald, William Parker,
Alan Silva, Louis Moholo, Sunny Murray, Fred Anderson, Hamid
Drake, and Cannonball Adderley, as well as vocalists Lena
Horne, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Big Maybelle. For
the past three decades or so Kidd has had a highly productive
and close relationship with drummer Alvin Fielder. Kidd
developed a close musical relationship with innovative pianist
Joel Futterman back in the early 90's and they continue
to perform and record together. Kidd's first recording was
titled, "No Compromise" and that very accurately
expresses his personal conviction about his music.
Kidd also raises horses and races a few of them competively.
According to Kidd "horseracing is like improvising."
"You don't ever know what they are going to do. When
you bring them out to track, they may be prepared and all
and you say they are going to race like they did last time
and they go ahead and do something completing different
depending on how they feel, so that's serious improvisation!"