Stanley Jordan (born July 31, 1959) is an American jazz guitarist noted for his playing technique, which involves tapping his fingers on the fretboard of the guitar with both hands.

Music career

Jordan was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, United States. When he was six, he started on piano, then at eleven switched to guitar. He later began playing in rock and soul bands. In 1976, he won an award at the Reno Jazz Festival. At

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, he studied

music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

and composition with Milton Babbitt and computer music with Paul Lansky. He also took freshman calculus with

Edward Nelson Edward Nelson (May 4, 1932 – September 10, 2014) was an American mathematician. He was professor in the Mathematics Department at Princeton University. He was known for his work on mathematical physics and mathematical logic. In mathematical l ...

. While at Princeton, he played also with

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

and

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

. In 1985, Bruce Lundvall became president of

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by History of the Jews in Germany, German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it deriv ...

and Stanley Jordan was the first person he signed. The label released his album ''Magic Touch'', which sat at No.1 on ''Billboard''s jazz chart for 51 weeks, setting a record.

Touch technique

Normally, a guitarist uses two hands to play each note. One hand presses down a guitar string behind a chosen

fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical inst ...

to prepare the note, and the other hand either plucks or strums the string to play that note. Jordan's touch technique is an advanced form of two-handed

tapping Tapping is a playing technique that can be used on any stringed instrument, but which is most commonly used on guitar. The technique involves a string being fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion. This is in contrast to stand ...

. The guitarist produces a note using only one finger by quickly tapping (or hammering) his finger down on the appropriate fret. The impact causes the string to vibrate enough to sound the note, and the volume can be controlled by varying the force of impact. Jordan taps with both hands, and more legato than is normally associated with guitar tapping. His technique allows the guitarist to play

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

and chords simultaneously. It is also possible, as he has demonstrated, to play simultaneously on two different guitars, as well as guitar and piano. He plays guitar in

all-fourths tuning Among alternative tunings for the guitar, all-fourths tuning is a regular tuning.: In contrast, the standard tuning has one irregularity—a major third between the third and second strings—while having perfect fourths between t ...

, from bass to treble EADGCF (all in

perfect fourth A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...

s as on the bass guitar) rather than the standard EADGBE. He has stated that all-fourths tuning "simplifies the fingerboard, making it logical". Jordan's main guitar was built by Vigier Guitars in 1984: it is an Arpege model on which Vigier made a flat fingerboard, allowing it to have a very low action (0.5/0.7mm). The low action facilitates the tapping technique.

Recording

Among the artists Jordan has worked with are

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

, Stanley Clarke, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Michal Urbaniak, Richie Cole, The Dave Matthews Band, The String Cheese Incident, Phil Lesh, Moe, and

Umphrey's McGee Umphrey's McGee, sometimes stylized as UM, is an American rock band originally from South Bend, Indiana. The band experiments with many musical styles, including rock, metal, funk, jazz, blues, reggae, electronic, bluegrass, country, and ...

. He has performed at many jazz festivals, including Kool Jazz Festival (1984), Concord Jazz Festival (1985), and the Montreux International Jazz Festival (1985). In 2004, he released the album ''Dreams of Peace'' with the Italian band Novecento. The album was produced by Lino Nicolosi and Pino Nicolosi at Nicolosi Productions and was released in the U.S. on Favored Nations. He signed with Mack Avenue Records and released ''State of Nature'' in 2008 and ''Friends'' in 2011. The latter was nominated for an

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

. He has four Grammy nominations. Jordan made the startup sound for the

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computer models the Power Macintosh 6100, Power Macintosh 7100, and Power Macintosh 8100.

Film and television

Jordan made a cameo appearance in the movie '' Blind Date'' (1987). In 1995 he wrote the score for the short film ''One Red Rose''. In 1996 he wrote the score for the ABC TV afternoon special, ''Daddy's Girl''. Since the mid-1980s he has performed on numerous television shows, including ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson'', ''The David Letterman Show'' and ''the Grammy Awards''.

Personal life

Stanley Jordan was briefly married and has one daughter, Julia Jordan, who is a singer and songwriter. In a 2023 interview, Jordan praised author and then-presidential candidate Marianne Williamson for "bringing politics into the 21st-century".

Discography

As leader

* ''Touch Sensitive'' (Tangent, 1982) * '' Magic Touch'' (Blue Note, 1985) * ''Standards Vol. 1'' (Blue Note, 1986) * '' Flying Home'' (EMI-Manhattan, 1988) * ''Cornucopia'' (Blue Note, 1990) * ''Stolen Moments'' (Blue Note, 1991) * ''Bolero'' (Arista, 1994) * ''Live in New York'' (Blue Note, 1998) * ''Dreams of Peace'' (Nicolosi, 2003) * ''Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations I'' (Manifold Music, 2003) * ''State of Nature'' (Mack Avenue, 2008) * ''New Morning: The Paris Concert'' (Inakustik, 2008) * ''Friends'' (Mack Avenue, 2011) * ''Duets'' with Kevin Eubanks (Mack Avenue, 2015)

As sideman

* Muriel Anderson &

Phil Keaggy Philip Tyler Keaggy (born March 23, 1951) is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. H ...

, ''Uncut Gems'' (CGD Music, 2003) * Muriel Anderson, ''Wildcat'' (Heartstrings Attached Music, 2005) *

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...

, ''Blue Note Plays Burt Bacharach'' (Blue Note, 2004) * Anthony Branker, ''For the Children'' (RPC, 1980) * Dennis Chambers, ''Groove and More'' (Soul Trade, 2013) * Stanley Clarke, ''Hideaway'' (Epic, 1986) *

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the '' Mode ...

, ''Drum 'n' Voice Vol. 4'' (Nicolosi, 2016) * Stu Gardner, ''Presents Total Happiness: Music from the Bill Cosby Show Vol. II'' (Columbia, 1987) *

Rebbie Jackson Maureen Reillette "Rebbie" Jackson-Brown (; born May 29, 1950) is an American singer and the eldest child of the Jackson family of musicians. She first performed on stage with her siblings during shows in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, a ...

, ''R U Tuff Enuff'' (Columbia, 1988) * Charnett Moffett, ''Net Man'' (Blue Note, 1987) * Charnett Moffett, ''Treasure'' (Motema, 2010) * Charnett Moffett, ''Music from Our Soul'' (Motema, 2017) * Novecento, ''Secret'' (Nicolosi, 2008) *

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...

, ''The Heart of the Matter'' (RCA, 1985) *

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick ( ; born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. During her career, Warwick has won many awards, including six Grammy Awards. She has been inducted into the Hollywood Wa ...

, ''Sings Cole Porter'' (Arista, 1990) * Muriel Anderson &

, ''Precious Gems'' (Independent Release, 2020)

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Stanley 1959 births Living people African-American jazz guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American jazz guitarists African-American guitarists American street performers Princeton University alumni Pupils of Milton Babbitt Pupils of Paul Lansky Blue Note Records artists American lead guitarists Smooth jazz guitarists Mack Avenue Records artists Arista Records artists