Louis Jordan Essay

Louis Jordan
Jordan was one of the very most successful african american of the 20th century. He made at least four-million selling hits during his career. Jordan would most frequently top the R &
B charts. He was also one of the first black artist to crossover in popularity into more of a mainstream audience, topping ten hits all at the same time on the white pop charts on many occasions.
Louis Jordan also known as the father of R&B or the “king of jukebox” and some people call him the son of Arkansas. He was born on July 8th,1908 and raised in Brinkley, Arkansas. His father was Jim Jordan, a bandleader and music teacher.His mother Adell died when he was very young. He learned the clarinet under the authority of his father at the age of seven. When they were walking past a music store he spotted a saxophone and he saved up money to buy it. He performed for the first time age 15 while he was on vacation with Ruby “Tuna Boy” Williams Belvedere Orchestra, while at the green Gables in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He also went to college at Arkansas Baptist in Little Rock. While there he majored in music and played baseball for their school team. After school he would do local gigs. Then around 1930 he left and went to philadelphia and

When Jordan and his band recorded “Ration Blues” it became his first crossover hit. Meaning it charted on both black and white pop charts. It was a huge hit on the Harlem Parade. It was number one for six weeks and stayed in number two for about 21 weeks. It also reached number 11 in general “best sellers” chart. The prime time of his career was 1942-1950. Thanks to their performance of their number one single “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” in the universal 1944, wartime musical Follow the boys. Two years later,MGM had their cartoon character Tom from Tom and Jerry sing it in the episode called “Solid