Sheila Jordan Delivers ‘Vociferous Performance’ on ‘Live At Mezzrow’

By DownBeat I Jun. 13, 2023

*Live At Mezzrow* captures Sheila Jordan’s nuance, grace and soulful swing.
(Photo: Ross Mayfield)

Cellar Music Group and SmallsLIVE Foundation will release a new live album by vocalist Sheila Jordan on July 15. Titled Live At Mezzrow, it’s the inaugural release of the SmallsLIVE Living Masters Series, and Jordan’s first live recording in nearly a decade.

Live At Mezzrow captures Jordan’s nuance, grace and soulful swing. The famed vocalist performs alongside her long-time rhythm section, which includes pianist Alan Broadbent and bassist Harvie S.

The date was Oct. 25, and Jordan sang her way through a stunning musical retrospective, reflecting on a lifetime in service of swing. Jordan remarked, “I love singing at Mezzrow. It is much like the clubs of the olden days on 52nd Street, and what Spike Wilner is doing to keep the music alive is fantastic.”

Mezzrow owner and Live At Mezzrow executive producer Wilner said, “At age 93, Sheila Jordan delivers a vociferous performance of standards and bebop. She literally glows with the resonant age of her accomplishments and associations. … She has the core vibration of the true Detroit sound and hails from the very greatest period of that music. Her fellow Detroiters, such as Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and others, have all but left us, but she is still here and still vibrant.”

On Live At Mezzrow, Jordan and her steadfast rhythm section offer heartfelt arrangements of an array of jazz standards. The archetypal compositions presented here have, over the years, worked their way into the singer’s musical ethos and have become part of the Sheila Jordan songbook.

The evening began with Jordan’s moving rendition of the Abbey Lincoln classic “Bird Alone.” Standards such as “The Touch Of Your Lips” and “Look For The Silver Lining” are delivered here with ease, and a particular poignance.

“Falling In Love With Love” begins with a bass-and-voice duo, a configuration Jordan originated and popularized within the jazz idiom back in the early 1950s with bassist Steve Swallow. Instrumental interludes “What Is This Thing Called Love” and “Blue And Green” feature rhythm section players Broadbent and Harvie S. The singer reflects on Charlie Parker in her composition “The Bird,” musing about the saxophone titan’s legacy before embarking on her emotive and near-athletic vocal rendition of Parker’s classic “Confirmation.”

“Baltimore Oriole” is a mainstay in the Jordan songbook that the artist first recorded on her 1963 Blue Note debut Portrait Of Sheila. Following “Baltimore Oriole,” Ms. Jordan delivers a dazzling bossa nova-tinged rendition of the Cole Porter classic “I Concentrate On You” followed by the Vernon Duke standard “Autumn In New York.” The live album concludes with the jubilant “Lucky To Be Me.”

Wilner notes, “It is a great privilege for us to present Sheila Jordan Jordan live at our club, Mezzrow. She’s in an element that she knows best (a crowded and intimate club) and is with musicians she trusts the most. We hope this document can provide you an insight into her work and her depth. Sheila Jordan is the debut of our SmallsLIVE Living Master’s Series, and we can’t think of a better representative.” DB