Bass and Voice: Sheila Jordan Discusses Race, Class, and the Emergence of Her Concept

Abstract

Sheila Jordan (b. 1928) is a vocalist and composer who emerged in the bebop period, having studied with Lennie Tristano. Her early champion was George Russell, who produced her earliest recordings, including “You Are My Sunshine,” which appeared on George Russell's album The Outer View.1Portrait of Sheila was her definitive debut,2 but she was not content to be confined to traditional tropes as a jazz vocalist. Always seeking new ways of expressing herself, she followed the concept of bass and voice, first developed with Steve Swallow in the 1950s and later more fully explored and concentrated in duo form with Harvie Swartz and Cameron Brown.For years, Jordan split her time between supporting her family as a single mother and playing in groups led by other musicians such as Steve Kuhn, Don Heckman, Lee Konitz, and Roswell Rudd. Then, teaming up with Swartz, Jordan orchestrated a series of groundbreaking recordings that exhibited her bass and voice concept including Old Time Feeling, The Crossing, and numerous others.3 She taught at City College of New York from 1978 until retiring in 2005.This text comes from a phone interview I conducted with Jordan on February 18, 2021. Our discussion occurred as part of the Free Jazz Oral History Project that I founded in 2016, which has compiled nearly one hundred interviews in the last five years. I have only made light edits to the transcript for the sake of clarity.