Sheila Jordan, pioneering jazz vocalist and 2012 NEA Jazz Master, has died at 96 — Blue Note trailblazer, teacher and beloved improviser.
Sheila Jordan, the cool-toned, fiercely original jazz vocalist whose intimate, improvisational style helped reshape vocal jazz, has died at 96. Her longtime bassist confirmed to NPR that Jordan died Monday at her New York apartment; no cause of death was reported.
Born Sheila Jeanette Dawson in Detroit in 1928, Jordan first fell in love with jazz as a teenager after hearing Charlie Parker on a jukebox — a moment she later said altered the course of her life. She moved to New York to “chase Bird,” befriended Parker, and eventually married pianist Duke Jordan; the marriage ended in 1962 but produced a daughter, Tracey J. Jordan, who survives her.
Jordan’s 1963 debut, Portrait of Sheila, released on Blue Note, remains a touchstone: she was the first vocalist the storied label recorded, and the album’s spare voice-and-bass interplay — especially on the now-classic “Dat Dere” — helped establish her as an adventurous, emotionally direct singer.
Despite early critical praise, Jordan’s recording career unfolded in fits and starts: she balanced day jobs and single motherhood for years, returning to steady recording only later in life.
A consummate improviser and educator, Jordan worked with many of jazz’s giants — including Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Herbie Nichols — and became as influential in classrooms and workshops as she was onstage.
The National Endowment for the Arts named her a Jazz Master in 2012, the nation’s highest honor for a jazz musician. Over a career that spanned more than six decades she released more than two dozen albums; her latest, Portrait Now, arrived earlier this year and capped a remarkable late-career surge.
Jordan’s voice was often described as cool, supple and conversational: she could slip into scatting and then land in the heart of a lyric with breathtaking clarity.
Colleagues and critics frequently noted that her reluctance to self-promote kept her from the wider fame her talents deserved — but also added to her aura as an artist devoted above all to the music. “Support the music until it can support you,” she once said — a credo that guided a life of quiet devotion to jazz.
Sheila Jordan’s influence lives on in generations of vocalists who learned from her workshops or from recordings that taught how deeply a singer can listen. She is survived by her daughter, Tracey J. Jordan, and a legion of students, collaborators and fans who will remember her not only for a singular sound but for a singular dedication to the art form.
If you have a memory or favorite recording of Sheila, consider sharing it — her music was meant to be heard, talked about and passed on.
