[ATTENDED: April 21, 2022] Stanley Jordan Masterclass
Several years ago, I watched a Tiny Desk Concert from Rudresh Mahanthappa and then I found out he is a teacher at Princeton. So I joined his email list and I get all kinds of updates about jazz and jazz adjacent things going on on campus.
But I was super surprised to get this one
We are very excited to have the legendary jazz guitarist and Princeton alum Stanley Jordan in the house this coming Thursday. Please join us for a masterclass and Q&A this coming Thursday in the Lee Rehearsal Room at 4:30 PM.
My friend Al introduced me to him back in the 1990s and while I’m not going to say I was a huge fan, I was intrigued enough to go to this event. I also had no idea he went to Princeton.
Stanley Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1981 he earned a BA in music from Princeton University, where he studied theory and composition with composer Milton Babbitt and computer music with composer Paul Lansky. While still at Princeton, Jordan performed with Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie.
I also didn’t know he more or less invented tapping
key to Jordan’s fast-track acclaim was his mastery of a special technique on the guitar’s fretboard. Instead of conventional strumming and picking, Jordan’s innovative “touch technique” is an advanced form of two-handed tapping. A classically trained pianist before playing guitar, Jordan wanted greater freedom in voicing chords on his guitar, so he applied piano principles to do so. Jordan’s touch technique allows the guitarist to play melody and chords simultaneously with an unprecedented level of independence. It also allows Jordan to play simultaneously on two different guitars, or even on guitar and piano. He says that “I think of it as a single instrument, but one with a wide range of tonal colors-that’s why I do it.”
This session was really fantastic. Jordan talked about his childhood and about his luck in attending Princeton and getting to go to New York City. I was fascinated to hear just how intellectual he was about the music–it’s not just about feel and vibe, he analyzes it as well.
I didn’t get to stay for the jazz program, which Mahanthappa says was great, but I did get to see Jordan giving feeding back to some of the individual players.
