LOUIS JORDAN
• July 8, 1908 Louis Jordan, pioneering jazz, blues, and R&B musician, songwriter and bandleader, was born in Brinkley, Arkansas. Jordan studied music under his father and during his youth played in his father’s bands. In 1932, Jordan moved to New York City and in 1936 joined the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra where he played until 1938. Jordan’s first recording was in 1938 and over his career he had at least four million-selling hits, including “G.I. Jive” (1944), “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” (1944), “Caldonia” (1945), and “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” (1946). During the 1940s, Jordon had 18 number one and 54 top ten singles on the “race charts.” His records spent 113 weeks at number one, the most by any black recording artist to this day. Jordon died February 4, 1975. The United States Postal Service featured Jordon and the film “Caldonia” on a postage stamp and the 1992 Broadway show, “Five Guys Named Moe” was devoted to Jordan’s music. Jordan was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1975 and in 2008 the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Jordan on the centenary of his birth. His biography, “Let the Good Times Roll: The Story of Louis Jordan and His Music,” was published in 1994.
>via: http://thewright.org/explore/blog/entry/today-in-black-history-782012
<p>Pathé Music: Knock Me a Kiss - Louis Jordan from British Pathé on Vimeo.</p>