Sheila Jordan’s album Portrait Now is available now on Dot Time Records. Order here: hypeddit.com/sheilajordan/portraitnow.  Watch her EPK here: youtube.com/watch?v=gefsFZTjg7w  

“Her ballad performances are simply beyond the emotional and expressive capabilities of most other vocalists.” –The New York Times

At 96 years of age, jazz legend Sheila Jordan is set to literally outdo herself. On Feb 14, preeminent jazz label Dot Time Records will release a new long player, Portrait Now, a title inspired by Portrait of Sheila, Jordan’s first album for Blue Note Records, released in 1962. 

The current trio featuring Jordan on vocals, Roni Ben-Hur on guitar and Harvie S on bass, has been performing regularly for a few years. Their undeniable chemistry rendered imminent a new recording project. 

The result is an album that revisits some of the songs from the 1962 recording, but also sports some new renditions, including a gorgeous version of the Chet Baker classic, “The Touch Of Your Lips,” that will be released on January 24th in advance of the album. 

An incredibly prolific artist, Portrait Now is Jordan’s 22nd album as a leader in over 50 years and on several labels, not to mention several intermittent releases on which she was the featured vocalist. 

In addition to being a key player in the conception of Portrait Now, Harvie S, recorded, produced and mixed the album. Harvie had been a member of the Steve Kuhn Band which birthed the  historic duo with Jordan, subsequently lasting 14 years, garnering 5 duo recordings including Yesterdays and Old Time Feeling. They also played together on Steve Kuhn’s Playground, Last Year’s Waltz and toured worldwide with standing ovations and high accolades. Harvie also played on many of Sheila’s band recordings including Lost and Found, The Crossing, Heart Strings, Live At Mezzrow and Better than Anything. 

Roni Ben-Hur’s arrangement expertise and brilliant solos bring Portrait Now to life. His camaraderie with Harvie S, and their enduring commitment to the music, spawned a labor of love and tribute to Jordan and their astonishing output over the years. 

Raised in poverty in Pennsylvania’s coal-mining country, Sheila Jordan began singing as a child and by the time she was in her early teens, was working semi-professionally in Detroit clubs. Her first great influence was Charlie Parker and, indeed, most of her influences have been instrumentalists rather than singers. Working chiefly with black musicians, she met with disapproval from the white community but persisted with her career. She was a member of a vocal trio, Skeeter, Mitch & Jean (she was Jean), who sang versions of Parker’s solos in a manner akin to that of the later Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

After moving to New York in the early 50s, she married Parker’s pianist, Duke Jordan, and studied with Lennie Tristano. However, it was not until the early 60s that she made her first recordings. One was under her own name, and the other was “The Outer View” with George Russell, which featured a famous 10-minute version of “You Are My Sunshine.”

In the mid-60s, her work encompassed jazz liturgies sung in churches and extensive club work, but her appeal was narrow even within the confines of jazz. By the late 1970s, jazz audiences had begun to understand her uncompromising style a little more, and her popularity increased—as did her appearances on record, which included albums with pianist Steve Kuhn, whose quartet she joined, and an album, Home, comprising a selection of Robert Creeley‘s poems set to music and arranged by Steve Swallow.

Entirely non-derivative, Jordan is one of only a tiny handful of jazz singers who fully deserve the appellation and for whom no other term will do.

SHEILA JORDAN – voice
RONI BEN-HUR – guitar
HARVIE S – bass

1. The Touch of Your Lips (Ray Noble) 5:27
2. You Must Believe in Spring (Alan & Marilyn Bergman, lyrics Michel Legrand, music) 4:16
3. If I Should Lose You (Ralph Rainger, lyrics – Leo Robin, music) 3:55
4. Workshop Blues (Sheila Jordan) 3:35
5. If You Could See Me Now (Carl Sigman, lyrics Tadd Dameron, music) 5:00
6. Willow Weep For Me (Ann Ronell) 5:32
7.  Inside A Silent Tear (Blossom Dearie & Mariah Blackwolf) 4:40
8. Laugh Clown, Laugh (Lewis & Young, lyrics – Ted Fiorito, music) 4:22
9. Am I Blue (Lewis & Young, lyrics – Ted Fiorito, music) 6:43
10. Lucky to Be Me (Adolph Green & Betty Comden, lyrics Leonard Bernstein, music) 4:55
11. Fair Weather (Kenny Dorham) 4:45
12. Relaxing At The Camarillo (Sheila Jordan, lyrics Charlie Parker, music) 4:10