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"I did locate that there were some things that I could only do with a piano," said Jordan via phone from his house office in Sedona, Ariz.
"And I still have most of the expressiveness of the guitar at my command. People still, after all this time, don't always think of me as a guitarist because I don't play conventionally. I assure you, however, I do consider myself a guitarist. The tap technique really is just the best of both worlds, a nice in-between. It has always offered a whole new ground."
Anyone listening to Jordan recordings, from his prior Blue Note albums (e.g. 1985's "Magic Touch"), to his latter day serve (2008's "State of Nature") can attest that the guitarist continually finds fresh firmament.
"Compound lines or playing two different lines with the left and the right hand - the possibilities have really opened up everything I execute as a player and as a composer."
Jordan claims that anything can create a huge difference when you're playing guitar with the hammering precision of a piano.
"It could be temperature changes in the room, the humidity outside or the str
A Conversation with Stanley Jordan
Mike Ragogna: Hi Stanley. Although you're credited with organism one of the excellent jazz guitarists, you don't just play in that genre.
Stanley Jordan: I would say that I really just play any caring of music that I like. In the first stage, my first instrument was piano. I studied classical piano and the handle technique that I used, that's also called the tapping technique that grew out of my want to do some of the pianistic things on the guitar. So, when I started doing that, I didn't know anybody else that was doing it. I just sort of whipped it out on my own. Then the other thing is I've been a large fan of blues, r&b and rock music, and that's what initially drew me to the guitar in the first place. Then the great thing about jazz was that it put everything together for me in a way. It had all of the interesting structural complexity of classical harmony, and it also had the really powerful feeling and sensibility of blues and rock music. Jazz is still my core, but I don't really classify myself. I'm classified by whatever song I happen to be playing at the time.
MR: To that point, on your latest album, Friends, the track list
The Popdose Interview: Stanley Jordan
He’s never exactly been a household name, but Stanley Jordan has always commanded a certain amount of attention and respect in the jazz community, particularly among guitarists. To perceive why, all you require to do is expend a few minutes watching him play; his leverage of the eight-fingered tapping style he calls the touch technique is not only visually spellbinding, it’s enabled him to act some fairly amazing things, including playing two guitars at once (as he did on his 1994 album, Bolero) and playing guitar and piano simultaneously.
But Jordan’s music isn’t all flash — in reality, quite often, his exceptional dexterity doesn’t even translate to the songs, which have always been designed around emotion, sometimes to the frustration of fans who just want him to put on a show. He’s always stayed resolutely true to his muse, even when it meant taking a nine-year break from recording — and then returning in the early aughts with a pair of esoteric albums inspired by his studies in music therapy.
Over the last few years, Jordan has edged endorse toward the broader jazz marketplace, and his most rec
Stanley Jordan is an fascinating guitarist who first appeared on the jazz scene decades ago—early eighties I think. He made a splash with an intriguing technique for playing as one plays a piano—he used both hands to tap notes on the fretboard. It was similar to Van Halen’s two handed tapping but its own kind of monster. I’ve owned a scant of albums of Jordan’s and saw him exist once and he’s very impressive.
I stumbled across this recent interview with Jordan. It caught my attention partly because Jordan clearly is a hyper intelligent fellow with a lot of diverse interests. But also, it’s pretty clarify that he’s openly acknowledging being gay or transgendered or some combination thereof. (He doesn’t actually state this, but his appearance, affectation and shots of him performing in more flamboyant attire would come across to make it clear.) I find myself wondering whether the fact that he created a very unique a revolutionary guitar style is in some way related to the fact that he’s not tied down to a traditional sense of self. Like, on some level he’s innately so outside the box (gender-role-wise) that he feels free to throw the box out the window (in terms of his playing.)
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