Stanley Jordan was never one to flood the market with new music (throughout his career, he seemed to average a new album every three or four years), but even he didn’t plan on the 11-year gap between his last album, 2015’s Duets with Kevin Eubanks, and his latest, Feather in the Wind.
“The album was originally made for Mack Avenue Records as part of my deal with them,” Jordan says, “but it didn’t really fit their stylistic A&R policy or whatever, so it kind of sat in limbo for a while. The way we resolved it is I now own the rights to the album, and I’m putting it out through my own channels.”
Ahead of the album’s release, Jordan issued two brilliant – and brilliantly distinctive – singles. On the sumptuous ballad Meditation, he trades his signature two-handed touch technique for a flatpick.
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Playing a Vigier electric guitar that beautifully mimics an acoustic, he weaves a joyous dialogue with legendary Brazilian vocalist Milton Nascimento. By contrast, the high-energy Flight of the Eagle is a spectacular, one-take slice of classic jazz-rock fusion that features Jordan masterfully blending pick and touch techniques.
Beyond the stellar musicianship, however, the album carries a profound, bittersweet weight, as several of Jordan’s collaborators on the project have since passed away. He points to Flight of the Eagle, where he is backed by a “dream team” of drummer Kenwood Denard, keyboardist Delmar Brown and bassist T.M. Stevens – the latter two of whom are no longer with us.
But the album’s most poignant tribute is a planned duet that never was. For years, Jordan had discussed collaborating with his first guitar hero, B.B. King. They finally settled on an unexpected song choice: a cover of the Doors’ eerie classic, Riders on the Storm.
Tragically, before they could record together, King fell ill and passed away. Rather than scrap the track or hire another guitarist, Jordan completed the recording alone as a tribute, playing King’s parts himself.
“It’s my imaginary version of my dialogue with B.B.,” he says. “Of course, it would’ve been better to have him do it himself, but this is what I did, and I think people can feel the heart in it.”
For Jordan, that emotional resonance is the thread that binds Feather in the Wind together. “A lot of what the album is about is the things we do to find constancy in the face of loss and change and death and all the stuff that the world throws at us,” he says.
We tend to associate you with your touch technique, yet you also play with a pick. How do you make the distinction?
It has to fit the song. My two-handed touch technique is perfect for solo pianistic counterpoint, but on Meditation I had a keyboardist covering those textures. Playing with a pick lets me focus purely on a single line to create a vocal-like dialogue with Milton Nascimento.
Did the touch technique conceptually change how you play with a pick?
Definitely. I actually mastered the pick before developing the touch technique. Now, I find myself trying to recreate touch-style ideas using a pick. For example, I’ve been practicing sweep picking to capture some of that same fluidity.
In the ’80s, you began a long, professional relationship with record exec Bruce Lundvall. Before you signed to Blue Note, you actually turned him down when he was running Elektra Musician. What was going through your mind?
It wasn’t that I turned him down per se – I just wasn’t ready. I had a baby on the way and was living in Wisconsin, not New York. Bruce would call me every month and say, “I just want you to know you’ve got a record deal waiting for you here.” People told me I was crazy to wait, but I wanted to make sure the timing was right.
I was also paying close attention to how record labels operated. I had already released my independent record, Touch Sensitive [1982], so I was tuned into the manufacturing side. I noticed Elektra Musician was using a two-color print on their otherwise gorgeous album covers. Even though it was elegantly done, it made me question how much the parent label was truly invested in the imprint. I wondered, “What happens if I sign and then Bruce leaves?”
I’ve never heard of an artist raising the issue of printing techniques when deciding whether to sign a contract.
Exactly! So anyway, eventually, the time came. I walked into Bruce’s office with my attorney and said, “Okay, I’m ready.” Bruce looked at me and said, “Before we talk, I’ve got to tell you something. I don’t work here anymore. I got a call last night – Capitol-EMI wants to revive Blue Note, and they want me to run the whole thing. I want you to be the first artist I sign.” That’s how it happened.
Did Bruce give you total autonomy to record whatever you wanted?
He did. Bruce was incredibly artist-friendly. This was the same guy Bobby McFerrin approached about doing a solo, unaccompanied vocal album. Bruce told him, “I don’t think that’s a good idea for your first record.” Bobby replied, “But Bruce, I have to do the album that way. That’s what God wants.” Bruce just shrugged and said, “Who am I to argue with God? I guess you’d better do the album your way.” The rest is history.
Your first album for Blue Note, 1985’s Magic Touch, spent 51 weeks at Number 1 on the jazz charts. You were only about 25 at the time. How did that kind of success not completely mess with your ego?
I had a plan. I had been a street musician in New York, and I’d developed a strategy to succeed in the music industry. It worked – even better than I expected – and there was certainly some luck involved, like choosing the exact right day to sign with Bruce. But ever since I was a teenager, I’d viewed myself as an underground musician.
I thought of myself as the kind of artist where, if I was lucky, “people in the know” would appreciate me, but not necessarily the masses. When the mass success hit, I enjoyed it, but I never counted on it.
My instinct has always been to focus on the art and let the chips fall where they may. To appreciate what I do, it helps to know something about it. It’s not just listening. On Magic Touch, we had a disclaimer from the critic Bill Milkowski on the jacket: “Don’t be deceived. This is just one artist playing.”
When we think of guitarists who totally expanded the instrument’s vocabulary, we think of Eddie Van Halen and you. Did you and Eddie ever trade notes?
We did. We participated in a documentary concert honoring Les Paul, where a huge group of us played with him. There was Brian Setzer, B.B. King, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Miller, David Gilmour and me. We jammed together at the end. A while later, Eddie and I ran into each other at a NAMM Show, and he said, “Let’s go jam!” But in the chaos of the convention, someone spun him around, he got pulled away and it didn’t happen.
During that Les Paul tribute, I played a solo piece of my song Flying Home. To me, it was one of my best performances ever, though they didn’t end up putting it in the final film. Right after I played it, Eddie came up to me and said, “I’m speechless. I had no idea you were that good.” Hearing that from him was incredibly special.
How did it come about that you played on a Kenny Rogers record?
I love playing with other people. I treat it like a research project to figure out how to make my style complementary to theirs. Playing with Kenny Rogers is a great example.
I worked with him on a track called Morning Desire, which ended up being the Number 1 country track of the year. George Martin was producing it. Kenny had seen me on The Johnny Carson Show and was looking for something to make his track stand out so it wouldn’t be compared to Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire.
Being in the studio with George Martin was incredible. I remember him practically pulling at me going, “I want that Stanley stuff. Give me more of that Stanley stuff!”
He was very energetic. He told me, “Pretend this is your album. What would you play?” The song is about a man who doesn’t want to go to work. He just wants to stay home with his lover and listen to the rain. So, with my guitar, I became the rain.
Are Vigier guitars still your go-tos?
Oh, yeah. Vigier is still my overall favorite. However, I’ve recently gone back to my “tandem guitars” setup where I play two guitars simultaneously. For the right-hand guitar, I’m using a PRS Santana. I love its short-scale length.
The strings feel loose, which makes the touch technique much easier. I also have an ESP James Hetfield Iron Cross guitar that I’m getting adjusted. It’s a great heavy metal guitar with a great feel for the right hand.
Are we gonna see a metal album?
Yes, it’s coming! With my tandem guitars, I can run different distortion pedals and wah-wahs on both guitars at the exact same time. It’s insane what you can do. I’ve also wanted to do a flame technique.
I once visited a science museum where they hooked me up to a Rubens tube, meaning my guitar was literally controlling and shaping physical fire
I once visited a science museum where they hooked me up to a Rubens tube, meaning my guitar was literally controlling and shaping physical fire. You can find the video of it on YouTube.
That we’ve got to see. So you’re going to make a metal record with you operating two distorted guitars, flames and fire and all that. What else are you working on?
I’ve been developing a concept called Stanley Jordan’s Live Tronica. Essentially, I’ll act as a DJ and a live guitarist simultaneously. I have a rig with two computers running Ableton Live, which allows for intense, real-time looping.
I use a massive array of foot pedals to DJ with while I’m playing guitar with my hands. The secret sauce is that I’m bringing complex, harmonically interesting jazz theory to the electronic music space. I want to bring a totally new, age-diverse audience into the clubs and festivals. It’s on the way.
