Jazz pianist Duke Jordan, regarded as one of the great early bebop pianists, had a long and distinguished career, but he'll always be best remembered for his role in Charlie Parker's 1947 quintet.
Jordan was born in 1922 at the beginning of the era of recorded jazz. Classically trained on piano, he was performing in big band The Savoy Sultans by the time he was 21. It was his work in bebop which eschewed the orchestral jazz of the '30s for a furious, more intricate and improvised sound that put him in the jazz history books. In 1947 he performed and recorded with the Charlie Parker Quintet alongside Miles Davis on trumpet and Max Roach on drums, with recordings of their work now considered jazz masterpieces.
He went on to work with Stan Getz and the Sonny Stitt/Gene Ammons quintet before starting to record as leader in 1954 and putting out his most notable solo composition, 'Jordu', the following year. Jordan continued to work for the next couple of decades but faded into the background of the jazz world somewhat until 1973, when he began putting out regular recordings through Steeplechase. 1978 saw Jordan move to Copenhagen, where he continued to work until his death, aged 84, in 2006.
