Born Sheila Dawson on November 18, 1928, in Detroit Michigan, Sheila Jordan is an acclaimed jazz and free jazz singer, pianist, and songwriter. She is best-known for pioneering a scat jazz style often only accompanied by an upright bass. She grew up in Summerhill, Pennsylvania but returned to Detroit in 1940, where she would eventually start playing piano in local jazz clubs. Initially part of a trio who wrote lyrics to Charlie Parker songs, she moved to New York City in 1951 and studied music theory and harmony under Charles Mingus and Lennie Tristano. She became friends with Charlie Parker and married Parker’s pianist Duke Jordan in 1952. After performing in New York clubs in the early 1960s, she signed with Blue Note Records and released the acclaimed album Portrait of Sheila (1963), which featured her versions of classic songs like “Falling in Love with Love,” “When the World Was Young,” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” However, Sheila Jordan stepped away from playing clubs to concentrate on raising her daughter. While still active in music, her forays into the studio and onto the stage were sporadic for the next two decades. She did release a few albums in the mid-to-late 1970s including Confirmation (1975) and Sheila (1978), an album of duets with Arild Anderson. Sheila Jordan began teaching at City College of New York in 1978, a position she held until 2005. She also taught at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Vermont Jazz Center amongst others. Her recorded output picked up in the 1980s with albums such as The Crossing (1984), Body and Soul (1987), and several albums recorded with double bassist Harvie Swartz. Further albums by Sheila Jordan include Lost and Found (1990), Heart Strings (1994), Sheila’s Back in Town (1999), Straight Ahead (2005), Winter Sunshine (2008), and Live at Mezzrow (2022). Finally recognized for her pioneering work in jazz, Sheila Jordon began receiving several honors and awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (2006) and Outstanding Contributions to the Art of Jazz honor from the Bistro Awards (2018). On August 11, 2025, Sheila Jordan died in New York at the age of 96.
