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 ...