After playing alongside the likes of Phil Lesh, Stanley Clarke, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee and Dave Matthews Band, guitar legend Stanley Jordan brings his timeless sound to the Caribou Room on April 18. Courtesy: Stanley Jordan
As a young Stanley Jordan absorbed the sights and sounds of a three-day California jazz festival in the late 1960s, he knew he had to find a way into the scene.
“It was like my jazz Woodstock in a way,” Jordan says with a bit of childlike wonder. “I saw Herbie Hancock, Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Stitt and George Benson.”
The world-renowned musician laughs while saying a “socioeconomic downgrade” eventually brought him to the guitar instead of the piano, which he had been playing since age 3, but it seems that was no glitch in the universe. He would eventually go on to win four Grammys playing the instrument, and his 1985 album Magic Touch would spend 51 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
It’s been more than a decade since Jordan released new original music, but this spring he is back with Feather in the Wind, a record exploring resilience in the wake of adversity.
“It’s all about the things we do to maintain constancy in the face of change and loss, including death,” the 66-year-old guitar legend says. “That is the story of the album.”
Describing the inspiration behind his latest collection, Jordan takes a short but deep pause. As he searches for the right words, it’s clear this project means a lot to him.
“A lot of people who were really close to me passed away while I was making the album, including my dad,” he says. “Some of the musicians on the album are no longer with us. B.B. King was supposed to be a guest on the album.”
“We were going to do a blues together, and then he passed away,” Jordan continues. “What I ended up doing was playing the song anyway and playing his part, making it a tribute to my first guitar hero,” Jordan says of King. “Is it as good as if we had actually gotten him on the track? Of course not. But the point is, I think you can hear and feel my love for him, his music and his contributions.”
When it comes to how we carry on in the face of loss, Jordan points to a time-tested musical flourish that serves as a north star on his new LP.
“In music, there’s this thing called the Picardy third. It’s from the classical world, where you have a song that is minor, let’s say it’s C minor,” he says. “Then you go to C major, and there’s a feeling of renewal or an uplifting happiness. That happens throughout the album.”
Locals will get a chance to experience that uplift for themselves when Jordan performs in Nederland at The Caribou Room on April 18.
“That’s such a sweet room,” he says of the local live music institution. “The vibe of the people is so wonderful.”
In addition to playing some new music, Jordan will be returning to the two-guitar set up he’s taken on the road in the past. Employing what is known as the touch technique, he plays both instruments at once, each hand playing their own individual notes.
“There’s stuff with the two guitars that you just can’t do with the one,”” he says. “It’s just pure habit for me.”
For Jordan, preparing for these shows is a process that goes beyond simple rehearsal.
“It’s a deep thing, because I prepare on a lot of different levels,” he says. “There’s not just the instrument and getting the sound right and getting the guitar in tune. That’s just the physical level. On the biological level, I try to fine tune my body for optimal performance. I’ll do things like deep relaxation. Limbering exercise. It’s kind of an athletic feat when you think about it, playing an instrument.”
It certainly is an athletic feat watching Jordan play the melody, harmony and bassline on two different guitars.
“I can’t bring my audience to where I want to bring them if I’m not there myself. I try to transcend the mundane day-to-day experience,” he says. “I usually go out there without knowing exactly what I’m going to do, because then I’m more in the moment.”
This focus on being present allows Jordan to do what he does best: bring healing through music. Despite the hardships he faced while creating Feather in the Wind, he reminds us there is no light without darkness.
“We find a way to go forward,” he says. “We find a silver lining in the cloud.”
ON THE BILL: Stanley Jordan with Mark Diamond Duo feat. Vince Wiggins. 7 p.m. Saturday, April 18, The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Dr., Nederland. $35+
