Let Your Fingers Do the Tapping

From the Jazz Vault Dept.: How nice to note that 35 years ago, almost to the day, I was enjoying my first live-concert exposure to guitarist Stanley Jordan. He’s still going strong, settling in (as I write this) for three days at the Iridium in Manhattan before he takes his new show “Stanley Plays Jimi” around the country. And that’s Hendrix he’s talking about. Here’s what he did in Troy, NY, in 1987.

                                                                                              

WHEN ARTIE SHAW WALKED OFF THE BANDSTAND in 1938, he was fed up with the hit-seeking audience that wanted to hear only the songs it knew. Guitarist Stanley Jordan’s easygoing manner suggests none of that hotheadedness, but he certainly faced a similarly-minded crowd at the Troy Music Hall Sunday night.

Jordan is a young, extraordinarily gifted player. He knows the standards. His own songs also are impressive. But the star of a Stanley Jordan show is his technique, which he refers to as “tapping.”

It’s a method of playing amplified guitar by striking the string at the point of contact with the fingerboard, so one finger does the work of two. And ten fingers therefore sound like a small combo.

Jordan improvises with a well-honed bop voice; there is a lot of Wes Montgomery in his playing. Three years ago he played as the Las Vegas opening act for Bill Cosby; now, with a top-of-the-charts recording behind him, he is the star.

And that’s a mixed blessing. It puts him in the dilemma of attracting a large audience that responds not to his music, but to his hits.Thus, each of the tunes from his “Magic Touch” album got whistles and cheers; “Autumn Leaves” went unrecognized.

Jordan has little stage presence beyond working his guitar. He’ll make a few comments in an “aw, shucks” manner, but when be plays, he is completely immersed in his music.

“The Sounds of Silence” got a typical workout, beginning with a moody introduction before bursting forth with up-tempo variations.

The stage at the Music Hall was flanked with towers of speakers; a smaller pile of equipment sat directly behind the performer.

A single spot, directly overhead, was the sole illumination, so when Jordan worked the apron be was often in an effective silhouette.

“All the Children,” an original, displayed his good sense of ballad; with ‘Sunny,” the fireworks flew.

He’s fond of a multi-movement segue of tunes, often basing the progression on a rhythmic lick that he chases from song to song.

Or a single song, like ‘Eleanor Rigby,” can provide the foundation for contrasts in mood and speed.

While Jordan’s playing makes no secret of his debt to the guitar masters, he’s obviously working to move in his own direction, and his experiments with fragments of rhythm and melody echoed some of the “New Age” stylings that are too easily confused with superficially played music. Happily, Jordan’s work come in a context of jazz knowledge too broad to succumb to the lure of such pap. (Or so we should hope – look what happened to George Benson.)

Jordan paid tribute to Broadway and Coltrane with “My Favorite Things,” and finished off with a fast-stepping original, Sundance,” before the encores began.

The house was packed with fans, mostly of the overcoat-and-sneakers bunch, but Jordan’s music offers a good introduction to jazz once you learn to leave the hits behind.

– Schenectady Gazette, 3 March 1987