November 18, 1928 – August 11, 2025

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Sheila Jordan passed away on Aug. 11, 2025 at the age of 96.

She was born as Sheila Jeanette Dawson on Nov. 18, 1928 in Detroit.

Raised in poverty for a long period by her grandparents in Summerhill, Pennsylvania, she moved back to Detroit in 1942 with her mother and in the late 1940s worked in local clubs including with the vocal trio Skeeter, Mitch and Jean.

The teenager wrote lyrics to some Charlie Parker songs and, when she met him, he encouraged her singing.

She moved to New York in 1951, studied with Lennie Tristano, and in 1952 married Parker’s former pianist Duke Jordan; the marriage ended a decade later but gave her a new permanent last name.

It took a long time before Sheila Jordan was able to work as a fulltime singer.

The earliest examples of her that survive are from 1958 on a surviving radio broadcast that features her with the Ralph Flanagan orchestra.

In 1960 she recorded an album not released for over 50 years (simply called Sheila Jordan), she can be heard on one song apiece with bassist Peter Ind (1960) and George Russell (a memorable “You Are My Sunshine” from 1962) and, also in 1962, she recorded her first official album, Portrait Of Sheila, for Blue Note.

But other than a bootleg version of “You Are My Sunshine” with Russell in 1964, Jordan would not be on records again until 1971 (brief spots with Carla Bley) and not regularly until the mid-1970s.

During the 1960s she raised her daughter and worked as a secretary

Finally in the mid-1970s, Sheila Jordan was able to sing fulltime, at first with pianist Steve Kuhn and trombonist Roswell Rudd, and then as a solo artist.

Her Sheila album in 1976 was her first of many sets of duets with a bassist (and one of the first in jazz history), in that case Arild Anderson.

Sheila Jordan pioneered vocal-bass duets in jazz, often utilizing Harvie S or Cameron Brown on bass.

While she did not have a huge range, the singer knew how to make every note count, was masterful at improvising lyrics (a very rare skill), was fearless while remaining tied to the bebop tradition, and never tired of giving credit to Charlie Parker for her career.

Sheila Jordan, who led 23 albums during 1975-2021, was a popular and very influential educator for many decades who helped many young singers along the way.

She was quite active, touring the world, until a year before her passing.

Here is Sheila Jordan in her mid-nineties singing her autobiographical “Sheila’s Blues” with pianist Emmet Cohen, bassist Russell Hall, and drummer Kyle Poole.

-Scott Yanow

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