ABSTRACT
The author conducted interviews with 35 jazz artists between 2009 and 2012 in New York City, with a historical essay on each artist to provide context. He interviewed Sheila Jordan on February 24, 2012. Sheila Jordan, born November 18, 1928, grew up in a coal mining town near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and moved to Detroit at age fourteen. Her life changed when she heard a recording of Charlie Parker on a jukebox in her high school cafeteria. Despite severe racial prejudice in Detroit, Jordan persisted in learning to sing bebop from the people that created it by hanging out at Afro-American clubs around the city. Moving to New York City in the early 50s to get closer to the bebop music scene and to Charlie Parker, Jordan's interview offers a firsthand account of the 52nd Street scene along with witnessing after-hours jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem.
