LOUIS THE LEVITATOR

Dang me if the local jazz station doesn't play some cool stuff sometimes. It used to be that when I thought about jazz on the radio, I thought of that "lights out" garbage, or smooth jazz, whatever you want to call it. But this local station, Jazz 88,3, has some pretty good shows. I've been listening to a couple Saturday shows, a Latin jazz show, and Jazz West Coast, with a laid back, but old school laid back, playlist. Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Bud Shank, that sort of stuff. The host, Phil Densen, who, I might add is hoot to listen to, also throws in Ken Nordine from time to time. For that reason alone, during the summer I brought a transistor radio to the beach on Saturdays, because if you're all salty and crusty from the sun, nothing sounds quite as good as Bud Shank followed by Ken Nordine. On the beach.

I listened to another great show today, Rug Cutter's Swing, with swing obviously, but with a little rhythm and blues and early rock 'n roll too. In recent weeks there's been some Bill Haley and His Comets, Bull Moose Jackson, Big Joe Turner, and stuff like that, Good stuff. Today the DJ, Ida Garcia, played Louis Jordan. Holy hell, did it sound good. It occurred to me that I hadn't ever posted any of his stuff. This post was supposed to be about him, but I got carried away gushing about a radio station and now I'm low on gas. If you're unfamiliar with Jordan, just go to Wikipedia, at the very least.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Louis Jordan - House Party mp3 at CalPoly (?)
Louis Jordan - Saturday Night Fish Fry mp3 at Shogohelix
Louis Jordan - Swinging From a Coconut Tree mp3 at Fear You Can Hear
Louis Jordan and Lois Armstrong - You Rascal You mp3 at Heineken (?)
Louis Jordan - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Internet Archive
Louis Jordan - Knock Me a Kiss mp3 at Exxxplosivo
Video:
Louis Jordan - Let the Good Times Roll at YouTube
Visit:
Louis Jordan at Wikipedia
Jazz 88.3 - Listen live online