Sheila Jordan
vocals
Sheila Jordan, a jazz singer born Sheila Dawson in Detroit, grew up in Barry’s circle there; she sang in a scat trio with Skeeter Spight, and Barry stayed with her on his first trip to New York.
- mentions
- 4
- recordings
- 2
- Barry speaking
- 3
What Barry says
Asked about the contemporaries of his teenage years, Barry brings up Sheila Jordan and the vocal trio she belonged to, with Skeeter and a man whose name he can never remember. He notes that she is still here and says they all grew up together.
At the Jazz Congress in 2020 Barry says that when he and Sheila were young, hearing Bird was everything. Through all the other music that came later, they kept believing in what they believed; she kept it going, and so has he.
Sheila sang in a Detroit vocal trio that could scat and do everything, and Barry says Charlie Parker used to invite the trio to sing with his band. She, Skeeter and one other man were the special people who could scat.
Victor L. Schermer (interviewer); Barry Harris, Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame ¶19Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶111
On his first trip to New York, around 1952 or 1953, Barry went with Doug Watkins, and the two stayed with Sheila, a fellow Detroiter.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶131Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶133Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶110
Barry often tells how she almost got him killed: she and another woman walked into a bar in Hamtramck, a largely Polish town, where he was playing, and went straight to the black musicians. Everyone in the bar turned on them, and the musicians only just got away on a streetcar. He says that kind of prejudice goes way back.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶133Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶135Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶110
Skeeter and Sheila wrote lyrics to jazz tunes. When a high school teacher among Barry’s singers could not get his class to sing, Barry suggested giving them such lyrics. The students loved them and sang at his concert, the start of the children’s choirs he later put on stage.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶314Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶315
Going over the Detroit musicians who shaped him, Barry stops to say he has left out Sheila Jordan and Skeeter, both of them important to him.
In his own words
We still believed in what we believed in. Sheila kept it going and I have kept it going.
Well, let me tell you about Sheila Jordan. See, when we grew up the first time we all heard Bird, that was it
I left out Sheila Jordan, you know. I left out Skeeter, you know these are people who are all important to me.
Sheila was in a vocal trio called “Skeeter, Mitch and Jean” who could scat and do everything. Bird used to invite them to sing with his band.
We stayed with Sheila Jordan, who is a Detroiter, and with Jeannie Dawson. Sheila Jordan almost got me killed, too.
Every mention
4 moments in the recordings, 3 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award
The last train to Monk: an interview
In the interviews and notes
Barry adds Sheila Jordan and Skeeter to his account of Detroit as people important to him, and says that on his first visit to New York he and Doug Watkins stayed with Sheila, who came from Detroit.
He tells how she and another woman walked into the bar in Hamtramck, a Polish town, where he was working and went straight to the black musicians. Everyone in the place turned on them, and the musicians just made it onto a streetcar.
In this telling Barry dates the trip to around 1953, says he and Doug Watkins stayed with Sheila Jordan and with Jeannie Dawson, and names Jeannie Dawson as the woman who came into the Hamtramck bar. He calls it a sign of how far back prejudice goes.
Barry says Sheila, Skeeter and another man were the special people who could scat, and that he learned something about soloing from listening to Skeeter.
Around the time he had a trio with Elvin Jones, Barry says, Detroit also had Sheila Jordan, whose vocal trio could scat and do everything; Charlie Parker used to invite them to sing with his band.
Barry recalls that Skeeter, Sheila and their friends wrote lyrics to jazz tunes, and that he used such lyrics to win over a high school singing class that had refused to sing; those students then sang at his concert.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.