WORDS / KODY FORD

“He was everything! His talent was so awesome, I thought it had to be supernatural.”

—James Brown on musician and Arkansas native Louis Jordan

He was a man with more than 50 top 10 hits, a pioneer of the music video, a harbinger of hip-hop, an influencer of the influential. And most likely, you’ve never heard of him. That man was Louis Jordan.

A native of Brinkley, AR, Jordan was the son of a music teacher and band leader. As a child, his father taught him clarinet and he even played in his father’s band the Rabbit Foot Minstrels before setting off to New York. While there, he joined the Savoy Ballroom orchestra and began dueting with his fellow band mate Ella Fitzgerald.

He later set upon a solo career and dominated the charts for African American music and eventually crossed over to enjoy success with white audiences. His hits like “Caldonia,” “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens,” and “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” a tune that is often called the first rock ‘n’ roll record. He stood tall with his contemporaries like Duke Ellington and Count Basie and recorded duets with Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, the aforementioned Ms. Fitzgerald. He was a pioneer in cinema appearing in early “talkies” with a short film performance of “Caldonia,” for which the United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp in 2008 for his contributions to black cinema. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jordan as no. 59 on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list. Billboard Magazine ranked him as no. 5 on the list of the most successful black recording artists of the 20th century.

But again, you may not have known that. So why isn’t there a working knowledge of Jordan in Arkansas history? Stephen Koch, host of “Arkansongs,” which can be heard on National Public Radio affiliates statewide, and a life-long fan of Jordan, set out to find out more about “The King of the Jukebox” and spread the word about the man’s legacy.

“I’ve been listening to Louie since I was a toddler — it’s great music for kids,” Koch said. “Driving through Brinkley on family trips as a child, I wondered where the statue of Louis Jordan was located. Of course, there was none, as I was horrified to learn. When I became a newspaper reporter, I began writing about him — and began hosting Louis Jordan tribute concerts for more than a decade to raise funds for a bust of Louie to be placed in his hometown, which we did.”

Koch later wrote bios on Jordan for the Arkansas Biography (University of Arkansas Press) and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas Music (Butler Center Books), produced a documentary film on him called “Is You Is,” wrote a musical on him called “Jump!” and have spoken about him and performed his music all over Arkansas, in surrounding states, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in the Caribbean and in Europe. Koch added, “I’ve been a champion of his music to anyone who would listen for all my life. He’s like family to me.”

Koch has now written the definitive biography on Jordan entitled Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B. The book is published by the History Press of Charleston, S.C., and Koch — also a musician — has been doing readings, speaking about Jordan’s legacy and performing his songs at coffeehouses, bookstores and festivals since its release. “Louis Jordan is the link between the medicine show circuit and 21st-century hip-hop,” he said, “and the man who influenced those who we today think of as influences.”

Given his long-time love of the musician, the book is the culmination of years of research, writing and listening.

Koch said, “[T]he writing process for this began before I could write, bouncing on my pop’s knee to Beans and Cornbread. Which is not something I’d recommend to anyone. And I doubt my dad would be into it at this point, either.”

To learn more about Jordan and the book, visit: historypress.net.

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