NEW ORLEANS (5/4/2022) - Tomorrow, at the request of Oliver M. Thomas, Councilmember District E, the City of New Orleans is scheduled to proclaim Thursday, May 5, 2022 "Edward "Kidd" Jordan Day in the City of New Orleans." The City Council is recognizing Mr. Jordan for his commitment to the music education programs he developed at Southern University at New Orleans as well as for the numerous famous musicians, including his children whom he has trained during his lifetime. This honor is being bestowed on Mr. Jordan on his 87th birthday.

The legendary saxophonist Sir Edward “Kidd” Jordan is acclaimed internationally as one of the true master improvisers still performing today. Indie Jazz aptly describes Kidd Jordan as a “genteel man” who is probably the single most under-documented jazz musician of his generation, a fact that is even more remarkable when you consider that he is also one of the busiest musicians in the world. Jordan was recognized as a jazz maverick back in the 1940s intent on exploring jazz rooted music's outer reaches.

This virtuoso unselfishly shared his gift of and passion for music for more than 50 years, 34 of which he spent at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) until he retired in 2006 as head of the jazz studies program.

Two years ago, in honor of his 85th birthday, Kidd released his latest album titled “Last Trane to New Orleans” which showcases Kidd Jordan’s Avant-garde style and expresses his life experiences.

Acclaimed bassist William Parker proclaims, “This album captures the history and mystery of New Orleans, it has everything from the church to the gumbo”!

Jordan states, “I play off the surroundings. I play off of people. When I go on a gig, I go with an open mind. I react to music.” The “Last Trane to New Orleans” is a culmination of Kidd Jordan’s body of work – expressed both in his approach to spontaneous composition and the impact of his example on the next generation of improvisers.

The album features Marlon Jordan on trumpet, Edwin Bayard on tenor saxophone, Darrell Lavigne on piano, and Mark Lomax II on drums. The album was produced by Kidd’s daughter Rachel Jordan, and engineered by grandson Paul Sims.

During his lifetime, Jordan has performed on tenor, baritone, soprano, alto, C-melody and sopranino saxophones, as well as contrabass and bass clarinets. He has performed and recorded with a broad array of musicians in styles ranging from R&B to avant-garde jazz, including Lena Horne, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Gladys Knight, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, R.E.M., Art Neville, Aaron Neville, Johnny Adams, Deacon John, Ellis Marsalis, Cannonball Adderley, Alvin Batiste, Archie Shepp, Dewey Redmond, Fred Anderson, Ornette Coleman, Sun RA, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Alan Silva, Ed Blackwell, and Cecil Taylor, among others. He was a member of two prominent New Orleans Big Bands: William Houston, and Herb Tassin.

The Improvisation Arts Quintet, a group he founded in 1975 with drummer Alvin Fielder, bassist London Branch, trumpeter Clyde Kerr, and saxophonist Alvin Thomas which later included, pianist Darrel Lavigne, pianist Joel Futterman, bassist Elton Heron, flutist Kent Jordan, and trumpeter Marlon Jordan has "recorded a remarkable catalogue of free-flowing instinctive interactive avant-garde music in which collective passages of sounds are more than personal freedom, but an evolution of complimentary imagery moving together and apart, each artist becoming an ear, an eye and most of all a heart for the sake of the creative spiritual soul."

Citing him as a visionary educator and performer, the French Government recognized Jordan in 1985 as a Knight (Chevalier) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, their nation’s highest honor.

In May of 2017 Jordan received an honorary doctor of music degree from Loyola University New Orleans ─ a distinction reserved at Loyola for eminent individuals whose lives of achievement and service exemplify the philosophy of Jesuit education.

For the past three decades, Jordan has had a highly productive and close relationship with drummer Alvin Fielder (deceased) and bassist William Parker. Jordan developed a close musical relationship with innovative pianist Joel Futterman back in the early 90's and they continue to perform and record together. Jordan's first recording was titled, "No Compromise" and that very accurately expresses his personal conviction about his music.

A New Orleans resident, Jordan was born in Crowley, Louisiana on May 5, 1935 where he grew up listening to Zydeco and Blues. It was there that he learned to play saxophone from his music teachers; Warren Milson and Joseph Oger, a French-Canadian. After hearing Charlie Parker and Lester Young, he became interested in the art of jazz improvisation.

His growth as a musician later continued at Ross High School in Crowley where he encountered Southern University alums Emmett Jacobs and William Byrd. When Mr. Jordan landed in Baton Rouge from 1952 to 1955 he advanced his music studies under Souther