Stanley Jordan at Birdland, N.Y. 2004 Part 1 Video produced by Larry Blumenstein Video Productions. Contact: LarryBlumenstein@aol.com, 917-817-2112. (Copyright 2004)) (c)
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Stanley Jordan (July 31, 1959) is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and pianist.
History
Stanley Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois, Stanley Jordan began his music career at age six, studying piano, then shifted his focus to guitar at age eleven. He later began playing in rock and soul bands. In 1976, Jordan won an award at the Reno, Nevada, Jazz Festival. While earning a degree from Princeton in 1981 he played with Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie.
Jordan has performed at many jazz festivals, including: Kool Jazz Festival (1984), Concord Jazz Festival (1985), and the Montreux International Jazz Festival (1985). During the 1980s Jordan played with Quincy Jones, Michal Urbaniak, and Richie Cole. Since working at Birdland in New York in 1989--1990, Jordan has maintained a lower profile. Stanley Jordan has four Grammy Nominations.
Two-handed tapping technique
Normally, a guitarist must use two hands to play each note. One hand presses down a guitar string behind a chosen fret to prepare the note, and the other hand either plucks or strums the string to play that note. Jordan's touch technique is an advanced form of two-handed tapping. The guitarist produces a note using only one finger by quickly tapping (or hammering) his finger down behind the appropriate fret. The force of impact causes the string to vibrate enough to immediately sound the note, and Jordan executes tapping with both hands, and with more legato than is normally associated with guitar tapping.

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