Stanley Jordan: The Two-Handed Tapper Returns
Legendary guitarist’s concert offers an “integrated tapestry” of music.
Last June, guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan brought his Jimi Hendrix tribute show to the Hilo Palace Theater, complete with full-throttle fretwork, ear-piercing notes, and wild attire to match the ‘60s icon's striking look. However, at Friday’s Honokaa People’s Theatre (HPT) concert, we experienced a completely different side of Jordan – the graceful solo artist.
Jordan’s song selections for the performance ranged from Mozart to Katy Perry, from Duke Ellington to Sting. There was even an Arlo Guthrie tune tossed in at the end.
Stanley Jorden. Photo: Steve Roby
“I try to weave it all together,” noted Jordan in our interview. “Music is like one big space, and the different styles are windows into that room. You’ll see a different view depending on which window you look through. I look for places in the music where the connection is easy, and then I can move in and out between the different styles and weave them together into what I hope people will hear as an integrated tapestry.”
Jordan’s two-handed tapping technique dates back to his 1985 debut album, Magic Touch. The radio-friendly record became a crossover hit on both jazz and rock stations. Critics praised its experimental approach to classics such as “Eleanor Rigby” and Miles Davis’ “Freddie the Freeloader.” Since then, Jordan has received four Grammy nominations and continues to tour internationally.
“I made this app where you can take ionization energies and turn them into music, and that’s one way to hear it at the atomic level.”
Last Friday, Jordan took the stage wearing a floral-patterned sarong, black yoga pants, and a pair of Birkenstocks, then greeted the crowd of about 200 people – there would've been more. However, the theater had every other row roped off with yellow caution tape to enforce social distancing.
The first section of his show was a 35-minute selection of beautiful, soft instrumentals. He then moved to an oddly placed keyboard at the rear of stage right, with brooms and a mop directly behind him. Not directly facing the audience, he played lead with his right hand on the keyboard while his left hand tapped out a rhythm on the fretboard.
While singing is not his strong suit, he attempted to cover Dinah Washington’s “Invitation” and later delivered a bizarre rendition of Sting’s “Fragile” with an unexpected scream in the middle.
Jordan returned to center stage and launched into a disjointed, untitled instrumental. “Sometimes you have to break all the rules, but not for the sake of breaking them,” Jordan said in his introduction. “The rules suck, we get stuck, and sometimes you have to open it up.” The piece ranged from nightmarish melodies, squealing and moaning, to wrestling the guitar as if it were a flailing fish.
The music portion of the show concluded with a sing-along to Arlo Guthrie’s country-folk song “City of New Orleans,” which was hopelessly mismatched with the rest of the experimental set.
With his “Intimate Evening” solo shows, Jordan ends with 30 minutes of Q&A with the audience. He said that in pre-Covid times, this would be called the meet-n-greet, but now he fields questions from the crowd.
Stanley Jordan. Photo: Steve Roby
It started with softball questions like, “When did you start tapping the guitar?” and “What type of guitar do you play?” Then someone in the back asked, “What’s your favorite sound from nature?” At this point, Jordan put on his physics professor’s cap and delivered a seven-minute explanation of string theory, in which everything in our Universe is made up of tiny vibrating strings, and of sonification.
“I made this app where you can take ionization energies and turn them into music, and that’s one way to hear it at the atomic level,” explained Jordan. “Let’s say this note (playing his guitar) represents Neptune’s revolution around the sun, and this note is Earth; that’s some serious resonance! I’m developing this character called Jazzman Galactica, a deep-space tour guide, so I’m learning about all this stuff. I have another app where you can surf the filaments and sheets of galaxies. I can play a region of deep space when I’m home, with all this equipment hooked up to my keyboard.”
Jordan bowed and thanked everyone for coming. The crowd cheered as he quietly left the stage, guitar in hand.
