Manitoba Live Music Event

About

Lauded by Charlie Parker as "the girl with the million dollar ears," Sheila Jordan is the living embodiment of the jazz tradition. She is an NEA Jazz Master, the first vocalist ever to be recorded on Blue Note Records, one of the few vocalists to have studied with bebop innovator Lennie Tristano, and a pioneer of the bass-voice duo. Her performances are renowned for her scat abilities and her proclivity to invent lyrics (that even rhyme!) on the spot.

Now, at 92 years old, Sheila is busier than ever spreading the word that bebop lives. During this exclusive event, Sheila will share stories of her life as a woman in jazz - a woman who was friends with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Sonny Rollins, hosting regular jam sessions in her loft. A white woman who had the courage to defend her African-American brothers and sisters against racial prejudice in the 1940s. A woman who raised her daughter as a single mother while embarking on a jazz singing career. A woman of Native American ancestry who experienced the darkness of alcohol and drug abuse but was able to find a “crossing” that saved her from being lost to the world.

After a career marked by true originality and authenticity, Sheila now generously shares her music with thousands of students young and old as an educator and mentor doing vocal jazz workshops internationally. She continues to sing all over the world, touching people with her soulful and stirring renditions of classic jazz standards. She's an artist with an experience like no other.

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A Zoom link will be sent no later than 24 hours before this event.