Ken Nordine Gave Us ‘Word Jazz,’ and We Will Be Forever Grateful
We first heard THE VOICE on a Levi’s commercial in the early ’70s. The ad was in eye-popping psychedelic colors, and Levi’s were the coin of the realm, so we were drawn in. By that voice. That spectacular deep voice.
Turns out that ad was based on a piece created by Ken Nordine, one of the most remarkable voice-over and recording artists to ever grace the airwaves, and he did the ad voice-over. Nordine, born in 1920, just “shuffled off this mortal coil” on Saturday, February 16th, at the age of 98.
Nordine began his career reading novels, stories and other broadcast items on the radio in Chicago in the ’40s. His reading of a Balzac short story led to its inclusion on a 1955 album title Passion in the Desert. His career exploded in 1957 with his brilliant Word Jazz, and that was followed with four more albums through 1960, including Song of Word Jazz, Love Words, Next, and Word Jazz II.
Nine other albums appeared between 1967 and 2007, not counting numerous reissues and compilations. Of great note was the album recorded after Jerry Garcia recruited Nordine to be the anchor for The Grateful Dead’s 1990 New Year’s Eve broadcast. The album, titled Devout Catalyst, featured Garcia, David Grisman, Howard Levy, Joe Craven, and Jim Kerwin (Tom Waits also appears on two tracks). In the Groove, the jamband show on WMNF 88.5 (Tampa), uses “I Love a Groove” as its theme song every week.
Here is one for us math geeks about the Fibonacci sequence:
When you have a chance, slap on some headphones so that you can pay attention to his brilliant word craft and social commentary. We think that you, too, will “love a groove.”