My daugh­ters’ piano teacher, Chris, is a gift­ed pianist who plays in a band called Louis Louis Louis. They spe­cialise in jazz, swing, big band, boo­gie-woo­gie and jump blues, focus­ing (as their name sug­gests) on the three great Louis’s: Jor­dan, Arm­strong and Pri­ma. Sad­ly, the time con­straint of the piano les­son win­dow (along with the girls’ mor­ti­fi­ca­tion at any con­ver­sa­tion ini­ti­at­ed by me going beyond nor­mal pleas­antries) pre­cludes me from pro­claim­ing to Chris: “I love Louis Jor­dan!”. Yet it’s true: I dis­cov­ered the mar­vel­lous up-tem­po jump blues and rich vocal tones of Louis Jor­dan and his Tym­pa­ny Five many years ago, specif­i­cal­ly from this com­pi­la­tion album here called Out Of Print:

Jor­dan had start­ed his career in the big-band swing era of the 1930s, being a mem­ber of the influ­en­tial Savoy Ball­room orches­tra, led by drum­mer Chick Webb, in New York’s Harlem dis­trict. He spe­cialised in the alto sax, but also played tenor sax, bari­tone sax, piano and clar­inet. He was also a great song­writer, a con­sum­mate­ly good singer, and had a won­der­ful­ly com­ic and ebul­lient per­son­al­i­ty that soon made him stand out from the crowd. This was the same peri­od that a young Ella Fitzger­ald was com­ing to promi­nence and she and Jor­dan often sang duets on stage.

Jor­dan would soon have his own band, pared down to a sex­tet, and a res­i­den­cy at the Elks Ren­dezvous club, down the street from the Savoy on Lenox Avenue. Their style was a dynam­ic, up-tem­po, dance-ori­ent­ed hybrid of ear­li­er gen­res which became known as “jump blues” and was an instant hit with the audi­ences. His band, the Tym­pa­ny Five, start­ed record­ing music with Dec­ca records in Decem­ber 1938, and through­out the 1940s they released dozens of hit songs, includ­ing Sat­ur­day Night Fish Fry, the com­ic clas­sic There Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chick­ens, and the mul­ti-mil­lion sell­er, Choo Choo Ch’Boogie.

From July 1946 to May 1947, Jor­dan had five con­sec­u­tive num­ber 1 songs, and held the top slot for 44 con­sec­u­tive weeks, an amaz­ing tes­ta­ment to his pop­u­lar­i­ty at the time. It’s true to say that his­to­ry has giv­en him a raw deal, since his name is not as wide­ly known as it should be, giv­en the above stats (out­side sophis­ti­cat­ed cir­cles such as our own, of course!).

I’ve select­ed a song (from many can­di­dates) that is typ­i­cal of Jordan’s wit and charm: 1953’s A Man’s Best Friend Is A Bed. As well as being a jump­ing tune, the song extols the com­forts of the bed, and on cold morn­ings like today, who can’t relate to that?

Lis­ten to Louis: 

I want a great big com­fort­able bed, so I can real­ly spread out, and all that
Take it from me Ed, A man’s best friend is a bed

I want a big fat pil­low that’s soft­er than a bil­lowy cloud, for my head
Take it from me Nat, the best head piece ain’t a hat

Yes, a friend will ditch you, a horse will pitch you
A car will give you lots of grief
A dog will bite you, your wife will fight you
But if you want some gen­uine relief

Just get a great big com­fort­able bed, where you can real­ly spread out, and all that
Take it from me Ted, a man’s best friend is a bed

When you’re in trou­ble, wor­ries dou­ble
And every­body’s talk­ing back
Just take your shoes off, you’ll shake the blues off
If you would just let go and hit the sack

In a nice cool com­fort­able bed where you can real­ly spread out, and all that
Take it from me Ted, a man’s best friend is a bed

Ask any sol­dier, marine or sailor
Or any­one who’s been with­out, what do they miss most,
What thought is fore­most? No Sir, you’re wrong!

It’s just a great big com­fort­able bed, where you can real­ly spread out, and all that
Take it from me Ted, a man’s best friend is a bed

Yeah, if you dig me Jack, you’ll hit the sack
This ain’t no junk boy, hit that bunk
Take it from me Ted, a man’s best friend is a bed