Duke Jordan was a pianist and composer associated with the bebop movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Born Irving Sidney Jordan in New York City in 1922, he worked as a sideman with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and other leading figures of the era before recording as a leader beginning in 1954. His compositional output, while modest in volume, produced one of the most widely played bebop standards. Jordu, first recorded in 1954, gained broad recognition after Clifford Brown and Max Roach recorded their influential version that same year, and it has remained a staple of the jazz repertoire ever since. Jordan also contributed music to the 1959 French film Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He later settled in Denmark, where he recorded prolifically for Steeplechase Records between 1973 and 1985, producing more than thirty albums. Jordan died in 2006 near Copenhagen at age eighty-four.
