Ken Nordine Dead at 98 - Word Jazz

[Quad Linda]

RIP Ken Nordine. Known for Word Jazz album series, collaborations w/Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Tom Waits, Bowie, and others. Nordine's voice could be heard on WBEZ Chicago and on a wide variety of commercials, including Levi's.

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-new...ine-dies/71c82188-3b11-432b-93da-91d83affdaad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Nordine
Nordine on Night Music in 1999:

Nordine w/Tom Waits & David Grisman:

 

[timbre4]

Wow, iconic voice. Sad to see him go but what a legacy and long run....

 

[ar surround]

98...God bless him. We should all last that long.

 

[hafquark]

In the late sixties some friends and I went to a local hangout called The Black Brick that was run by a married couple of semi-retired beatniks. They played a lot of tracks from Ken Nordine's Word Jazz albums. A few years ago I bought a a copy of the Rhino CD box You're Getting Better: The Word Jazz Dot Masters, which really brought back a rush of memories.

What a long run he had. RIP, Mr. Nordine.

 

[zabble]

Hearing Word Jazz on WBEZ had been a highlight of many a Sunday night. I feel lucky to have seen him perform with Howard Levy and Chad Wackerman at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago several decades ago.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I always listened to him every chance on NPR some years ago. I remeber his shows being so clever & entertain. One of my faves is when he would pick a color & dissect and represent music. I remember him questioning if mauve is even really a color. Although I go by Scott my first name is actually Roger. I was delighted when I found out he had a piece called Roger. "What's he doing in the basement all the time? He's always soldering & working on electrical things. Maybe he is a ham radio operator" Well I was & I was pretty tickled until it turned quite creepy. Bomb making IIRC.

Sorry to hear the news Linda but thank you for sharing.

 

[Fourplay]

I can't remember how I found out about Nordine - probably from Chris Zingg who owned In Your Ear Records in Boston, but I got into his stuff. I was in Chicago for a job in late May of 1992 and as was my habit I went to a local record store to check their stacks and see who was performing in town. Lo and behold, there was a Ken Nordine performance scheduled for a few days later! I could not believe my luck. I don't think he did live shows more than a handful of times in all his years on earth. Got tix, attended on 6/2/92, and the show was fantastic! It was also videotaped. The video has never been released... maybe now it will be. But some of the audio became a portion of a CD called Upper Limbo. I can be heard whistling at certain points in the applause sections!

Incidentally, for you Deadheads, the engineer at the mixing board that evening was Dan Healy. I got to chat with Dan a little before the show.

I set out to collect all his albums - I have all but one - and ended up calling his answering machine, because he managed his own affairs. My name is Ken, and one day I got a call from a silky smooth bass voice saying "Ken, it's Ken." We talked about product and a few other fun topics. I bought several things from him. Real nice guy!

RIP Ken. It was fun!

 

[Snood]

 

[halbroome]

The great psychedelic band HP LOVECRAFT (yes, I said band) featured him on their 2nd album (their best IMHO):

 

[DoctorO]

He found his way onto the airlist at an FM station that played everything from prog rock to Brit folk in the early seventies... very enjoyable

 

[Fourplay]

And let us not forget Ken Nordine & Tom Waits "The Movie"

 

[jdmack]

Back in the mid 1990s, when AOL discussion forums were a hot thing, I started a thread in the NPR fans group suggesting that they re-run the Word Jazz series. A lot of people jumped in and agreed with me. I think it was there that I acquired the 800 number one could call to order episodes of Word Jazz on cassette. I called the number and . . .OH MY GOD!! IT'S KEN NORDINE ANSWERING THE PHONE!!! I had a brief chat with him, and when he asked me if I was on AOL and if I knew about a current thread about rebroadcasting the Word Jazz series, it was with great pride that I replied," Yes, that's me! I started that thread!!" That's definitely a memory highlight for me.