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For most of the last decade Jazz Festival weekend has meant one thing at Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge: the annual appearance of New Orleans saxophonist Kidd Jordan. Hurricane Katrina changed that last year, though–Jordan was one of thousands left homeless due to the tragedy. But he returns to Chicago on Friday and Saturday, a few weeks before the Jazz Festival, to spar with his old chum Anderson for the grand opening of the new Velvet Lounge. They’ll be joined by bassist Harrison Bankhead and Jordan’s Crescent City drummer of choice, Alvin Fielder.
Jordan’s tenor is distinguished by a weeping vibrato that navigates the space provided by his cohorts; he alternates between meticulous, fat-toned embroidery of bluesy licks and expressionistic, gorgeously striated cries. On “Unity Call” he delivers a stripped-down, slowed-down twist on Gnawan music, with Drake intoning Arabic vocals in a deeply soulful, chantlike style, and with Jordan answering and elaborating on each recited phrase. I’m sure Jordan will be in a more demonstrative, aggressive mode when he’s joined by Anderson in what promises to be some joyful gigs on August 11 and 12.
