Marc Jordan

John Beaudin : Hello Marc. It is really great connecting with you again.

Marc Jordan : Thanks John.

John : For the website, I will tell you this to begin with. I started asking a lot of Smooth Jazz musicians even some New Age and World musicians this certain question and it's "Do people think you are rich because you are a musician?" You know what most of them say, "Yeah, of course I've got no money and I drive a beat up bug" but in your case my friend, I think that is a little different. Let's just say you have done well for yourself!(laughing)

Marc : (laughing) I've done okay. I have been lucky.

John : I think that it is more then luck but anyway are you working on a new album right now?

Marc : Yeah, I am working on a new Jazz record and it is almost written. I will start recording it, I don't know, probably early in the New Year.

John : When you write though do you have a basic rough track?

Marc : Yes, I usually write especially the Jazz stuff I always co-write and we work out a little simple track and then I take it home and I write the melody and lyric. Then later we go back into the studio and play it with real players.

John : So when did you say it's going to be finished?

Marc : It will be out probably in the spring.

John : So you're sticking to basically the Jazzy stuff?

Marc : Yes.

John : You know it is interesting about the Jazz side of Marc Jordan because when I bought your first couple of albums when I was growing up, I considered you in the category with Steely Dan. I remember buying Bobby Caldwell and I kind of put you in that category, that Jazzy L.A. sort of feel. Were you going for that consciously?

Marc : Well, I wasn't going for it but I think it was what those guys saw in my music when they signed me in L.A. I listened to probably more jazz growing up than Pop music so I understood the idiom but I was also drawn to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. I wanted to write meaningful lyrics and in a lot of jazz the lyrics are clever but they are seldom great lyrics in that they don't really say a lot and maybe intimate more than they say. Some of the American song books I would categorize them as clever lyrics rather than great lyrics and I wanted to explore the language a little more so I got into Pop music. I think that working in the background always in my stuff was the Jazz and in fact the way I phrased my Pop music stuff had a kind of swing, jazz thing to it which kind of hurt me at Pop radio.

John : But it grabbed me for instance and I think that's why we connect the dots. People have been buying and listening to your stuff for a long time. We say, "What do you mean he is Jazz now?" I have always considered you in that category and you were like flirting with it or whatever but it was in your mind.

Marc : Always, it was always there. When I studied guitar, I studied Jazz guitar and my second record the one I did with Jay Graydon, the chords were very complex and very jazz oriented. I tried to put it together with a Pop inspiration and play it live and it didn't sound that good and the chords were too complex to sound great in a big hall.

John : I remember Don Henley did that big special for his last album and he says, "I don't know how I get from beginning to end of one of these things, from recording an album and putting the project together." What is the span for you usually for an album?

Marc : Well, it can take an awfully long time with me. I have made about ten records over a twenty year period and it takes me at least a year to write a record.

John : How many songs do you write in a year?

Marc : I usually write maybe twenty-two songs.

John : Well, you know that most people probably have the image of you as writing hundreds a year you know that?

Marc : Yeah, and no I don't.

John : Because you are known as a very successful songwriter. The Rod Stewart thing I know comes up all the time and how many songs has it been for Rod Stewart now?

Marc : Four songs now.

John : By the way, we play the version of 'Soul on Soul' that you do with Amy (Sky)on 'The Breeze.'

Marc : Oh really, that's great.

John : At first when I heard it I didn't recognize you. I didn't even know it was your song!

Marc : (laughing)Yeah?

John : Yeah, I know I am supposed to be on top of the game so whatever is going on there. You told me around the time of 'Reckless Valentine' what was that in 1993? I remember when I met you then you told me that Amy(Sky) had helped you put more emotion into your writing.

Marc : I think getting married and having children was the thing. I didn't have much of a life before I got married. I didn't have much of an emotional life and that changed as it does when you get married. I think women add a dimension to your life and open certain doors that you dare not go through alone and certainly children do too.

John : It is the next level thing. I mean the relationship is another level and all of a sudden the children expand the whole damn thing.

Marc : Yes, it is something that your body and your chemistry kicks into that only kick in when you have kids. It's a door that parents go through that nobody else goes through. I think it definitely was reflective in my music, not specifically but in terms of how deep I was able to go.

John : Well, you know the person who got us together here, Linda(Nash). She told me something that I hardly ever hear and it is not because it doesn't happen but she said, "By far, you are the best Dad she has ever known in her life!" What a nice thing to say.

Marc : That is a wonderful thing to say.

John : You must take fatherhood very seriously for her to say that?

Marc : It is not hard really because I am very lucky and I work at home. I take little breaks and I can be with the kids and check in with them many, many times a day which is good, when they are not at school. You just love them so much it is easy to be a good Dad I find.

John : I have asked that question to a lot of people and I think you are being humble here because a lot of musicians say, "Well, you know I am away a lot." Well, they are away a lot and I understand that but it's like they come home and they say, "I have nothing left." You work at home and you have a studio in your house right?

Marc : Yes.

John : Are you living in the same place you bought with Amy in Toronto when I first met you?

Marc : No, we moved since then but not far from where we were living when I first talked to you.

John : I want to ask you another Amy question. How did you meet her?

Marc : John Capek, my writing partner had a barbeque and invited many Canadians over that were down in L.A. at the time. I remember Dan Hill was there and a couple of comedians, Christopher Ward, Dave Tyson and a bunch of people. Amy was living in Nashville at the time but she had come to L.A. to work with John and I met her there. The odd thing was that when we started talking I realized that she knew my father and she knew my younger brother.

John : Wow, did you look at her in that way? Was it like that right away or what?

Marc: Yes, I was pretty interested right away(laughing).

John : Well, congratulations. You know an interesting thing here at 'The Breeze' is it gives me a different perspective and I have been doing evening shows, doing Smooth Jazz and sort of New Age things since 1986 and there has not been a lot of interest . Now all of a sudden Hamilton(The Wave)is there and they are playing your stuff, we are playing a lot of your stuff and we are playing things that might not have been heard on radio for awhile like your first three albums. We are getting calls from very young ladies and men of course who are saying, "Who is that and where can I buy that?" as if it's a brand new song.

Marc : No kidding.

John : I find that's really refreshing to hear.

Marc : That's amazing. I am amazed.

John : Do you find that the younger demographic will show up at your shows?

Marc : Yes, I think that people my age come and sometimes they bring their kids. The festivals for sure I know there's a lot of young kids.

John : Tell me, 'Survival' the original, that's not available any more is it?

Marc : You can get it off my website. I sell the original on CD.

John : We have had a few calls from people who knew you back then and they think this is a nice version but what about the original can you play that.

Marc : Yeah, you can get it on the website.

John : This has only happened once for me but last time we had talked I interviewed two people on the same day and (Bruce)Hornsby came in that day when I talked to you and I know that you guys are on RCA together. Have you heard any of his stuff in the last couple of years?

Marc : I heard he just put out a new CD, which I haven't heard.

John : 'Big Swing Face.' It is kind of bluesy and it's strange when I got it I thought of the interview I had done with you and him on that same day and I had wondered if you had heard it. I don't know if you'd like it but it's quite different and there is no piano. It is really, really different but I thought of you.

Marc : I heard David Bendeth had a lot to do with that record. Do you know who he is?

John : Yes, I know and he produced it.

Marc : Oh, he did?

John : It didn't sell at all because Bruce is doing what he wants to do and on some level I don't think he cares if it sells millions. I applaud him for that and I just talked to him last December and he's still practicing hours a day!

Marc : Well, he is a brilliant musician and I am amazed. I have known him since 1980 and I remember him playing in clubs in L.A. then and I remember when he first got his deal. His artistry has unfolded like a beautiful flower and he has just progressed and progressed.

John : You see this is the mutual admiration society because he speaks very highly of you.

Marc : Oh, that's nice.

John : Like I said it didn't sell but I am actually writing a review on the album now and I just think it is unbelievable and I love it. What are you listening to these days?

Marc : I really like Nora Jones record and I just got a couple of new Chet Baker CD's that I really like.

John : I hear Chet Baker in your stuff.

Marc : Oh yeah, for sure. (Laughing)

John : Like a lot!

Marc : I like his coolness but he was maybe a little more detached than I am. I think that was just the kind of person he was and he certainly had some problems.

John : Yep, he was a troubled guy.

Marc : You know it was interesting to hear his playing depending on what kind of shape he was in. Sometimes he would play and sounded real rough and then sometimes he would just do something and you were amazed.

John : We hear it a lot in jazz and not only in jazz but about a lot of people who are so incredibly troubled and have substance abuse. Somehow because I have been so close to jazzy people I have paid more attention to that. Are you the typical musician who stays up late at night or do you go to bed at normal hours?

Marc : No, I stay up late.

John : I think everyone does, you kind of have to. I was in Toronto and it was in the 80's and I was trying to sell some show to advertisers and Burton Cummings was across the street in a fancy hotel. Anyways, I phoned his manager and I said, "Listen is Burton available at 11am?" I had just gotten into radio and the manager just laughed at me and I found out he doesn't get up until 3pm!

Marc : (laughing)I am not that bad. I get up at a fairly reasonable hour but I go to bed late.

John : Marc Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me.

Marc : Thank you John. All the best.

Recorded by phone Oct 24th 2002