I first heard Kidd Jordan at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. I spent the day in the jazz tent while my friends wandered the fairgrounds sampling the other musics. I told them to be back at the jazz tent well before the last set – the World Saxophone Quartet. The seats I was saving would be fine most of the day, but I didn’t want to be trying to hold them (it was a lot) when the crowd started pouring in..
The Improvisational Arts Quartet preceded WSQ. Alvin Fielder was on drums, Clyde Kerr Jr on trumpet, and Kidd on Sax. I think Elton Herrin was on bass. IAQ’s audiences over the years could be sparse, but this one was decent because WSQ was up next. In the moments when I wasn’t completely in the music’s grasp, I asked myself who is this guy and why haven’t I heard of him.
WSQ was introduced by Kidd and blew the roof off. JazzFest almost never allowed an encore after closing time, but the audience was standing on the chairs and screaming and refusing to leave. Kidd came out and played with WSQ for the encore.
A few years later, my father and I worked with Kent Rigsby to bring under-recognized jazz musicians to K2U, a Columbus restaurant. Dewey Redman kicked it off. Then we brought Rashied Ali. They were great sold out shows by legends playing their only Columbus shows. Then I thought, Kidd Jordan. This man needs to play Columbus. He’s about as under-recognized as they come. And legendary, but only with jazz musicians. So I called him. Kidd said “You’re trying to reach my son, Marlon.” This was also what he said when REM called. I said no. You’re the one that I want. We said we’d talk at JazzFest.
Kidd was always busy during JazzFest. He led the SUNO Jazz Band, the Heritage School of Music band, and the IAQ. He was entertaining all the friends and ex-students who came through. We kept trying to get together, but it wasn’t happening. Then he called around midnight and asked if he could pick me up in half an hour.
Kidd arrived in a beat up little sedan and took me for a ride. He put in a cassette of his latest recording and we drove off into the darkness of the Tremé. He told me he always drove Veedgie’s (I never knew how he spelled that nickname) old car when she got her new one. New Orleans was warm and muggy and fragrant and we drove with the windows down and Kidd wailing on the little speakers and telling me laconic stories of dead musicians and disappeared clubs. Up there with my car ride with Jimmy Garrison.
Kidd played K2U to a full house with Joel Futterman. At the end of the show, he admired my father’s shirt. Bill took the shirt off and gave it to Kidd. I saw Kidd wear it at a gig in New Orleans. Columbus’s lone jazz reviewer didn’t get it. Not a surprise. It would be another ~15 years before Kidd returned. In the meantime, we talked regularly and I sat in with Kidd’s SUNO band every year until Katrina. My friends thought it was cool to see me on the Acura Stage Jumbotron.