Sass Jordan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jordan performing in 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Sarah Jordan |
| Born | (1962-12-23)23 December 1962 (age 62) Birmingham, England |
| Origin | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Genres | Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actress, television personality |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, bass |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Labels | Aquarius Records,MapleMusic Recordings,Impact Records,True North Records,Stony Plain Records |
| Spouse | Derek Sharp |
| Website | SassJordan.com |
Sarah "Sass" Jordan (born 23 December 1962) is an English-born Canadian rock singer fromMontreal, Quebec.[1] Her first single, "Tell Somebody," from her debut album of the same title won theJuno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1989. Since then, she has been nominated three more times for Juno Awards. Her albumRebel Moon Blues hit #5 on the Billboard Blues chart. Released 28 April 2023, her latest is a live album from 1994 when she toured withTaylor Hawkins on drums called Live in New York Ninety-Four.
Jordan was born in 1962, inBirmingham,England to French literary professor Albert Jordan and former English ballerina Jean Lanceman. When Jordan was three years old, her dad moved them fromFrance toMontreal for a position as a professor atConcordia University.[2] In 1986, Jordan made her recording debut on theBündock albumMauve as co-lead vocalist on the song "Come On (Baby Tonight)". She soon began working as a session vocalist for other Montreal-based acts, notably forThe Box.[1] Jordan appeared as a vocalist in the music video forThe Box song "Closer Together", although the vocals were recorded byMartine St. Clair. Local acts began recording songs written by Jordan, including the Canadian hit single "Rain" byMichael Breen, which was featured on his 1987 self-titled album.[3] In her early teens, Jordan regularly sang and played guitar with a group of friends inWestmount Park.[4] By the age of 16, Sass Jordan began performing with bands at clubs indowntown Montreal, eventually becoming a vocalist/bassist for high-profile local band The Pinups.[5]
Jordan was first inspired to pursue music after hearingThe Band's 1969 track "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" on the radio. Jordan's parents only had classical music in the house, and she has described hearingThe Band on the radio as a "revelation." She has citedRod Stewart,Judas Priest,Ozzy Osbourne,David Bowie,Tears For Fears,Anthrax and American soul singerAl Green as among her musical influences.[6]
My biggest influences were males. I never really liked female rock singers. I really like bluesy type stuff. My favorite female vocalists are people likeBonnie Raitt and of course all of the black singers likeChaka Khan,Gladys Knight andAretha Franklin, but that's a whole other genre and if I could have sung like that, you would never have caught me dead doing this. The male singers who were my biggest influences were people likeSteven Tyler,Robert Palmer andPaul Rodgers. These guys have such command of rhythm and it is rhythm that makes a great singer, just like it is rhythm makes a great guitar player or a great bass player or a great drummer. It is astounding how underrecognized that is. It is all about rhythm, freezing rhythm and timing. Obviously pitch and the ability to turn a phrase that matters too, but it is rhythm. You can find that artificially in this day and age with technology like beat detective and with the recording technique, so you can move the track over slightly, so it melds in the pocket, mathematically, but a true singer does it naturally. We didn't have that technology when I started out or when any of the guys that were my biggest influencesLou Gramm,Robin Zander,Rod Stewart andLowell George, the slide guitar player fromLittle Feat started out.[7]
Jordan's debut album,Tell Somebody, was released in 1988 onAtlantic Records, featuring the Canadian chart hit singles "Tell Somebody", "Double Trouble", "Stranger Than Paradise", and "So Hard". "They played the "Tell Somebody" video on Much Music a lot," said Jordan. "I remember going in two weeks from relative obscurity to being recognized as the girl in the video." During the 1988–89 chart run of "So Hard", Jordan was also represented on the Canadian charts with her remake of the 1965R&B classic "Rescue Me", which had been recorded for the soundtrack of the filmAmerican Boyfriends.[1] As a result of her quick rise to fame, Jordan relocated fromMontreal toLos Angeles in January 1990 to try breaking into the American music market.[citation needed]
Jordan's second album,Racine, was released in 1992 onMCA Records. Recorded in Los Angeles, Racine is Jordan's highest-selling album, with global sales estimated at 450,000 copies,[8] and yielded the Canadian hit singles "Make You a Believer",[9] "I Want to Believe", "You Don't Have to Remind Me" and "Goin’ Back Again". "Make You a Believer" and "I Want to Believe" were ranked onBillboard magazine'sMainstream Rock chart.[1] Racine has sold 100,000 copies in Canada.
In 1992, Jordan recorded the duet "Trust in Me" withJoe Cocker for the motion pictureThe Bodyguard, after starKevin Costner heard Jordan on his car radio. Thesoundtrack album forThe Bodyguard would sell in excess of 45 million copies worldwide.[8]
In 1994, Sass Jordan releasedRats which she has cited as her favorite album. Rats yielded Jordan's first song on theBillboard Hot 100 with the single "Sun's Gonna Rise". However,Rats failed to build on the momentum ofRacine, and Jordan subsequently was dropped from theMCA Records roster.[1] Jordan then began recording forAquarius Records, acquiescing to the label's request for a more mainstream sound for the albumsPresent (1997) andHot Gossip (2000). "Those are probably my least favourite records," says Jordan. "I think there are some great songs, I just don't like the production at all."[10]
Sass Jordan's success as a judge onCanadian Idol encouraged her to return to recording in 2006, with the release of her albumGet What You Give, recorded at theNashville studio ofColin Linden, who served as producer. Guest artists on the album included bassistGarry Tallent (ofBruce Springsteen'sE Street Band), drummersKen Coomer (Uncle Tupelo,Wilco) and Bryan Owings (Shelby Lynne), guitaristAudley Freed (The Black Crowes) and keyboardistRichard Bell (The Band,Janis Joplin).
In 2009, Jordan entrusted her husbandDerek Sharp with producing her albumFrom Dusk 'til Dawn. The album was recorded in only three weeks and was mixed inLos Angeles. In discussing the songwriting forFrom Dusk ‘til Dawn, Jordan explained, "I was thinking about how human beings seem to be more sensitive and worried about things from sunset to sunrise. When you're alone is when the fear of death really hits you, and I was trying to write songs that were related to the fears of the middle of the night."
In 2011, Jordan recorded the studio project albumS.U.N.: Something Unto Nothing featuringBrian Tichy and Michael Devin ofWhitesnake, andTommy Stewart. The album began when Jordan reunited with Tichy at hisSanta Clarita home studio to write songs.Something Unto Nothing marked the first collaboration between Jordan and Tichy sinceRats. "Burned" was the first song that Jordan and Tichy wrote together for the project, which soon evolved into a full album.
In 2017, 25 years after the release ofRacine, Jordan recordedRacine Revisited featuring reimagined versions of the songs from the original 1992 album. "We pushed the sound back to theMisty Mountain Hop days of the 1970s and made it as if we were actually recording back then," said Jordan. "We would all live together in the studio and record live off the floor [without]Auto-Tune orclick track or anything like that". Of the recording process, Sass Jordan said thatRacine Revisited was "the most fun I’ve had in a while making a record." "Instead of taking Racine from 1992 to 2017, we went from 1992 to 1976".
In 2020, Sass Jordan releasedRebel Moon Blues, her firstblues album.Rebel Moon Blues features covers of blues classics, as well as the original "The Key". In discussing "The Key" on SXMCanadaNow, Jordan said, "That song was written about three weeks before we went into recording. Derek and I realized we should have at least one song that we wrote together on here, and so we came up with "The Key". The whole song came together in an hour. When it's meant to happen it really just flows out."Rebel Moon Blues was critically acclaimed upon release, with American Blues Scene writing, "After three decades in the business, many singers lose that certain something that may have launched their career. Not so with Sass Jordan. Not only is her voice as muscular as ever, I think, like fine wine, it's improved over the years." The album debuted at #5 on theBillboard Blues Album Chart.
Her second blues album called Bitches Blues, featuring the song Still Alive and Well, was released on 3 June 2022.
In April 2023, Sass Jordan's much anticipated live album featuringTaylor Hawkins on drums in 1994 will be available on streaming and vinyl pre-orders. The album was calledLive in New York Ninety-Four. The first single was High Road Easy Live.
| Sass Jordan quoted in theHamilton Spectator27 June 2007 |
|---|
| If you love music and you've been around as long as I have, you pretty much do what you got to do. [I don't] make records to sell anymore. Nobody bloody buys them. I am in the indescribably enviable position of being able to make records here and there if I feel like it. It certainly isn't going to be a living. But I love music. I am a huge, gigantic fan.[11] |
Sass Jordan has enjoyed a successful acting career in theatre and television. Jordan played the lead role ofJanis Joplin in the off-Broadway hitLove, Janis in 2001,[1] and performed in the Toronto and Winnipeg productions ofThe Vagina Monologues.[1] Jordan guest starred in the 1990s family-dramaSisters, which was her last television experience before joiningCanadian Idol.
Sass Jordan served as a judge on all six seasons ofCanadian Idol, beginning in 2003. In a bizarre twist of fate, Jordan had metIdol creatorSimon Fuller twenty years before the launch ofCanadian Idol when Fuller was managing English bands touring inMontreal. In 1981, a band that Fuller was managing had run out of money, and he ended up living in Sass Jordan's basement for two weeks. TheCanadian Idol participants who Jordan is most fond of areCarly Rae Jepsen andMelissa O'Neil.[8]
In 2019, Sass Jordan joinedA Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour. Led byMike Garson, Bowie's keyboard player for forty years, the one-of-a-kind roving tribute toDavid Bowie features Bowie's past bandmates and has received wide acclaim. In discussing her involvement with the band, Jordan said, "I am extremely honored to be part of a show that celebrates the astonishing legacy of one of my ultimate idols,David Bowie, as well as getting to play with some of the master musicians from his bands. Bowie is one of the reasons I wanted to be a performer, and doing this tour is like playing a love letter to his memory every night!". Sass Jordan's first ever concert was David Bowie on hisDiamond Dogs Tour.
Sass Jordan has ventured into the world of alcohol and spirits, with Rebel Moon Whiskey (a blendedCanadian whisky by Dixon Distilleries) and Kick Ass Sass Wine (from Vineland Estates Winery in theNiagara Region). In discussing her branded lines of alcohol, Jordan said, "I am fascinated with the use of alcohol throughout history, in medicinal as well as gourmet types of approaches. It's also a wonderful companion to celebration, and I'm all about celebration - through music, through food, through dance, and art of all kinds!"
In the early 1990s, Sass Jordan toured with 22-year-oldTaylor Hawkins, who later gained fame as the drummer ofFoo Fighters. Of Jordan, Hawkins has said, "Sass taught me how to be in a rock and roll band and gave me my first rock and roll check." On 9 July 2015, Jordan was reunited with Hawkins when she joinedFoo Fighters on stage inToronto to cover "Stay With Me" by theFaces. Before the performance,Dave Grohl said, "If it weren't for Sass Jordan,Taylor Hawkins wouldn't be inFoo Fighters."[12] Jordan is married to musicianDerek Sharp, and they have one daughter.[11]
Jordan was the recipient of theJuno award forMost Promising Female Vocalist of the Year in 1989, and was nominated forBest Female Vocalist in 1990, 1993, and 1995.[13]
Billboard magazine listed Sass Jordan as the Top Female Rock Artist of the Year in 1992.
In 2012, Jordan was appointedhonorary colonel of417 Combat Support Squadron,[14] an appointment she held untilGlen Suitor's appointment in August 2016.[15][16]
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Heat | Billboard Blues Albums | ||||||||||||
| Tell Somebody |
| — | — | |||||||||||
| Racine |
| 174 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Rats |
| 158 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Present |
| — | — | |||||||||||
| Hot Gossip |
| — | — | |||||||||||
| Get What You Give |
| — | — | |||||||||||
| From Dusk 'Til Dawn |
| — | — | |||||||||||
| Racine Revisited |
| — | — | |||||||||||
| Rebel Moon Blues |
| — | — | 5 | ||||||||||
| Bitches Blues |
| — | — | 15 | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN | CAN AC | US | US AC | US Main | |||||||||
| 1988 | "Tell Somebody" | 11 | — | — | — | — | Tell Somebody | ||||||
| 1989 | "Double Trouble" | 12[17] | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Stranger Than Paradise" | 37[18] | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| "So Hard" | 41[19] | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| "Rescue Me" | 44[20] | — | — | — | — | American Boyfriends(soundtrack) | |||||||
| 1992 | "Make You a Believer" | 12[21] | — | — | — | 11 | Racine | ||||||
| "I Want to Believe" | 16[22] | 20 | — | — | — | ||||||||
| "You Don't Have to Remind Me" | 15[23] | — | — | — | 12 | ||||||||
| "Goin' Back Again" | 14[24] | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| 1993 | "Who Do You Think You Are" | 37 | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1994 | "High Road Easy" | 9[25] | — | — | — | 6 | Rats | ||||||
| "Sun's Gonna Rise" | 7[26] | — | 86 | 36 | — | ||||||||
| "I'm Not" | 47[27] | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| 1997 | "Do What I Can" | 20 | 6 | — | — | — | Present | ||||||
| 1998 | "Desire" | 12[28] | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Grey Cup Halftime Show 2001 withMichel Pagliaro | Succeeded by |
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