Associate Professor of Jazz Studies, Rodney Jordan ('93 BME), joined the Florida State University College of Music faculty in 2001. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Jackson State University in Jackson, MS where he studied with Dr. London Branch, Alvin Fielder, and Andy Hardwick. Mr. Jordan was the Assistant Principal bassist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Principal Bassist with the Albany Symphony Orchestra (Albany, GA) and served as string instructor in the Dougherty and DeKalb County School Systems in Georgia. He has also served as the bass instructor at Darton College in Albany, GA and Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.
Mr. Jordan continues to maintain an active performance schedule here in the United States and abroad and has performed and recorded with some of America’s finest jazz musicians. Recent performances include: Wigmore Hall with the Marcus Roberts trio in London, England; The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with Rene Marie in Washington DC and The Monterey Jazz Festival with the Scotty Barnhart Band in Monterey, California.
Recent recordings include: Pivot with Melvin Jones (Turnaround Records, 2011); Celebrating Christmas (2011) and Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents Higher Ground: Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert (2005) with the Marcus Roberts Trio; Black Lace Freudian Slip, Voice of My Beautiful Country (Motema Records, 2011), and Experiment in Truth(Independent Release, 2007) with Rene Marie; Say It Plain with Scotty Barnhart (Unity Music, 2009); Keep it Simplewith Curtis Fuller (High Note Records, 2005); When Cooler Heads Prevail with Bill Anschell (Summit Records, 2002) and Ethnomusicology Volume 1 with Russell Gunn (Atlantic Records, 1999), which received a Grammy nomination for best contemporary jazz recording in 2000.