Sass
Jordan. Have you heard of her? If you’re Canadian, you more than likely have.
From 2003 through 2008, she served as a judge on Canadian Idol. In July of the same year,
at the Rolling Stones SARS Relief Concert in Toronto, Sass shared the stage with the Stones, The Flaming
Lips, The Isley Brothers, AC/DC, Rush, and a few other of her “closest and dearest friends”.
She’s sold over a million albums world-wide and has
worked with and/or toured with some of the biggest names in music including Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Joe Cocker (on the soundtrack
from the hit movie, The Bodyguard, Cheap Trick and Aerosmith. State-side, she’s starred in the lead
role of the Broadway production of Love, Janis. She’s also a winner of Billboard’s
Best Female Rock Vocalist award.
I
view Ms. Jordan as one of North America’s best kept secrets that’s long overdue to be widely known.
Having released seven albums since 1988, the state side release of her latest effort, From Dusk Til Dawn,
will take place on March 16th.
Having
had the privilege of getting to listen to this disc in advance, it was to my immense pleasure that Sass and I chatted by phone
to discuss the project.
The conversation was
literally less than 10 seconds old and I knew that I was really going to enjoy the conversation. She is
a bubbly, engaging person to talk to. Her enthusiasm draws the listener in to anything that she wishes
to talk about.
We started out talking
about the nuances and vagaries of technologies such as Caller ID, airport security and the like. After several minutes of
discussion, we concluded that Caller ID is both a blessing and a curse and that Airport Security is klugy, at best.
If we didn’t have an album to talk about, we would
have, in all likelihood, solved world hunger. Perhaps on another day
Before we pursued the subject of From Dusk Til Dawn,
I wanted to pass along a message from someone special: Sam Andrew from Big Brother and the Holding Company and music director
for the play, Love, Janis, that Jordan starred in.
I had mentioned to Sam that I was going to be interviewing Sass. His
comments echo many of those who have heard or worked with her: “Goodness! What
a singer! This woman is home-fried, strong, comfortable . . . Hey! If she ever wanted
to ever sing with Big Brother, well, that would be a lot of fun! All of the Love, Janis band –
my band – the one I put together for the New York show at the Village Theater on Bleecker Street -
they all wrote me that they all love working with Sass.”
Sass’s response was an awed and humbled, “Wow! It’s
so wonderful to hear stuff like that!”
The
reason this quote about Jordan is sincere is that her earnest, weathered, bluesy rasp has been compared none other than Joplin
as well as to Melissa Ethridge and even The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson. I can’t disagree
with those comparisons but I’d add Bonnie Bramlett and Bette Midler (in “Janis” mode) to the list.
But here’s the
thing: I believe when one listens to Sass sing, and you try to pigeon-hole her voice, you’ll quickly
find that it’s darn near impossible. Why? Listening to her is like listening to a vocal hologram.
Listening to her, I realized that I was saying to myself, “Wow! She sounds like Melissa! No,
she just sounded like Janis! Wait, no! She just sounded like Bonnie Bramlett!”
Listen to her sing and tell me I’m lyin’!
