Ken Nordine is a voiceover/recording/word jazz artist. He was born in 4/13/20 in Cherokee, Iowa. He's done voiceovers for TV and radio commercials, produced several spoken word albums, he's hosted the Now Nordine and Word Jazz series for Chicago Public Radio for what I can tell 40 years, and he's been reworked by a few techno groups most notably DJ Food on the "Kalaedescope" album. Wikipedia says that he was Linda Blair's vocal coach for her role in "The Excorcist" and that Fred Astaire danced to his "My Baby" on a TV special. I love this guy. I could listen to him for hours. The first I heard him was on RE Search: Incredibly Strange Music (excellent if you can find both CD's). The track was "Yellow" from his Colors album. Colors has grown to be one of my all time favorite albums. It's a series of very trippy and mystical poems/observations/fake histories on the relationships of colors and how they feel. If you haven't you have to check out his "An Ageing Young Rebel" track redone by DJ Food. It's incredible. I've got an original and I have to say DJ Food added some nice flavor to it. He's got a ton of albums and lots of recordings out there. I read that you could get 375 tapes of his radio work on Snail Records but I've found 3 different addresses and no website for this mystery label. I'll keep looking. I love this guy. His work is really trippy and punny but not in a goofy way. More in a "woah I saw what you did with that word and it was weird" kind of way. His work gets in your head. I can't recommend him enough. I wanted to highlight some stuff I've dug up for all to enjoy if you are uninitiated. Check out the Colors album also. You won't be disappointed. Unless you don't like spoken word jazz. Here are some links:"Ken Nordine's Word Jazz site":http://www.wordjazz.com/. It also features his new podcast of Word Jazz."Ken Nordine's Wikipedia entry":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Nordine"JazzSpot feature":http://www.jazzspot.com/jazzspot/reviews/ken_nordine_1.htmOn "UBUWEB":http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/02-1.html Strictly Kev (of DJ Food) submitted "Six Commercials in Search of a Client":http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/365/02/365-Days-Project-02-05-nordine-ken-group-six-commercials-in-search-of-a-client.mp3 for the first 365 Days Project. Check out the post and the track. Here's some tracks I found on the intertubes:"My Baby":http://www.tuxjunction.net/media/mybaby.mp3"Incredible But True":http://www.oldradiofun.com/samples/Incredible_but_True.mp3"When You Are Born":http://downloads.betterpropaganda.com/download.php?file=Ken_Nordine-When_YouXre_Born_128.mp3"Emperor of Ice Cream":http://www.ramenrules.com/music/Ken%20Nordine%20-%20Emperor%20Of%20Ice%20Cream.mp3"Mr. Slick":http://www.ramenrules.com/music/Ken%20Nordine%20-%20Mr.%20Slick.mp3"Angel's Lament":http://www.recordrobot.com/Angel's%20Lament.mp3"Cracks In The Ceiling":http://www.recordrobot.com/Cracks%20in%20the%20Ceiling.mp3"Ballad of The Final Page":http://www.recordrobot.com/Ballad%20of%20the%20Final%20Page.mp3And here is a Levi's Jeans commercial he did in 1977. I used to have this on a VHS of trippy 70's cartoons. Wish I still had it. Thank heavens for YouTube!1977 Levi's Jeans Commercial
B42 says
excellent
I have heard Ken before, at first I had to jar my memory but he did a thing on the beat poets or he was one I guess...another worthwhile artist, yes.
B42 says
Devout Catalyst, I had this, or I have it, let me see, it must be around here somewhere or maybe it's over there, let me see, and in the meantime....
Mog
On....
fairportfan says
There's a Nicely dd Disney-related project from the 80s - *Stay Awake*, it's called - a tribute album to music from Disney films. Nordine does a routine that begins "Damn everything but the circus..." to (Hididdley-dee) An Actor's Life for Me from *Pinocchio*.
(The other main track i recall is *Tom Waits* doing an almost-terrifying Heigh - Ho! from *Snow White*.)
ookpik says
Wow. I've had the Colors album for years, but I somehow never looked up any other work by Ken Nordine. (Wasn't it you talking about the advantages of cassette mixes? Colors is a great go-to album for short things to stick on the end of a side. "RUSSET... is the fast one. RUSSET... is the slow one." Good times.)
That Levi's commercial is off the scale. My mouth fell open when the "future" kicked in and the pants started doing summersaults in the air.
So thanks for all this!
fistula spume says
No problem ookpik. You are right about the mix thing with Colors. I've used colors when I needed filler. I like Yellow the best but they're all good. How can you hate a color? He did another Levi add but I couldn't find it. It's even more trippy and cartoonish. The ads were made by the same people who made the psychedelic 7Up commercial that looks like Yellow Submarine.
Steve I'm not sure about the Phil Lesh thing. I'll look it up.
Fairportfan that Disney album sounds awesome. I'm so going to track that down. Muchas Gracias.
Happy VD to all!
golux13 says
I "discovered" Ken Nordine when I moved to Chicago. It's kind of nice -- though definitely trippy and sometimes a little eerie -- to turn on the radio while driving home late on a Sunday night and hear "Word Jazz."
Side note to fairportfan -- That Stay Awake album is absolutely great, but until you mentioned it, I never connected it with Ken Nordine. Thanks for that.
fistula spume says
That sounds cool. I wish they had it on NPR in my town. I'll settle for whatever scraps I can get, though. I'm going to track that Stay Awake album down. I can't get the image of Tom Waits singing Heigh Ho out of my head.
Anonymous says
i don't like spoken word jazz. i like joe frank is kinda annoying... but that commerical, yu posted makes me think this guy has something to him that is.... well, special
fistula spume says
No problem. I was surprised by how much I found. It started off just wanting to know what he was up to and it turned into this post.
Ken Nordine is a voiceover/recording/word jazz artist. He was born in 4/13/20 in Cherokee, Iowa. He's done voiceovers for TV and radio commercials, produced several spoken word albums, he's hosted the Now Nordine and Word Jazz series for Chicago Public Radio for what I can tell 40 years, and he's been reworked by a few techno groups most notably DJ Food on the "Kalaedescope" album. Wikipedia says that he was Linda Blair's vocal coach for her role in "The Excorcist" and that Fred Astaire danced to his "My Baby" on a TV special. I love this guy. I could listen to him for hours. The first I heard him was on RE Search: Incredibly Strange Music (excellent if you can find both CD's). The track was "Yellow" from his Colors album. Colors has grown to be one of my all time favorite albums. It's a series of very trippy and mystical poems/observations/fake histories on the relationships of colors and how they feel. If you haven't you have to check out his "An Ageing Young Rebel" track redone by DJ Food. It's incredible. I've got an original and I have to say DJ Food added some nice flavor to it. He's got a ton of albums and lots of recordings out there. I read that you could get 375 tapes of his radio work on Snail Records but I've found 3 different addresses and no website for this mystery label. I'll keep looking. I love this guy. His work is really trippy and punny but not in a goofy way. More in a "woah I saw what you did with that word and it was weird" kind of way. His work gets in your head. I can't recommend him enough. I wanted to highlight some stuff I've dug up for all to enjoy if you are uninitiated. Check out the Colors album also. You won't be disappointed. Unless you don't like spoken word jazz. Here are some links:"Ken Nordine's Word Jazz site":http://www.wordjazz.com/. It also features his new podcast of Word Jazz."Ken Nordine's Wikipedia entry":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Nordine"JazzSpot feature":http://www.jazzspot.com/jazzspot/reviews/ken_nordine_1.htmOn "UBUWEB":http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/02-1.html Strictly Kev (of DJ Food) submitted "Six Commercials in Search of a Client":http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/365/02/365-Days-Project-02-05-nordine-ken-group-six-commercials-in-search-of-a-client.mp3 for the first 365 Days Project. Check out the post and the track. Here's some tracks I found on the intertubes:"My Baby":http://www.tuxjunction.net/media/mybaby.mp3"Incredible But True":http://www.oldradiofun.com/samples/Incredible_but_True.mp3"When You Are Born":http://downloads.betterpropaganda.com/download.php?file=Ken_Nordine-When_YouXre_Born_128.mp3"Emperor of Ice Cream":http://www.ramenrules.com/music/Ken%20Nordine%20-%20Emperor%20Of%20Ice%20Cream.mp3"Mr. Slick":http://www.ramenrules.com/music/Ken%20Nordine%20-%20Mr.%20Slick.mp3"Angel's Lament":http://www.recordrobot.com/Angel's%20Lament.mp3"Cracks In The Ceiling":http://www.recordrobot.com/Cracks%20in%20the%20Ceiling.mp3"Ballad of The Final Page":http://www.recordrobot.com/Ballad%20of%20the%20Final%20Page.mp3And here is a Levi's Jeans commercial he did in 1977. I used to have this on a VHS of trippy 70's cartoons. Wish I still had it. Thank heavens for YouTube!1977 Levi's Jeans Commercial
Comments (16)
Why in Sam's Hell am I always following Mike on the comments?
At least he's not getting the last word.
Nice track, but of course you know that already.