JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter:
MARC JORDAN: I finished my first orchestral CD last year with the Prague Symphony arranged by Lou Pomanti and it was very meaning full to me in that I did mostly cover songs for the 1st time ever, songs that I’ve loved and admired – everything from Hoagy Carmichael to Lou Reed. To feel the orchestra around those songs was special. It was a tip of the hat to my dad Charles Jordan who was a classical singer, but sang with orchestras and big bands in the 1930s and 40s. It was very meaningful for me in that way and I think it is important to do what you love because others will love it too. We are more alike than different.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
MJ: You have to learn to sing to an orchestra. The singer conducts with his or her voice when doing a project like this.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
MJ: I am very Dyslexic and never got a proper musical education. What I have done all my life is from an instinct for what works. Sometimes a handicap is a blessing in disguise. I never do what it perhaps technically right, rather, it’s how it makes me feel. Music for me has to be visceral to make sense to me.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
MJ: I work all the time and I never let go till I feel the song is really right. I also use my voice a bit like a band instrument. I improvise a great deal around the chords much like a horn player would. There is no difference between my work and my life – my life is my work and my work is my life. I would not change a thing. Music has given me my life in the arts. I am grateful and I continue to be able to work, and do concert work which I have grown to appreciate in ways that I never thought possible.
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
MJ: Ravel. Without Ravel, maybe there is no Bill Evans or Duke Ellington or Quincy Jones.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
MJ: When I got my first US record deal, I was thrust suddenly into the studio with the likes of TOTO drummer Jeff Porcaro, and musicians like Donald Fagen, Tom Scott, Steve Lukather, Larry Carleton, David Foster, and on and on. It was an intense boot camp for me, but it changed my life forever.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
MJ: I am working on a duet project with my wife Amy Sky. We’re not sure why we waited so long, but it will be done this year.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
MJ: I think people have to get their heads around the fact that music is not free. Artists must be able to make a living, otherwise the various art forms will be compromised. The royalty rate on streaming must increase dramatically and not go mostly to record companies.