2 min listen
"Composers & Computers" is back: Stanley Jordan, computer musician
"Composers & Computers" is back: Stanley Jordan, computer musician
ratings:
Length:
3 minutes
Released:
Mar 12, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Stanley Jordan. Innovator of the two-handed touch technique to coax a sweet, percussive sound out of an electric guitar. After graduating from Princeton University in 1981, he went on to become an acclaimed jazz musician known for his guitar pyrotechnics.
He’s played on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He’s been nominated for four Grammy awards. His debut album, Magic Touch, sat atop the Billboard jazz charts for more than 11 months. He’s played to audiences around the world, crossing genres with virtuosity and a hunger for musical adventure.
But forty-five years ago, if you were looking for Stanley Jordan on any given midnight, you might just find him in a sub-basement laboratory in the Engineering Quadrangle. Because his passion at the time, the thing that attracted him to Princeton in the first place, was computer music.
This new, second season of “Composers & Computers” tells the three-part story of Stanley Jordan’s time at Princeton, and how, despite years of touring and building his reputation as a jazz master, he never really stopped being a computer musician.
He’s played on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He’s been nominated for four Grammy awards. His debut album, Magic Touch, sat atop the Billboard jazz charts for more than 11 months. He’s played to audiences around the world, crossing genres with virtuosity and a hunger for musical adventure.
But forty-five years ago, if you were looking for Stanley Jordan on any given midnight, you might just find him in a sub-basement laboratory in the Engineering Quadrangle. Because his passion at the time, the thing that attracted him to Princeton in the first place, was computer music.
This new, second season of “Composers & Computers” tells the three-part story of Stanley Jordan’s time at Princeton, and how, despite years of touring and building his reputation as a jazz master, he never really stopped being a computer musician.
Released:
Mar 12, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (10)
Welcome to "Composers & Computers!": A revolution in music happened in the Princeton Engineering Quadrangle, but chances are, you don’t know the story. Sixty years ago, some music-loving computer engineers happened upon some musicians who were enamored with a new computer installed on the third floor. The work they did together helped turn computers – at the time, a hulking, silent machine – into a tool to produce music. Their innovations made it easier to hear that music. That was no mean feat back then. Then they made it possible for a computer to make that music better, more nuanced. And they helped make it possible for computers to synthesize speech. What computers are able to do today to help musicians realize their vision owes a lot to the work done at Princeton. Much of this history has been effectively lost, gathering dust in far-off libraries. And the music they made has been largely forgotten as well. Over the five episodes of this series, we will tell that story. You’ll get by Composers & Computers