Jazz Articles about Ken Nordine

About Ken Nordine

Profile

Ken Nordine: The Architect of Word Jazz

by Kristine England
January 4, 2025

"Let me tell you a funny story I made up about the guy who wanted to reach into in, and he couldn't. And it bothered him. It'd bother you, wouldn't it?" So begins the tale of a troubled man lost within his mind's abstractions. This tale is Word Jazz, a “somewhat new medium" conceived by Ken Nordine in the 1950s. A voiceover performer who was a uniquely creative wordsmith as well, Nordine wielded his rich, velvety baritone like ...

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Album Review

Ken Nordine: Colors

by AAJ Staff
January 20, 2003

Originally intended as a nine-part series of commercials for a paint company, Ken Nordine’s 1967 classic is still a brilliant and, um- colorful trip through the big crayon box. Re-released with ten new 90 second shades, Colors (the American spelling, thank you!) gives form and flesh to a J. Crew catalog full of familiar but perhaps underappreciated tones. Though the usual suspects such as Yellow, Brown and Black are in revue, Nordine also reaches out to such colorfully entitled tints ...