Marc Jordan: Waiting for the Sun to Rise

Occasionally one comes across a singer-songwriter-musician and wonders just how he or she has managed to evade detection. In this case, the sense of living under a rock is only somewhat assuaged by consulting the artist's website (www.marcjordan.com) only to land on a page entitled "Marc Who?" The text describes Marc Jordan as a singer, songwriter, composer and artist whose songs have been on 35 million CDs. Jordan, who is the proverbial "overnight success," has been at it for over 40 years, and has recorded 16 albums of his own material since 1978. He has worked with Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, and The Manhattan Transfer. So, the rationalization for "Marc Who?" becomes "pop artist" or "smooth jazz," which is plainly no excuse at all. Jordan describes this recording as an orchestral one he has been waiting to do and, like so many others, the product of a pandemic about which, other than the music, it is hard to find much good to say.

While calling something "roots music" is usually a mark of a reviewer's fecklessness, Waiting for the Sun to Rise does have something of that feel about it. For a recording which features some lovely work by Randy Brecker, this is plainly a misnomer. It is difficult to label a track such as "Coltrane Plays the Blues," other than funky and a bit mysterious. "Rio Grande" is a similarly enigmatic, but nevertheless attractive lyric, which somehow evokes what the post postwar USA has become. Presumably, this is the glum message behind "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," but to what purpose? "I can't stand this indecision, married to this lack of vision" is, alas, an apt line. If the point is somehow lost, is this some metaphorical end of the line which "Cradle to the Grave" makes it very difficult to miss?

With lyrics which are not precisely upbeat, it may seem surprising to call something emollient, if not hopeful. The music is lyrical, hushed, plaintive at times. The experience is worthwhile, even if "edified" is not precisely the appropriate word to describe the entire program from start to finish. Emotional release, which Jordan's lyrics offer in full measure, can do just that.