Derrik Jordan: Home
Derrik Jordan is an award-winning composer and singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist (electric violin, guitar, keyboard and percussion) and recording artist.
"Derrik Jordan is something of a one-man musical force of nature." -Vermont Sunday Magazine
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He performs his songs solo as a singer-songwriter and instrumentally on the 5-string electric violin as "SuperString Theory" and in many groups including Tony Vacca and the World Rhythms Ensemble, Impulse Ensemble, Natural History, FunkyTown and Simba.
Living in the hills of beautiful southern Vermont, he sings and plays throughout the northeast USA.
You can find all of Derrik Jordan's CDs and mp3's of his recordings at http://www.cdbaby.com/all/jordan and at I-Tunes and many other download sites.
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What's happening and what happened in 2010?
My current passion continues to be writing world fusion/classical music, taking my African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Brazilian musical influences and creating pieces for classical musicians.
2010 was a great year with lots of gigs with many different groups and lots of fantastic creative challenges. I feel truly blessed to be able to do what I'm doing. "Walk In Beauty" was premiered in NYC October 18 at the Manhattan School Of Music by Windscape, one of the foremost woodwind quintets in the US. My world fusion string quartet "Welcome Santo" (string quartet, kalimba, shekere) was premiered in Brattleboro, VT June 5 by some great players at the River Garden.
Impulse Ensemble, my new world fusion power trio with Tony Vacca (balafon, percussion) and Jim Matus (laoutar) released our first CD "Initiation."
I have just completed a large piece for The Zambezi Marimba Band and The Opus Zero Band (chamber orchestra) at Williams College. It is based on African (Malian and Nigerian) musical influences and features Zambezi's 6 marimbas. Thanks to Professor Ernest Brown for the opportunity to write for these great groups that will be performing together for the first time in William's history.
I also just premiered a Brazilian flavored piece ("Astonishing Visions") for The Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble for seven instruments (violin, cello, flute, bass clarinet, bassoon, piano and marimba). It was performed and to an enthusiastic audience in Burlington and Montpelier, VT February 19th and 20th.
Next up is a composition for The Windham Orchestra along with Impulse Ensemble (Tony Vacca, Jim Matus) under the baton of Hugh Keelan. This piece will be my biggest to date, employing a full orchestra along with our cutting edge and high energy world fusion trio. It will be performed June 12 at the Brattleboro Retreat at 3pm - so mark your calendars! My piece will open the show and Beethoven's 9th Symphony will close the event. Wow!
I had the great good fortune to be chosen to be the the featured composer for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's 2009 "Made In Vermont" Fall Tour. It was the VSO's 75th anniversary and Vermont was also celebrating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain. The VSO wanted a piece about the lake and I thought it would be nice to write something that paid respect to the Abenaki, who after all were here long before the French explorer decided to name this beautiful lake after himself.
The piece I wrote is called "Odzihozo And The Lake." Who is Odzihozo you might ask? Well, he is a supernatural being of Abenaki legend who created himself from the leftover dust that fell from the Creator's hands. He was pretty clever at making himself but somehow he forgot to make himself legs. So he dragged himself over the land, pushing up mountains and gouging out rivers and eventually made Lake Champlain, which he considered to be his masterpiece. In fact, he liked it so much that he decided that he would stay there and watch over it forever, so he turned himself into a rock island that sits in the Burlington Bay. The piece tells this story in music.
The piece was performed in 10 locations around Vermont in the fall of 2009. It was a lot of fun writing it and I learned a lot in the process. I worked two Abenaki musical themes (a greeting song and fragments of friendship song) into the piece to honor the Abenaki people and their connection to the lake and to Ndakinna ("our land"), which is their name for Vermont.
Things have been moving so fast! - It's hard to believe that it was only back in Feb 2008 that I had the premiere of my first world fusion/classical piece, "Four Unknowns" for string orchestra and percussion in Bennington, VT with The Sage City Symphony directed by Michael Finckel. Thank you Michael for getting me started on this creative journey!
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And on another composerly note:
I am very pleased to announce that I was awarded the Shakuhachi Chamber Music International Prize 2008 for "Sky Mirror," a world fusion string quartet I composed in February 2008 for shakuhachi, string quartet and electric guitar with effects. The composition contest was held to encourage the writing of new chamber works that included shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) with other traditional orchestral instruments to expand the chamber music repertoire for shakuhachi, "Sky Mirror" was premiered in a concert in December 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.
If you are interested you can go to their website to see for yourself. http://www.shakuhachichambermusic.net/index.html
Are you curious what world fusion/classical music sounds like? You can listen to the third movement of "Sky Mirror" on the top of my music page on this website or just click on the top of this page to hear a recording of excerpts from a number of my pieces beginning with the opening from "Odzihozo And The Lake" performed by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
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You can listen to, look at, read about and buy all of Derrik Jordan's CDs at CDBaby.com!!! Or go to I-Tunes and download them.
http://www.cdbaby.com/all/jordan
"SuperString Theory Goes To Senegal," featuring Derrik's world fusion 5 string electric violin was written and recorded in Senegal, West Africa and Vermont. You can order one by sending $17 (includes S&H) to Worldsoul Records, PO Box 403, Putney, VT 05346.
What people are saying about "SuperString Theory Goes To Senegal" -
"...a world of sound so harmonious and brilliantly compatible that a truly diverse and universally human vision is brought into existence." -CD Baby
"If you listen to this CD at one sitting, you will realize (at least a little of) the magic involved in creating music - especially music that forms bridges between cultures." -Rotcod Zzaj
“One of the best CDs of 2007" says the Indie Acoustic Project http://www.indieacoustic.com
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