Joseph Taylor Jordan (February 11, 1882 – September 11, 1971) was an American pianist, composer, real estate investor, and music publisher.
[1] He wrote over 2000 songs and arranged for notable people such as Florenz Ziegfeld, Orson Welles, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Duchin, Benny Goodman, and others.
Jordan stage-managed and directed the music for this bit of minstrelsy, which toured with a cast of thirty including a "beautiful octoroon chorus".
With the opening of the enlarged Pekin (one of America's first African-American-owned theatres) on March 31, 1906, the South Side of Chicago began to transform itself into a launching pad for the jazz explosion of 1915-1925.
All copies of the records were recalled, and the label was changed to include the phrase "introducing ‘That Teasin' Rag' by Joe Jordan".
Also in 1909, Jordan collaborated with Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson on The Red Moon, a Broadway operetta which broke Jim Crow convention by having persons of color perform serious romantic songs, expressing realistic human emotion.
Barred as a black man from entering the theater where Brice premiered the song, Jordan was forced to stand outside on the pavement and heard the public demanding eight encores.
His songs dating from this period include "Dat's Ma Honey Sho's Yo' Born", "Oh Say Wouldn't It Be a Dream" and "Brother-In-Law Dan".
In 1928, Jordan conducted a band made up of Jabbo Smith, Garvin Bushell, James P. Johnson, and Thomas "Fats" Waller in the musical revue Keep Shufflin'.
He composed songs in collaboration with W. C. Handy, led military bands during World War II and ran a successful real estate business in Tacoma, Washington, where he died on September 11, 1971.
Nappy Lee was a nickname for a low brass player that sported unkempt albeit likable hair who once performed with Wilbur Sweatman's Orchestra.