[2] Jordan's music has earned praise from many critics, particularly for her ability to improvise lyrics; Scott Yanow describes her as "one of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers.

Jordan was sent to live with her grandparents in the small coal mining town of Summerhill, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny Mountains.

Jordan has said: "We were probably the poorest people in a poor town…we had an outhouse and no water in the house… In the wintertime all of us would sleep in one bedroom without any sheets or pillowcases on the beds; we just had blankets.”[6] She returned to Detroit, living with her mother, in 1940 or 1942.

In 2006, she was presented the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Lifetime Achievement Award and celebrated 28 years as an adjunct professor of music.

In addition to the aforementioned musicians, she has recorded with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Cameron Brown, Carla Bley, and Steve Swallow.

She has led recordings for Blue Note, Blackhawk, East Wind, ECM, Grapevine, Muse, Palo Alto, and SteepleChase.

[19] Her biography, Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan, written by vocalist and educator Ellen Johnson, was published in 2014.

[20] With Carla Bley With Cameron Brown With Jane Bunnett With George Gruntz With Bob Moses With Roswell Rudd With Steve Swallow Former students