The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll

Where's the love for Louie Jordan?

Here's the man who represents the bridge between big band music and R&B. Jordan's downsized big band played jazzy instruments in an R&B style, with a lot of saxophone. In other words, they helped create the sound of early rock & roll, particularly the boogie-woogie variety.

Films like this one were shown in nickelodeons, and helped make Jordan the biggest recording star of the 1940s. In fact... he was arguably the first great inter-racial pop music star in the US.

Watch this video and see where Little Richard (openly and admittedly) copped his steez.

Like this post? Click here to subscribe to the blog.