In a recent conversation with X-Boarder forcesinger, I found I was having a hard time describing the music of Ken Nordine. Is it spoken word or jazz? Is he serious or playing a joke on all of us? Are we laughing with him or at him?

Well, I figure it’s a little bit of both on all counts.

Ken Nordine hails from Chicago; his deep, resonant voice may be recognizable to older X-Boarders as the voice heard in a million ’60s and ’70s commercials (Taster’s Choice Coffee in particular comes to mind). I include him in the same category as American Beat-era greats. Think: Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg… and Ken Nordine. His own unique art combines off-kilter everyman observations and anecdotes spoken over a background of beatnik cool jazz, and has to be heard to be believed. In spite of his dry manner and appearance, there’s some strange Cold War paranoia and panic bubbling deep under the surface, deep below Nordine’s deep, deep voice… maybe that’s why he was hired to voice-coach Linda Blair during filming of “The Exorcist”.

Nordine’s lyrics are gut-busting hilarious and bizarre:

………
my baby didn’t say anything
just looked at me with that special look my baby has
i looked back
with that special look i get
when my baby looks at me with that special look she gets
………

or

………
have you ever been hungry in the middle of the night?
that happens to me sometimes
and then i go raid the icebox
for example, the other night i did that
we had some leftover welsh rarebit
i found that and a couple crackers
piece of celery
and an olive and i
sat down in the middle of the night
i was very, very

hungry
………

On this, Nordine’s debut album, he experiments with faux interviews, “soundscapes”, true (?) stories, and nonsensical jaff riffs. He was a pioneer… playing with the mixing process to create atomspheric audio environments decades before Brain Eno and others. But all within his context of “Word Jazz”… telling stories to amuse and bemuse.

I first heard of Nordine in high school. A friend’s father had the original LP, and when we first heard it, we felt like we had discovered a comedy goldmine. Neither of us had heard anything like Word Jazz before — and we never would again. Ken Nordine is a one-of-a-kind treasure who, at age 85, is still producing weekly radio shows and even released his first DVD recently.

Word Jazz is not for passive listening… you’ll get the most out of it when you give it your full attention. In fact, it may be hard not to once you put it on. Do yourself a favor - check out Ken Nordine, baby.

NOTE: This album is no longer in circulation… a “Best Of” compilation was issued on CD several years ago and is now out of print, fetching more than $50 at Amazon and eBay. This compilation included all but one of the original LP tracks, which I’ve located and sequenced in the original order, with original album art… as a gift for those who know where to look.

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