Introduction
Robert Laurence Albert Simpson, known professionally as Ronny Jordan (29 November 1962 – 13 January 2014) was a British guitarist and part of the acid jazz movement at the end of the twentieth century. Jordan described his music as "urban jazz", a blend of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B.
Biography
He came to prominence after being featured on Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1, released in 1993. He was also one of the artists whose recordings are featured on Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool—a compilation album released in 1994 to benefit the Red Hot Organization.
Following 1992's The Antidote, recordings from Jordan have featured on the Billboard charts, especially his acid-jazz Miles Davis cover of "So What", which was a worldwide hit. He was also the recipient of The MOBO Best Jazz Act Award and the Gibson Guitar Best Jazz Guitarist Award. His 2000 release, A Brighter Day, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Jordan's song "The Jackal" (from his 1993 album The Quiet Revolution) gained prominence when actress Allison Janney in the role of C. J. Cregg lip-synched it in the episode "Six Meetings Before Lunch" of The West Wing. She also did so on Arsenio Hall's television show in September 2013.
Jordan died on 13 January 2014.
Discography
- The Antidote (Island, 1992)
- The Quiet Revolution (Island, 1993)
- Bad Brothers (Island, 1994)
- Light to Dark (Island, 1996)
- A Brighter Day (Blue Note, 1999)
- Off the Record (Capitol, 2001)
- At Last (N-Coded, 2003)
- After 8 (N-Coded, 2004)
- The Rough and the Smooth (2009)
Source:
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | "So What!" b/w Cool & Funky | 32 | 38 | — | — | The Antidote | ||||||||
| "Get To Grips" b/w Flat Out | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "After Hours" | — | — | 51 | — | ||||||||||
| 1993 | "Under Your Spell" b/w In Full Swing | 72 | — | — | — | The Quiet Revolution | ||||||||
| 1994 | "Tinsel Town" b/w My Favourite Things, Midnight Lady | 64 | — | — | — | |||||||||
| "Come With Me" b/w S**T Goes Down | 63 | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1996 | "The Law EP" | — | — | — | — | Light To Dark | ||||||||
| "It's You" | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2000 | "A Brighter Day" | — | — | — | 20 | A Brighter Day | ||||||||
| 2001 | "London Lowdown" | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | ||||||||||||||