A Q&A session with musicians Jennifer Jordan and Mike Barris
You've probably heard their music locally at the Middletown Township Public Library, the Middletown Arts Center or any number of other venues across the state. They are blues duo Jennifer Jordan, of Red Bank's west side, and Mike Barris, of Elberon. The music that the singer and guitar player thunder and soothe with is from the file of everything old is new again. Catch them playing out anywhere and seemingly everywhere in the area and you'll be tuning your ear to the sound that influenced much of our modern American music. They play early jazz, spirituals and the blues ... both happy and sad. Barris is something of a music teacher, both on stage for the audience and in the classroom at Brookdale Community College, in Middletown's …
Duo’s primary repertoire features classic blues and jazz tunes
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Dw. Dunphy
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Friday, February 18, 2011
Local musical duo Jennifer Jordan (vocals) and Mike Barris (guitar, vocals) were recently seen and heard jazzing it up at the Middletown Township Public Library. The two performed several classic blues and jazz pieces including Ain’t She Sweet, Trouble in Mind and the Billie Holliday standard, God Bless the Child as well as a variation of love and relationship themed music to complement the Valentine's Day aura and timing of the event last week. Jordan sings in the tradition of blues-belters like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey and proved it with a roaringly risqué rendition of Put Some Sugar in My Bowl. The performers briefly explained the concept of hokum — a form of the blues that origniated from a heavy reliance on innuendo and double-…
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Middletown Township Public Library
55 New Monmouth Rd, Middletown, NJ
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