Duke Jordan

Artist: Duke Jordan

LP: Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Song: "Jazz Vendor"

[ listen ]

Before there was this movie adaptation, this one, and of course this one too, French filmmaker Roger Vadim scandalized all of France (not an easy thing to do) with his 1959 film version of the shocking 1782 novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Choderlos de Laclos. According to Wikipedia,  "it is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals (and ex-lovers) who use sex as a weapon to humiliate and degrade others, all the while enjoying their cruel games. According to the liner notes on the back of this LP, it seems there may have been some confusion as to who actually wrote the music for Vadim's film, with jazz pianist Duke Jordan receiving due credit in 1962, three years after the movie was released. You can read more about Duke Jordan on Wikipedia here, and find the informative notes from his 1960 "Flight to Jordan" LP on the Hard Bop website here.

[ Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan: April 1, 1922 — August 8, 2006 ]