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Ken
Nordine 1920 - 2019
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This article was
originally published January 20, 2019.
Ken
Nordine was truly a voice artist like no other. For more than seven decades his
voice and creative projects graced radio, recordings, appearances and videos in
Chicago and around the world. He died on Saturday (2/15) at his home on
Chicago’s North Side.
Nordine
will be known forever for creating Word Jazz, an original art form he once
described this way:
“This
is word jazz in morphing pictures” and described it as something that “looks
like it was done under the influence of LSD.”
This
is an apt description. Jerry Garcia was one of Nordine’s biggest fans. Garcia
invited Nordine to perform with the Grateful Dead at their legendary 1990 New
Year’s Eve concert in Chicago. A writer at the time called Nordine “an
underground hipster for the ages.”
Readers
can learn more about Word Jazz on Nordine’s personal website [link].
KEN
NORDINE WAS “RAISED ON RADIO”
In
a wonderful tribute/obituary in The Chicago Tribune [link],
writer Rick Kogan talked about Nordine’s lifetime love of radio:
“Ken
Nordine [was] one of the few people in the history of radio to use the medium
to its fullest potential.”
No
radio station that was closest to Nordine’s heart was WBEZ-AM. His announcing
career started at the station in 1938 when the station was the voice of
Chicago’s public schools. He took his announcing skills on the road to stations
in Michigan and Florida. He returned to Chicago and became the voice of WBBM
AM/FM/TV.
Nordine
was a fan of NPR from the first day he first heard it. He took Word Jazz to the
network in the late 1970s. It was an
early hit on public radio stations.
When
folks in Chicago think of Nordine, they will likely think of his commercials.
He was sought by ad agencies and a small fortune doing voiceovers. Perhaps his
most unforgettable spot was for his beloved Chicago Blackhawks. He called them
“Cold Steel on Ice.” Here is one of Nordine's best video essays:
David
Greene had a wonderful feature about Nordine earlier this week on Morning
Edition [link].
There are also several Word Jazz audio/video essays on YouTube. Here is one of
the best called Man in the Moon:
From Gregg McVicar: In my college radio days, as a huge fan of Word Jazz, I created a montage-style music show called The Sound Museum, which always started with his piece of the same name. Several years later I was thrilled to sit next to him at lunch at Asilomar (Audio Independents in Radio conference) and hear his stories. The 1990 NYE Grateful Dead radio broadcast was from Oakland and I was there with that first Digididesign SoundTools rig to edit segments for the broadcast -- we were in the Warrior shower rooms which had been transformed into a 3-room studio space. Jerry & Ken did some amazing improv, Dan Healy was there as the ringmaster and Motown engineer Bob Olhsson was the other digital editor in there with me. We all spent 5 days in there preparing for the broadcast -- what a scene!
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