7 best Sheila Jordan songs to listen to in the wake of Jazz musician's death at 96

Sheila Jordan, one of jazz’s most daring and beloved vocal improvisers, died on Monday, August 11, 2025, at her home in New York City at the age of 96. According to the New York Times, her death was announced by her daughter Tracey J. Jordan.

As said in her obituary in the New York Times on August 12, 2025, Sheila Jordan built a career that earned her the respect of musicians worldwide, even if she never achieved the mainstream fame of Billie Holiday or Sarah Vaughan.

The National Endowment for the Arts named her a Jazz Master in 2012, and she continued performing and recording, including releasing Portrait Now earlier this year, right up to her passing.

7 Sheila Jordan songs to listen to

Here are 7 of Sheila Jordan's most popular songs, as seen on Spotify Music. This list is not ranked and is based on the streaming numbers as seen on Spotify.

Some of the most popular songs by Sheila Jordan on Spotify (Image via Spotify)

Humdrum Blues

Sheila Jordan's debut album, Portrait of Sheila, was released in 1963 by Blue Note Records. The album was produced by Alfred Lion and was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

The eleventh track on the album, Hum Drum Blues, was written by Oscar Brown Jr. In a May 21, 2003, account of Jordan's performance at the world-famous jazz club Ronnie Scot's in London by the Guardian, Hum Drum Blues is described as one of the singer's favorites.

"The sidelong Humdrum Blues is a favourite with her, and she set it up on Monday by enquiring solicitously of each of her accompanists if they had the blues."

Baltimore Oriole

Baltimore Oriole is the ninth track on the album Portrait of Sheila. It was written by Hoagy Carmichael & Paul Francis Webster, with Steve Swallow on the acoustic bass and Denzil Best on the drums.

Falling in Love with Love

Falling In Love With Love is the very first track of Sheila Jordan's 1963 debut album, and was written by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart.

Dat Dere

Dat Dere is the fourth track on Portrait of Sheila, written by Bobby Timmons. The song is a duet by Sheila Jordan and bassist Steve Swallow. The song was first recorded in 1960 by Bobby Timmons himself. Sheila Jordan recorded the first vocal version of it for her album.

Am I Blue

Am I Blue is the third track on Portrait of Sheila, written by Grant Clarke, Harry Akst. A rerecorded version of it also features on her 2025 album Portrait Now, and is the ninth track on the album, recorded with Roni Ben-Hur and Harvie S.

Some Echoes

Some Echoes is the first track on Steve Swallow's 1980 album Home, released via ECM Records. It was performed by Bob Moses, Dave Liebman, Lyle Mays, Sheila Jordan, Steve Kuhn, and Steve Swallow. The track was written by Robert Creeley and Steve Swallow, and the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.

Sheila Jordan At Symphony Space in June 2010 (Image via Getty)

If You Could See Me Now

If You Could See Me Now, was the second track on Portrait of Sheila. It was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. This track also features on the 2025 album Portrait Now.

More about Sheila Jordan's life and career

Born Sheila Jeanette Dawson on November 18, 1928, in Detroit, Jordan’s early life was marked by hardship. As mentioned in the obituary by the New York Times on August 12, 2025, she was raised largely by her grandparents in a Pennsylvania coal town. She endured poverty, racial prejudice, and abuse before returning to Detroit at 14.

A chance encounter with Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” set her on a lifelong jazz path. By her teens, she was learning Parker’s complex solos by ear and performing in Detroit clubs under the name Jeannie Dawson.

In 1951, she moved to New York, working as a secretary by day and singing at night. Her breakthrough came in 1963 with the release of Portrait of Sheila on the prestigious Blue Note label, marking the first vocalist album in the label’s history. However, personal struggles kept her from recording again for over a decade.

When she returned with Confirmation in 1975, Jordan cemented her reputation for bass-and-voice duets, a format she pioneered. Over her long career, she recorded more than two dozen albums, taught at collegiate jazz programs, and mentored generations of singers.

Sheila Jordan's most recent album, Portrait Now, came out on February 14, 2025, via Dot Time Records, featuring 12 tracks, some of which are re-recorded versions of older hits.

Over her career, she was also featured on recordings by Carla Bley, Cameron Brown, George Gruntz, Bob Moses, Roswell Rudd, and others, and led jazz vocal workshops at City College of New York and various other institutions.

She is survived by her daughter, Tracey J. Jordan, a veteran music executive whose career includes roles at Motown, Arista Records, SiriusXM, MTV, and currently DePasse-Jones Entertainment.

About the author

Devangee Halder is a Food and Pop culture writer at Sportskeeda. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's Degree in International Studies. A bibliophile and foodie, her academic background, with the intersection of history and cultural studies, has deepened her love for reading and writing.

With over a year of experience, including an internship at Indian Express, which she landed through correspondence with editor Raj Kumar Jha, she transitioned into her current role at this company. As a journalist covering gastronomic trends and other news from the F&B Industry, she veers away from prescriptivism, and instead prioritizes questioning of current narratives, and forwarding relevant news, ensuring they are devoid of sensationalism.

Devangee approaches food with an interdisciplinary lens, locating it vis-à-vis areas such as culture, history, memory, and economics, within which culinary traditions found fruition and subsequently flourished. When not working, she enjoys cooking and reading, alongside her newfound interest in weightlifting. Among her favorite personalities are Sarah Todd and Vikas Khanna, and she admires the late chef Jock Zonfrillo for his work on indigenous food habits and ingredients.

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Edited by Divya Singh