Sheila Jordan
11.18.2025
Sheila Jordan, NEA Jazz Master, trailblazing vocalist, educator, and one of the last living links to the bebop era, passed away on August 11, 2025, at the age of 96. Her life was a testament to courage, creativity, and the enduring power of music to heal.
Born in Detroit on November 18, 1928, as Sheila Jeanette Dawson, Jordan’s life in jazz began the moment she dropped a nickel into a jukebox and heard revolutionary alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. That sound forever inspired her path. Parker became her “musical guru,” and she absorbed bebop not only as a musical language but as a way of being. It was Parker who famously called her “the woman with the million-dollar ears,” and indeed, her ears were golden and forever open.
“I need to keep this music alive and teach the young people coming up. It’s part of me. I need to do music.”
—Sheila Jordan