Todd Gordon - one of Britain's leading jazz and swing singers
I had been an avid Beatles fan until, aged 11, my mother played her copy of Frank
Sinatra's “Songs for Swingin' Lovers!” The fact that I couldn’t hear him take a breath
intrigued me. Almost by osmosis, albums by Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Peggy Lee,
Count Basie and Carmen McRae too. But that was just the start.
In 1975, I met Ella Fitzgerald prior to her concert in my home town of Edinburgh
(Scotland) and, towards the end of her performance, she invited me on stage and sang
a song to me. It was a life-changing experience and over the next 25 years, jazz,
swing and the American Songbook became my intense passion. I started taking
singing lessons but it was purely for private and personal enjoyment. Little did I know
that in 2001, I would make my jazz gig debut. From then on, I just started elevating my
goals!
In 2003, I was booked to open for Dionne Warwick which prompted me to give up my
day job organizing trade expos. Since then, I have performed in some great venues
including The Algonquin in New York, Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express Jazz Room, The
606 and Pizza on the Park in London as well as many of Britain's finest venues.
With four albums and over 300 concert appearances under my belt, I feel incredibly
fortunate. And it's the exciting prospect of never knowing where the next turn will lead
to; one of my recordings was licensed as a theme song for a highly popular Korean TV
drama series which resulted in concerts in Seoul and a new album with some fantastic
Korean musicians.
My new concert promotions business, Jazz International, has clocked up almost 100
gigs since it started in 2008, and I now present a weekly show on the new station, UK
Jazz Radio which already gets over a million hits a month!
Further information: www.toddgordon.com
