Stanley Jordan Pulls Out All the Stops

Composers & Computers

Stanley Jordan ’81 grew up in Silicon Valley, making circuits as a kid, watching his father become one of the world's first professional computer programmers. But it wasn’t until Jordan arrived at Princeton that the young musician learned how to fuse his love of music with his fascination with technology.

In Episode 1 of the new season of “Composers & Computers,” we begin our deep dive into the technology-filled life story of Jordan, who went on to a career as an acclaimed jazz musician. We explore how he was initially drawn to Stanford to work with John Chowning, inventor of the Yamaha digital keyboard, but through a twist of fate at the admissions office, found himself headed to Princeton instead.

Chowning himself told Jordan that it was a fortuitous outcome, and Jordan explains why this ended up being true, through meeting two mentors who would have a major effect on his musical path, Milton Babbitt and Paul Lansky.

We’ll look at how he developed his trademark two-hand percussive “touch technique” while he was a student at Princeton. And he’ll talk about his time at the Computer Center, including the time he dropped his punch cards on the floor.