Ken Nordine on Night Music

[idic5]

VERY nice reading. Get outside yourself. What an idea to roll about. Evocative, mesmerizing. When and where was this recorded? Did Ken Nordine write this piece?

[onefoot7]

The William Shatner of jazz poetry

[sturoc0]

Is he doing this from memory or just winging it ?

If the latter, he is truly enigmatic !

[MrXSpeaks]

who laughs when he says "nervous squirrel" ? lol

But this is awesome, I love so much of his stuff.

[afqwcx]

Three and a half minutes of pure SEXXX!!!

[HTCSWEOD]

oh man.. I listened to Ken every week back in the 90's... word Jazz... is a joy to hear

[tbzeee]

when i was a freshman in college, my roommate & i would have a smoke & listen to word jazz on the radio every monday night. with the lights out, of course. mr. nordine is a LIVING legend; the man still walks this earth. keep it cosmic, ken.

[rodanosamehr]

ken has a YT channel guys

[Teflon65]

I first heard Ken Nordine do the spoken word portion of an old song, called "The Shifting, Whispering Sands", where I thought he must be some very urbane cowboy. Now, I imagine him as the narrator of some amazing anthology show, like "The Twilight Zone".

[extinctionblog]

I remember this from when it first aired. It changed the way I thought about music, poetry and maybe even life.

[pandaeyes42]

OMFG!

Ken Nordine's WHITE?!?

Possibly the blackest sounding white guy ever!!!

[MurphyDinklage]

@pandaeyes42 yea man dats tay zondays daddy?!?

[pookoos]

@pandaeyes42 For some reason I always thought he was black too. I guess not. Weird. I used to listen to his show on public radio. Great for zoning out. :-)

[christopherfisk]

such a sick voice, i wish i sound like this when im older

[ragemanchoo82]

Whats is Night Music? Was this a TV show? Radio show that had a video taping?

[MrXSpeaks]

@ragemanchoo82

It was a tv show a long time ago. The host was David Sandborn, a famous jazz sax player. It was a music show.

[pookoos]

I used to listen to his Word Jazz show on NPR and fall asleep to it. It was always so soothing.

[4freespeech]

The old man's high as a friggin' kite.

Hippies used to do this sh*t back in

the 60s while licking LSD.

[ronmac60]

Ken's voice is so mellifluous. I was on his radio show in 1948 and I asked him howhe got on radio. His answe5r was "I was blessed with a great voice". He interviewed me and my wife and gave us a buncg of lovely gifts".

[ElectricAfroMan]

wow! when was this recorded?

[Filotimos]

So happy, I recently discovered him

[stalzz]

He is amazing. He's been doing stuff since the 50's. He is 90 YEARS OLD NOW!

[RadioFreeFrodo]

i want to know the name of this song too

[alexandrmachen]

can somebody tell the name of this piece please?

[gemear2]

@alexandrmachen It's called "Don't you wish" off his "Stare with your ears" LP. This version is a lot different, more like his later style. The LP version is a bit more fun and goofy (and still terrific!)

[alexandrmachen]

@gemear2 thanx

[a7xboy18]

wish I could give more than 5 stars

[mkarmam]

me too

[worldpeaz]

Magnificent, he is .. purely so .. with the most soothing voice I've ever heard.

[1pinkywalters]

Absolutely outstanding!!! Sent chills through out my body...... Marko from Milwaukee

[8intimation8]

This man, true Genius...can speak words that reach in between us.

Instantly conjugating chords of caustic vibrant violet violence. yet willow like, weaving and melting, light as a feather.

Intricate delicacies turning insects into extacy.

[Bracaste]

What a voice, what a timing, so musical !

[nitedrive]

Ken is awesome. I grew up hearing him do commercials for Levis, coffee, damn near everything.

Cool. Makes sense he's show up on a show like Night Music. Two class acts.

[sclogse1]

I don't know about this. I prefer the early work. A lot.

Ken hates one of his early albums...and is willing to destroy it if he finds copies of it. But this sounds like that album.

[DonkeyofHeaven]

Who would have thought when Ken Nordine was first doing word jazz that the internet would have been invented so his wonderful oral music could be heard by generations not even born at the time and not lost down the drain of the great memory hole of the United States of Amnesia?

[sclogse1]

vidiots...

[dannyboy5678]

Miss you Ken...a fan for decades. Still have

your LP's.

Thanks for posting the master of the V/O.

[mkarmam]

thanks alot

[eelalien]

Ken is THE BEST, and a living legend. He MUST be recognized NOW, TODAY, for the national treasure he truly is. Let's not wait until we eulogize him to recognize his immense contribution - please!!

[themadmopper]

amen my friend, I never come across people that are into him, sadly enough

[abeldejong]

For me he is an international treasure, but maybe he sees himself more like a interstellar star...

[spac3n1nja]

My youth will show with this post also so your not alone. I came across Ken on a Dj Food track called "An Ageing Young Rebel/ Gentle Cruelty" and was enraptured by his voice. The story and the song itself is married in velvety noir style crime drama from the 1950's-60's. I've often ventured into slumber with that song on repeat. Now I venture into Ken's back catalog, thanks for posting this!

[MathewRusso]

Maybe my youth is showing with this post...be kind.

I discovered this guy by way of a 12" dance record. I have 4 (soon 5) dance remixes of Flibberty Jib. I had no clue he was some well known poet/reader from Chicago (my home area ironically).

I just thought he was some hired voice like the guy that introduces Grace Jones on Slave To The Rhythm.

Flibberty Jib is fearsome and awesome.

--Mathew

[Yrekadad]

Before there was LSD, there was Ken. In the 50's

as a teen, I'd be swept away by his performances

and thank Youtube for being the platform to re-live 50 years back.

[RonaldVaughan]

One of the world's great word poets!

Right up there with Eden ("Nature Boy")

Abhez...

[lovelysuspect]

i love ken nordine!!

[monkmellon]

i have listened to this every night. and it has not failed to astound.

[bimbshine]

I really became fascinated by Ken Nordine, there is something unique about his voice, those stories he's reading and this gorgeous music playing in background

[VirgoAlien]

The original white Zen rapper before sensuality and Jazz were divorced.

[CadillacL]

I didn't know he did Levi Jeans too. His voice is just perfect. Specially w/jazz.

[rickfmdj]

Just Vivid

[CadillacL]

I remember the Taster's Choice commercials, that voice just grabs you.

[jimupsman]

He also did commericals for Levi Jeans

[PilatusPorterPC6]

Oh my God!! Me too!!! Ken is one of a kind!

[bennyjail]

I go to sleep with Ken Nordine's voice streaming out of my record player... and i have very lucid dreams.

[tourguideStan]

Ken Nordine did the Taster's Choice coffee commercials in the late 1970s with overtones and undertones of "rich" and "hot" laced, like plaid, through the text.

Tourguidestan

[Finko00]

I remember those... laced like plaid were the late 70's

Wait for the other shoe to drop, and if it fits, wear it

[thephatcontroller10]

wow, that was great!

[inachu]

He does tons of voices as the background for movie trailers.

[Gemear]

Even though he has made me laugh and entertained me over many years, I always thought he has a beautiful, profound sense of the metaphysical mystery of life. He connects me to a higher power through his imagery and wordplay which is wise and childish at the same time.

[saminabinet]

one of the all-time great voices and a classic American wordsmith. this is the first time i've seen him in action. thanks for posting.

[smokinginheaven]

lovely stuff, thanks for posting.

[ruthnur18613]

ruthnur18613

scmm42 - Ken Nordine is the narrator on a beautiful piece of music called The ship that never sailed - by Billy Vaughn. I have been looking for 35 years.Perhaps you have this.??

[pornguy2]

Absolutely his best work, I had the 45 as a teen, way back in 1957 when it first was released. As I remember Ken only gets a fine print credit, so you will have to search under Billy Vaughn on the Dot (black)label. In 1955 Ken did the narration on Vaughn's 'Shifting, Whispering, Sands' on the maroon Dot label, but I bought local good guy Rusty Draper's

version

[ruthnur18613]

Thanks pornguy2 - I did manage to find another narrator on The ship that never sailed on Limewire. Nothing by Ken though.

ruthnur18612

[ruthnur18613]

Thanks pornguy2 - I did manage to find another narrator on The ship that never sailed on Limewire. Nothing by Ken though.

ruthnur18613

[monkmellon]

who da thunk such erudite information from somebody named "pornguy"

[adamvalvasori]

i love this video of Ken - first time i've actually seen him. thank you.

[khrysserx]

ken is VERY close to being God. i want to oscillate deep inside a dot.