As a girl growing up in Detroit, the jazz singer Sheila Jordan, who has died aged 96, heard a Charlie Parker record on a jukebox and knew then that his jazz pathway was one that she wanted to follow.
“Four notes! I heard Bird [Parker] and he’s been my hero ever since,” she said. Indeed she later married Duke Jordan, then a pianist with Parker, immersing herself in African American bebop culture and remaining true to her first inspiration throughout a long if uneven vocal career.
