Jazzy Jordan Interview (2006) - Articles

Jazzy Jordan
Music Business 101 - Part 1

Veteran Gospel industry executive Jazzy Jordan stops by GOSPELflava.com to share his experiences from over twenty five years of music business. Jordan now heads up the Jordan Entertainment Group, and has recently released projects from newcomer Izzy as well as from Darien Dennis and the Gospel project from Tony Terry. Read on, and stay tuned for lots more as one of the best in the business offers burgeoning music professional some valuable advice.

Jazzy Jordan

I hope that you can learn from my experiences - so first we need to look at how it all got started. I embarked on my career at ten years of age at my brother-in-law's record store B&L Records in New Haven, Connecticut (yes they were records back in the day, first 78's, then 45's and 331/3.) From sweeping the floors to managing the store to owning my record store is how my career commenced.

After having my store and attending college for communication the radio bug took over and I wanted to be a radio announcer like my idol Frankie Crocker (The Chief Rocker) but, to get to broadcasting first I needed to master the world of being a street jock, so I played parties all over the East Coast from Connecticut to South Carolina everything from weddings to 50 anniversary parties. After being voted DJ of the year it was time to take it to radio at WYBC-FM in New Haven, Connecticut and then to WNHC-AM also in New Haven. I took WNHC from a 0.08 rated station to an 8.1 rated station in four rating periods and after 6 years my work was done and it was time for a new challenge and that was working for a record label.

I held several senior executive positions throughout my career including, National Director of Promotions for Tommy Boy Records —where I delivered the labels only #1 R&B record, Love Is A House by the Force M.D.s; National Director of Black Music Promotion for RCA Records-where I marketed and promoted records for artists such as "Will Smith" (DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince) and others; Polygram —where I spearheaded Black Music marketing efforts for eight labels, including P.M. Dawn and Salt "N" Pepa (whose Very Necessary album sold over 6 million copies).

In my roles as Senior VP and General Manager of Verity Records and Senior VP of Marketing for Jive Records, I ran a 75-million dollar record label and helped launch, promote and shape the careers of some of the world's biggest artists including, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, R. Kelly, Backstreet Boys, OutKast, Usher, John P. Kee, Donnie McClurkin, Kurt Franklin, Fred Hammond to name a few.

This past INDY 500 marked my entry into one of the most popular sports in the world, where I was one of two African-Americans to enter a car into the prestigious Indianapolis 500 event.

I want my contributions to be felt beyond the world of music and entertainment and into such areas as education, philanthropy, education and social awareness. It is my ambition to enlighten and empower people all around the world with outreach initiatives and social awareness messages.

We can only accomplish what ever we can dream and your dreams can be endless.

Stay tuned for Part Two, where Jazzy Jordan explains the essentials about your music career.

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