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Ken Nordine
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Ken Nordine ( January 1920) is an American voiceover and recording artist.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Ken Nordine is the son of an architect. He attended Lane Technical College Prep High School (Chicago) and the University of Chicago. He has three sons with his wife Beryl whom he married in 1946.
Nordine’s deep, resonant voice has been featured on many commercial advertisements. One critic wrote that “you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice.”
He initially attracted attention when he recorded the aural vignettes on Word Jazz on Dot in 1957. Word Jazz, Son of Word Jazz (Dot, 1958) and his other albums in this vein feature Nordine’s narration over a cool jazz background. He began performing and recording such albums at the peak of the beat movement and was associated with the poetry-and-jazz movement. Regarded by some as an original hipster, Nordine’s “writings are more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe” than to other beats. Many of his word jazz tracks feature critiques of societal norms, while some reveal dark, paranoid undercurrents and bizarre, dream-like scenarios.
Nordine was Linda Blair’s vocal coach for her role in The Exorcist, and Word Jazz inspired Tom Waits’ spooky, spoken word-type pieces, such as “9th and Hennepin” and “Frank’s Wild Years” and “What’s He Building?”
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Ken Nordine is the son of an architect. He attended Lane Technical College Prep High School (Chicago) and the University of Chicago. He has three sons with his wife Beryl whom he married in 1946.
Nordine’s deep, resonant voice has been featured on many commercial advertisements. One critic wrote that “you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice.”
He initially attracted attention when he recorded the aural vignettes on Word Jazz on Dot in 1957. Word Jazz, Son of Word Jazz (Dot, 1958) and his other albums in this vein feature Nordine’s narration over a cool jazz background. He began performing and recording such albums at the peak of the beat movement and was associated with the poetry-and-jazz movement. Regarded by some as an original hipster, Nordine’s “writings are more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe” than to other beats. Many of his word jazz tracks feature critiques of societal norms, while some reveal dark, paranoid undercurrents and bizarre, dream-like scenarios.
Nordine was Linda Blair’s vocal coach for her role in The Exorcist, and Word Jazz inspired Tom Waits’ spooky, spoken word-type pieces, such as “9th and Hennepin” and “Frank’s Wild Years” and “What’s He Building?”
Top Albums
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Colors
Ken NordineBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $8.99
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- iTunes $9.99
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- Amazon $9.28
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The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
Ken NordineBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon $45.00
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Wink
Ken NordineBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $8.99
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon $9.54
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Devout Catalyst
Ken NordineBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
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- Buy Album
- Amazon $19.94
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Shoutbox
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a-polo wrote:
Does anyone know where I can find the lyrics for "Colors"? I'm not a native English speaker and reading the lyrics as I listen to the record helps me understand better what he's saying.
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betadron wrote:
Ken Nordine originally prepared over 40 colors, often he picked shades instead of the basic colors. For red i.e. he chose "crimson".
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gont wrote:
The only missing color on the album is RED. Why is that?
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otherone71 wrote:
Put some tracks up, Ken! Please? We Love you.
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llllllxlllllll wrote:
Why are so many people worried about nothingness? There is so little of it.
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lackeylackey wrote:
but i can't think about nothing... there's nothing to think about!
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TippinMyStuff wrote:
ken nordine are amazing!!!
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stayouttahizbiz wrote:
you can't get sneeze off suede...
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azfad wrote:
the sins of the father are visited upon the son...
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miss-boner wrote:
yeah
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ijazzman wrote:
David Bowie has invited Ken to perform at The Kitchen in NYC, 5/16-17 at 8pm. We're doing a feature Doc on Nordine and welcome all feed-back. We'll be taping at the show.
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HayTerodynius wrote:
Hi-Sonority
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Eyoki wrote:
This guy is incredible. Truth Mute... it fascinates and completely spooks me.
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neilbombd wrote:
That was what got me interested in him, someone posted the link on the Pere Ubu mailing list today, and I was really taken with it. Colors is...phenomenal.
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HomeInMyShoes wrote:
If you haven't already checked it out, you can watch Yellow on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJM39EytAYU I need more real life friends so I can play the game that's in the liner notes.
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th0ught wrote:
i love ken nordine, the childrens book that goes along with the Colors album is... quite interesting
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Recent Activity
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yarrhanna tagged Ken Nordine with ‘i ate christmas dinner at his house once’. 19 hours ago
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chaoseddy, KYNocturne, nivardus and 4 other people added Ken Nordine to their libraries. Thursday evening
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VanceAttack tagged Ken Nordine with lounge, spoken word and exotica. last month
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swtichblade, eiamboutierre and polyrhythymia added Ken Nordine to their libraries. last month
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t-rocc linked Ken Nordine to ken_nordine. last month
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t-rocc uploaded ken_nordine to Ken Nordine’s images. last month
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go_dinosaur_go, nettemegens, green_warden and 20 other people added Ken Nordine to their libraries. last month
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ioua tagged Ken Nordine with american and spoken word. August 2009
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LPan, dschwing6 and rjlemon added Ken Nordine to their libraries. August 2009
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blogbourri85 tagged Ken Nordine with ‘male vocalists’. July 2009
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