Following on from the Dyke & the Blazers posting - and specifically the influence of Broadway Road and South Phoenix - I recently came across the interesting nugget that Louis Jordan, “King of the Jukebox” and one of the pioneers of rock n’ roll, lived a couple of blocks away from 24th & Broadway (at 2118 E. Violet Dr) from 1946 to 1961.

Born in Arkansas in 1908, Jordan’s synthesis of fast-paced jazz and blues ultimately became known as ‘jump’, and the swinging ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry’ is one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for ‘first rock and roll record’. From 1942 on, Jordan racked up a staggering 57 R&B chart hits, including 18 #1 hit records.

True, he moved to Phoenix primarily for health reasons, and maybe his star had begun to wane a little, but that didn’t stop him topping the charts during that time with gems such as ‘Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens’, ‘Reet, Petite and Gone’ and ‘Blue Light Boogie’.

To this day he still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1 - his records scored an incredible total of 113 weeks in the #1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks).

He died in 1975 and is buried in St. Louis, Missouri.

Here, for your delectation, is ‘Caldonia’, but I could easily have picked a dozen others. A true giant.