Jazz Omnibus: 21st Century Photos and Writings
by Members of the jazz Journalists Association
Featuring Ellen Johnson's Article:
"The Vocal Music of Charles Mingus"
Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan
By Ellen Johnson
Cover Photo by Brian McMillan
(Rowman and Littlefield), included in Rutgers University Studies in Jazz at the Institute of Jazz Studies.
Nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association's 2015 Best Book Award
Featured in the JazzTimes Readers Poll best books category.
“In summary, Johnson’s Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan is a welcome contribution to the field of jazz history. An emotional and gripping statement of resilience and success against all odds, Jordan’s story is one of cherished importance to the jazz community. Throughout the book Johnson provides a detailed account of the artist’s life and career and succeedsin capturing the nature and personality of Jordan in her words.” - James Aldridge
“She tells Sheila Jordan’s remarkable story as if she were a weaver, bringing a magical yarn to life in a mythic quilt. The analogy is not lost on Ellen Johnson, who weaves her narrative as a living warp would interlace the weft of jazz. In her gentle manner, befitting Ms. Jordan’s own personality Ellen Johnson brings her subject’s living narrative alive. And into its design is woven the fabled lives of musicians such as Bird, George Russell, Frank Foster and the iconic bassists with whom Sheila Jordon went on to form unique and enduring musical relationships, and, of course Duke Jordan, to whom Sheila Jordan was married and with whom she had her ever-loving daughter Tracey.” - Raul da Gama