Canadian R&B crooner and musician, Jordan John is no stranger to the music scene. He has opened for Aretha Frankin (at her personal request), jammed on drums with the artist formerly known as Prince, and also performed as a featured lead vocalist and guitarist for 16x Grammy Award-winning producer, David Foster.
Today, we at Canadian Beats are over the moon to be aiding in the release of his brand new single, “Too High On Love”.
Check out the single below and find out more about Jordan in our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I am a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from Toronto, Canada. Toured and performed all over the world as a singing, guitar-wielding frontman performing with the likes of 16x Grammy award-winning hitmaker David Foster, opening for the Queen of Soul – Miss Aretha Franklin, touring/recording and/or performing as a sideman (on drums, guitar, bass, Hammond organ) for Jeff Healey, Bob Ezrin, Johnny Reid, Wide Mouth Mason, Matt Schofield, Lucky Peterson to name but a few.
Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.
While I am a lover of many varieties and genres of music (jazz, country, rock and classical music etc.), my 2 solo album releases focus mainly on my passion and love for classic soul, funk and R&B. I’ve been enamoured and enormously influenced by soulful writers and interpreters like Marvin Gaye, Thom Bell, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway etc. Prince is also a big hero of mine who embodies everything I love about James Brown, George Clinton, Sly Stone, Little Richard, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire etc.
Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?
When I am off the road from performing overseas in Europe or the USA, and Asia, my full band and I maintain a Monday night residency in downtown Toronto at one of the city’s premier music venues, The Orbit Room. We also enjoy a very intimate and cozy Wednesday night residency in the heart of Kensington Market at the Poetry Jazz Cafe which typically features a stripped down trio style performance! All other venues, festivals and concerts we perform across Canada and abroad are easily found on my calendar listing on my website.
We aim to offer an exciting live performance that respectfully embodies the aforementioned soul and R&B greats. All the while, offering a unique blend of the ‘Toronto sound’ as well as our own flavour, and pocket on the soul standards and our own original material.
If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?
For something that embodies our live show, I recommend ‘Get In The Groove’ – a music video that was just released this week. For a song that represents a nod to my introspective R&B songwriting influences, I would suggest ‘I Keep Falling In Love With You’ or ‘Too High On Love.’
Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?
Joey Landreth! He is undoubtedly my favourite male singer right now. Also an absolute wizard on guitar and a fantastic songwriter. A triple threat! As well, The Bros. Landreth. They encompass everything I love about some of my favourite bands/artists in the Folk, Country and Americana idiom (i.e. The Eagles, Vince Gill, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett etc.). So proud of these guys and everything they do to continue the long-standing tradition of world-class talent from Canada!