The computer music movement of the 1960’s, 70s and 80’s created the technology that established the sound of music as we know it today. We unearth the stories behind that movement, as well as some trippy music that demonstrates how music grew into the electronic sounds we take for granted now. In Season 2, we take a deep dive into the music of Stanley Jordan, a jazz master who combines musical virtuosity with a lifelong love of the technology. In Season 1, we told the story of a group of music-loving computer engineers who happened upon some musicians who were enamored with a new IBM computer at the Engineering Quadrangle at Princeton University in 1963.
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The computer music movement of the 1960’s, 70s and 80’s created the technology that established the sound of music as we know it today. We unearth the stories behind that movement, as well as some trippy music that demonstrates how music grew into the electronic sounds we take for granted now. In Season 2, we take a deep dive into the music of Stanley Jordan, a jazz master who combines musical virtuosity with a lifelong love of the technology. In Season 1, we told the story of a group of music-loving computer engineers who happened upon some musicians who were enamored with a new IBM computer at the Engineering Quadrangle at Princeton University in 1963.
Stanley Jordan ’81 grew up in Silicon Valley, making circuits as a kid, watching his father become one of the world's first professional computer programmers. But it wasn’t until Jordan arrived at Princeton that the young musician learned how to fuse his love of music with his fascination with technology.
In Episode 1 of the new season of “Composers & Computers,” we begin our deep dive into the technology-filled life story of Jordan, who went on to a career as an acclaimed jazz musician. We explore how he was initially drawn to Stanford to work with John Chowning, inventor of the Yamaha digital keyboard, but through a twist of fate at the admissions office, found himself headed to Princeton instead.
Chowning himself told Jordan that it was a fortuitous outcome, and Jordan explains why this ended up being true, through meeting two mentors who would have a major effect on his musical path, Milton Babbitt and Paul Lansky.
We’ll look at how he developed his trademark two-hand percussive “touch technique” while he was a student at Princeton. And he’ll talk about his time at the Computer Center, including the time he dropped his punch cards on the floor.
Composers & Computers
The computer music movement of the 1960’s, 70s and 80’s created the technology that established the sound of music as we know it today. We unearth the stories behind that movement, as well as some trippy music that demonstrates how music grew into the electronic sounds we take for granted now. In Season 2, we take a deep dive into the music of Stanley Jordan, a jazz master who combines musical virtuosity with a lifelong love of the technology. In Season 1, we told the story of a group of music-loving computer engineers who happened upon some musicians who were enamored with a new IBM computer at the Engineering Quadrangle at Princeton University in 1963.
