Ken Nordine - Word Jazz: The Complete Recordings / 2CD set

2010 release Contains 3 albums - Word Jazz, Son of Word Jazz and Next! The first Word Jazz album came out in 1957. Backed by Chico Hamilton and his group working under the pseudonym the Fred Katz Group, Nordine's smooth baritone poems and lighthearted narratives were backed by hip jazz instrumentals. Word Jazz led to subsequent volumes of the series, including 1958's Son of Word Jazz and Next! While often light or humorous in nature, there was a dark side to Nordine's poetry as well. Many of his compositions looked critically at society and human nature. One of the most ubiquitous voices of his time, Ken Nordine became an active radio personality in the 1950s and his voice became more easily recognizable over the next several decades through his work as a narrator, voice-over actor, and through albums of fluid, jazz-backed free associative poetry he dubbed "word jazz". Nordine's voice was heard in countless radio and television ads, and his creative output ran in close parallel to the beat poetry movement.