Ralph Jordan

Born: 20 March 1954

Died: 03 January 2014

Ralph was born in Streatham, London in 1954.He grew up in a musical family, and learned to play piano at school, where for a short while he also learned percussion and played timpani in the London Schools Orchestra. By the late 1960s he had taken up guitar, with the usual aim of becoming a rock guitarist, but then he encountered London folk clubs.

He was to become a talented multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bouzouki, Maccann duet concertina,and harmonium being his principal instruments) and sometimes in his folk career he also contributed vocals,although he never regarded himself highly in this area. His main enthusiasm lay in the areas of accompanying and playing with and for others.He was principally known for his work as an accompanist,band member and arranger on the English folk scene, and he had an extensive musical background elsewhere which informed this work.

He began playing and performing with the Maccann duet concertina in the 1970's, and over the years was a member of many groups,working with well known names in the folk world too numerous to list in their entirety. Worthy of principal mention amongst them though was his partnership with James Patterson Silas which began in the mid-1970's. The duo subsequently teamed up with another established duo, Mick Ryan and Jon Burge, to form the folk supergroup Crows in 1978. Ralph eventually left the group in 1981 in order to concentrate on his work with Nigel Chippindale and Colin Thompson with whom he had formed the iconoclastic band Eric.The band were all skilled multi-instrumentalists with the mission statement, according to Colin Thompson, of performing "unusual tunes with impossible instruments" and were noted for their virtuoso skills and humour. Unfortunately the band was shortlived due to the untimely death of Nigel, and no recordings were made by them.

Ralph's association with James continued in an on/off fashion for more than 40 years, and in 2000, following a short attempt at a reunion as Silas, they teamed up with John Dipper, who Ralph had met at Whitby that year, to form the band Patterson Jordan Dipper. The band toured successfully for several years, and produced the much acclaimed CD Flat Earth in 2004. Work was being undertaken on a potential second CD as late as 2007, but was never completed.

Ralph also had a long association with Jo Freya, and toured with her as a duo for several years before joining up with her sister Fi Fraser in the band The Fraser Sisters, and he appears on two of their CDs

In 2007 and the late 2000s Ralph collaborated with the English dance band "Houseewives' Choice", whose other members were Ed Rennie, Alan Rawlinson ,Trevor Bennett,Tim Normanton and Pierce Butler.

From 2008 to 2010 Ralph also toured with Irene Shettle in their jointly produced show on the life of Lucy Broadwood, the Victorian/Edwardian folksong collector and researcher, entitled "Listen and You Shall Hear".

Over the years he also,worked with many other bands and performers, such as Penny Hop, Martyn Wyndham-Read,John Tams and Keith Kendrick.

During the 1980s/1990s he also had a role in introducing Swedish folk music to the UK folk scene, at a time when it was then little known. Using his own money, he arranged for tours of the Swedish bands Filarfolket and Groupa over several years. Filarfolket's Grammy award winning CD "Smuggel" records their gratitude to him on the sleeve notes. (His enthusiasm for Scandinavian music is apparent on the track list for his only solo CD "Eloise")

In his working day job Ralph was, for most of his working life, a BBC radio studio engineer and studio manager,or as he called it "audio butler", working in all areas of music, much of which informed a great deal of his work in the folk arena. His musical enthusiasms were many and various, ranging from classical to prog rock as well as folk. During the later years of his career at the Corporation he did a great deal of work with John Peel and Andy Kershaw. His work as a sound engineer was also much in evidence in the area of folk music, as he was frequently to be seen on the sound desk at festivals and concerts. His name also appears on many CDs as engineer, producer or guest artist. Probably his most important work in this area was the engineering and production of the Nic Jones compilation Unearthed.

Ralph produced only one solo CD Eloise in 2009. It was intended as a journey through his musical life, showing off his principal skills as a Maccann duet concertina player, but also showcasing his work as an accompanist on various instruments such as bouzouki, guitar, hammered dulcimer, and bass guitar. He had started work on selecting tunes or themes for his "difficult second CD" but, due to his death in early 2014 as a result of a protracted illness, this was not to see the light of day.

Ralph's musical influences and enthusiasms were wide ranging - from classical to prog rock to folk music, and he was always generous and enthusiastic about sharing these with others. In the words of Keith Kendrick "if there was a prize for the musician who was least well known, but had had the greatest and widespread effect on others, this would surely have been his". There are many musicians who are only too ready to acknowledge his influence on their own work as a result of his generosity.