The younger brother of flutist Kent Jordan and the son of avant-garde saxophonist Kidd Jordan, Marlon Jordan gained a great deal of attention early in his career, recording as a leader for Columbia when he was 19, before he had an original sound of his own. He started playing trumpet in the fourth grade and knew Wynton Marsalis (a major influence) and Terence Blanchard when he was a child. Jordan was a featured soloist with the New Orleans Symphony when he was 15, studied at the now-legendary New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and recorded as a sideman with his brother Kent...