Hogan Archive acquires Scott Jordan interview collection

The Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a unit of Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC), has recently acquired an archival collection of audio cassette and micro-cassette recordings of interviews, circa 1993-2008, with New Orleans and Louisiana musicians and other public figures and celebrities. The interviews were conducted by writer Scott Jordan, whose work in journalism covered Louisiana music, arts, and culture for nearly three decades.

The Scott Jordan interview collection is three linear feet, and includes over 100 interviews with music artists born or based in New Orleans or Louisiana, representing blues, rhythm & blues, jazz, zydeco, swamp pop, and roots rock. Among the interviewees represented in the collection are Fats Domino, Dr. John, Clarence "Jockey" Etienne, Sena Fletcher aka Mary Jane Hooper, Little Freddie King, Sonny Landreth, Wynton Marsalis, the Neville Brothers, Anders Osborne, The Radiators, Tommy Ridgley, Bobby Rush, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and many more.

Additionally, the collection includes interviews with non-Louisiana artists such as Solomon Burke, Rosanne Cash, Ray Charles, Olu Dara, John Fogerty, Arlo Guthrie, Levon Helm, Bruce Hornsby, Syl Johnson, B.B. King, Randy Newman, and more.

Interviews with various non-music and music-related related personalities and public figures are also featured, such as those with record producer Scott Billington, actor Nicolas Cage, actor George Clooney, journalist Stanley Crouch, sportscaster Bernard "Buddy D" Diliberto, businessman John Georges, cartoonist and writer Bunny Matthews, entrepreneur and Seafood City founder Al Scramuzza; and members of sports teams including the New Orleans Brass, New Orleans Hornets, and New Orleans Saints, among others.

Currently based in the Lafayette, LA, area, Jordan served as associate editor for OffBeat magazine and staff writer/music editor for Gambit Weekly in New Orleans from 1993-2003. From 2003-2008, he was a senior editor for Lafayette’s Independent Weekly newspaper. His writing has won numerous first-place local, state, and national awards from the New Orleans Press Club, the Louisiana Press Association, and the National Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, in categories including Best Feature Story, Arts Feature, Investigative Reporting, Music Criticism, and Sports Reporting. His work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Downbeat, The Austin Chronicle, The Rolling Stone Blues and Jazz Album Guide, and other publications. He’s also written album liner notes for multiple recording artists, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, and wrote the foreword for Dege Legg’s book, Cablog: Diary of a Cabdriver.

Currently, the collection is closed to the public until all materials have been processed.

For more information, contact Melissa A. Weber at mweber3@tulane.edu or 504-247-1807. To learn more about Tulane University Special Collections, visit the TUSC website at library.tulane.edu/tusc, email specialcollections@tulane.edu, and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Published August 21, 2023

Photo caption: Cassettes (detail) from the Scott Jordan interview collection, HJA-099, Tulane University Special Collections.