1. (from The Best Of Word Jazz, Vol. 1... by Tom Waits 1990)
Ken Nordine, yea I know that guy, I heard his voice 1000 times, he's the guy in the bus station that says "go ahead I'll keep an eye on your stuff for you," and you see him the next day walking around town wearing your clothes. He broadcasts from the boiler room of the Wilmont Hotel with 50,000 watts of power. I know that voice, he's the guy with the pitchfork in your head saying go ahead and jump, and he's the ambulance driver who tells you you're going to pull thru. He's the guy in the control tower who talked you down in a storm with a hole in your fuselage and both engines on fire. I heard him barking thru the Rose Alley Carnival strobe as samurai firemen were pulling hose. Yea he's the dispatcher with the heart of gold, the only guy up this late on the suicide hotline. Ken Nordine is the real angel sitting on the wire in the tangled matrix of cobwebs that holds the whole attic together. Yea Ken Nordine, he's the switchboard operator at the Taft Hotel, the only place in town you can get a drink at this hour. You know Ken Nordine, he's the lite in the icebox, he's the blacksmith on the anvil in your ear.
2. (from Centerstage Media... a Chicago "who's who")
Chicago's most famous voice? "Word-Jazz" master and former voice of the Chicago blackhawks...
3. (from Laurie Anderson's "green room"... Friday, March 17 Chicago Theater)
Ken Nordine came to the show. One of the all time great Amrerican voices. I've always wanted to do an opera with him playing God. Don't know what my own role would be. Check out "Word Jazz" and all his classics - especially "The Stranger."
4. (from Ken Nordine: Reviews from the Street... also out of Centerstage "who's who")
Sat Nov 22 17:20:40 CST 1997Jim Yoakum (Mrpither12@aol.com) says:
An innovator. He is to spoken word what Yardbird Parker was to shoe selling. An original!
Tue Apr 29 07:23:13 CDT 1997vikter (mail@email.net) says:
ken nordine is like a diamond bullet shot into my forehead. and i thought, my god....
Tue Apr 22 04:09:26 CDT 1997Scott Altizer (ekmek@pacbell.net) says:Simply put, Ken Nordine is a genius. He's navigating in uncharted territory. Not only is he in a place no one else could ever be, he's in a place no one else could ever imagine being. To say he's "one of a kind" is a humorous understatement. If he were a musician his talent would rival Bartok's, Satie's, Prokofiev's. If he were a film director his films would be as good as Fellini's, Scorsese's, David Lynch's. Yet, what Ken Nordine does none of these men could ever dream of doing. Well...except, maybe, David Lynch.