Textured, open, and studious Jordan Mackampa in 2023 is immersive and exuberant finally at a place of comfortability in himself and his output as a singer and songwriter. He’s quick to point out musical forebearers like Brandy — to him, Full Moon is a seminal body of work for many an R&B artist. Conversations in and around music from his perspective articulate his grip on the art form and ordained vocation within the sector.
Jordan’s aptitude for musical expression was inherited from his mother’s ear. Not a musician herself, she would often fill the rooms of Jordan’s London-based childhood home with a diet of anyone from Curtis Mayfield to Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, and Marvin Gaye, nourishing the ears of an inquisitive, infant Mackampa. But his first, audacious experience with music, which led with him and was his own took place at a youth center near his home. “I knew I wanted to perform,” Jordan enthuses. Unsure as to whether it was his spirit, God, or a combination of the two forces, he signed up to perform for the first time at this juncture — a freshman in adolescence at the time.
Juxtaposed with his audacity, is a willingness to always work at his craft — Jordan would lock himself in the recording studios at his youth center across his teenage years, also learning to perfect instruments such as the drums and guitars. It was around his latter-teen years that he decided to pursue music on his own terms, studying Popular Music Performance at Northampton.
