But the thing he is probably best loved for is a series of albums released in the late Fifties on Dot Records called Word Jazz. The four albums, recorded between 1957 and 1960, have been anthologized several times over the course of their history (including a vinyl collection on Blue Thumb and a CD on Rhino), but they have never before been made available on CD in their entirety.

You’re Getting Better: The Word Jazz Dot Masters contains all 49 tracks from the original albums, plus the bonus track from the Blue Thumb compilation, plus five previously unreleased tracks newly discovered in the vaults, on two compact discs. In all, 27 tracks make their CD debut.

Not only was Nordine involved with the project at every step, he also invited some of his celebrated friends to contribute; both Laurie Anderson and Tom Waits have authored notes for the release, as has Nordine’s long-time engineer, engineer, Jim Cunningham. Needless to say, Ken has also written some notes, and has provided some rare photos for the set.

For those of you unfamiliar with Word Jazz, you should give the samples a listen. You’ll dig ’em. As Frank Zappa once said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," and that goes double about Nordine's intermingling of jazz and poetry. Maybe the closest audio-free approximation one could make is that, in these recordings, Ken Nordine has metaphorically given you the keys to his cerebellum and invited you out for a test spin. Or he's the coolest camp counselor ever, and he's telling stories around the campfire of our darkest night.

Painstakingly remastered in 2005 from the original master tapes, You’re Getting Better also contains all of the notes from the highly collectable and extremely rare original vinyl releases.

Nordine produced his first-ever Word Jazz DVD, The Eye Is Never Filled, earlier this year, 45 years after the last Dot Word Jazz release.