PRESTIGIOUS? MOI?? DEXTER GORDON BEYOND BLUE NOTE

Long, tall Dexter of the huge sound, laid back beat, sinuous lines and outrageous quotes is a great favourite of Art Themen’s and of mine.

Art is always producing parts for Dexter’s tunes on his quartet gigs at the Bull’s Head. (When will we four meet again?  I dread to ask.)

I only ever got to play with Dexter himself once – at a jazz festival in Norway – and it is very happy memory. You can hear a track from this concert on the music page.  However, I am a hopeless addicted record collector as well as a musician and I’d like to talk briefly today about Dexter’s recorded output. 

In the 1940s records he recorded top quality be-bop under his own name for SAVOY and DIAL.

His career in the 1950s was blighted by drug addiction and absences from the scene. He only managed two albums for the BETHLEHEM label (one under the name of drummer Stan Levey), and one album for DOOTONE (with the superb Carl Perkins on piano).

Then in 1960s the resurgence of Dexter Gordon – not especially on the rather mediocre Jazzland album of that name from 1960 – but in a series of magnificent recordings for BLUE NOTE from May 1961 onwards, especially Doin’ allright, Dexter calling, Go and A swinging affair.

In the winter of 1962/3, Dexter started visiting Europe and eventually settled in Denmark for a while, making a lot of recordings (many of them live from the Montmartre club in Copenhagen) for the local STEEPLECHASE label. When he finally made a permanent return to the States at the end of 1976, he signed with COLUMBIA. His latter day records featured a Rolls-Royce rhythm section of George Cables, then Kirk Lightsey on piano, Rufus Reid on bass and Eddie Gladden on drums but the powers of the old master himself seemed to be waning on faster tempos and he settled mostly for long, slow ballads. 

I have kept till last the years (1969 – 1973) when Dexter was still at the height of his powers and when he made a series of important records for PRESTIGE.  

I have long been familiar with the vinyl but have recently been spending my lockdown hours listening to a marvellous CD box set including fascinating alternate takes called Dexter Gordon – the complete PRESTIGE recordings. 

The highspot is undoubtedly The Tower of Power and More Power, the albums which were the result of a recording session held in New York on 2nd and 4th April 1969 under the supervision of the excellent producer Don Schlitten. The peerless Barry Harris is on piano and an even bigger bonus is the presence on a few tracks of James Moody, a fluent, witty, light-footed tenor saxophonist who makes a perfect foil for Dexter. One of the tunes Moody joins Dexter on is Tadd Dameron’s “Ladybird” and he plays the theme of Miles Davis’s “Half Nelson” simultaneously. It’s magic and there’s an alternate take!

Other treasures include from May 1969, Live at the Left Bank with Bobby Timmons on piano and from July 1970 The Panther, this time Tommy Flanagan on piano and the awesome Alan Dawson (Tony Williams’s teacher) on drums.

August 1970 produces The jumpin’ blues featuring Wynton Kelly and I really like the three quintet dates (with Freddie Hubbard or Thad Jones on trumpet) entitled Tangerine, Generation and Ca’purange. 

There are a lot of other goodies too. Go on. Treat yourself to an extravagant Christmas present with sounds to blot out the misery of 2020: Dexter at his most Prestigious

Dexter Gordon – THE COMPLETE PRESTIGE RECORDINGS 11PRCD-4442-2