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Dexter Gordon: Lester Young
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Dexter Gordon--there is a name to conjure with. Veteran listeners will certainly remember him but younger fans probably will not although he was intermittently active during the '50s. To musicians (especially those saxophonists who have been directly or indirectly influenced by him), Dexter Gordon has always been a highly important player. As the first man to synthesize the Young, Hawkins and Parker strains in translating the bop idiom to the tenor saxophone, he was an important contributor. It is not... from a stylistic, historical angle that he has been appreciated. Dexter has always been a direct, exciting communicator of emotions; his big sound and declarative attack are as commanding of attention as his imposing height.
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THOUGH HE'S NOT always ranked with sax icons like Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon was a master of postwar jazz and a key tenor of the bebop era. He particularly influenced Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, while his own body of work practically glows with brilliance. His hard-bop intensity, witty improvisations, rhythmic daring, harmonic savvy, and magnificent tone all contributed to his legend and fueled his popularity when he finally emerged from European exile in the late '70s.
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A widely reproduced photograph of Dexter Gordon sums up jazz in a single image -- the great saxophonist is lost in the music, with his instrument at rest and a stream of smoke rising from his cigarette. Gordon's own music always created the same state of reverie, mixing Lester Young's cool lyricism with Charlie Parker's bop innovations; forming his own unique sound in the process. Like Paul Desmond, Gordon quoted different songs -- as well as bits of other artists' solos -- at strategic spots during both his frenzied swingers and devastating ballads. He spent most of the '50s in jail on narcotics charges before releasing a series of stunning albums on Blue Note in the '60s. Gordon caught the acting bug in prison and later received an Academy Award nomination for his leading role in Round Midnight. Consumed with illness at the time, his playing was in serious decline but still held flashes of its former brilliance.
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The reputation of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was destined to be overshadowed by John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, not to mention the three titans of the previous era--Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. This wouldn't matter so much if Gordon wasn't a musician of the first rank himself. Indeed, Coltrane initially derived much of his hard, piercing sound from the older bop player. Part of the problem isthat there isn't one key Dexter Gordon album that crystallises his achievement, not like Rollin's SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS orColtrane's GIANT STEPS or A LOVE SUPREME.
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Gordon made several notable film appearances. The first occurred, oddly enough, while he was in prison for possession of heroin. He portrayed an inmate playing in the prison band in Unchained, though the soundtrack was later overdubbed. In 1986, Gordon starred in the movie Round Midnight as 'Dale Turner', an expatriate jazz musician much like himself; the role might even be a thinly veiled biography of him, though Lester Young and Bud Powell were its main inspirations. Gordon received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. In addition, he had a non-speaking role in the film Awakenings, which was released after his death.
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Dexter (Keith) Gordon (February 27, 1923 - April 25, 1990) American tenor saxophonist, was one of the first bebop tenor players to carve out a distinctive style. He matured into one of the major tenor voices in post-war jazz -- an exciting and original player who was perhaps the single strongest influence on the young John Coltrane.
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