Dexter Gordon "Dexter Calling" - The Blue Note Years - Part 3

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“ … his own date for Savoy on 30 October, 1945,  … reveal the saxophonist still identifiably absorbing his influences, although the distinctive compound he was brewing from them is already evident in places. Lester Young's smooth, relaxed ease, Coleman Hawkins's big, rich sonority and projection, and Illinois Jacquet's honking robustness can all be heard behind his playing,

but his fluidity and harmonic originality are clearly working their way to the surface,  ….

While unquestionably cast in the emerging bebop idiom, these performances also underline the saxophonist's roots in the pre-bop era. Those polarities of sophisticated harmonic awareness and driving swing remained the basic building blocks of his style, and were a source of a great deal of creative interaction within his playing, both in generating internal tension and subverting expectations. The session also pre-figured what would become another of his trademarks (and something of a bop staple in general), a penchant for inserting quotations from other tunes into the piece he was playing, often for humorous effect. It became an overdone convention (and, in lesser hands, often a way of avoiding the demands of genuine invention), but can be effective when deployed in the right way, and Gordon, while never reluctant to ham it up, was one of its most skilled exponents.

He was back in the studio with the Benny Carter Orchestra early in 1946, ….

Gordon is in full flow on these sides, with that big, authoritative tenor sound which he cultivated throughout his career spilling across the top-rank rhythm section  …. 

The fourth cut is his first great ballad performance on disc; there would be many more to come. He seemed to be in particular sympathy with the ballad idiom, both in terms of sonority and expression (although he adopts a wider vibrato here than would subsequently be the case, notably on the alternate take, which may be why it was rejected). Like Lester Young, he had precise ideas on the question of ballad interpretation, including the now familiar notion that familiarity with the lyrics of the song in question is crucial even in a purely instrumental interpretation. It was a theme he returned to often in interviews, and he would sometimes introduce ballad performances on stage by reciting a line or two of the song before playing, while his ballad tempos became ever more cliff-hangingly slow as his career progressed.”

- Kenny Mathieson, Cookin’ Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954-1965

While the Blue Note 1961-1965 recordings were in progress, Dexter decamped for a two week gig at Ronnie Scott’s London club in 1962. He was so enamored with the European Jazz scene that he decided to stay for a while. 

Apart from a few brief visits home, “a while” was to last 14 years.

He settled in Copenhagen, with the city’s Montmartre jazz club as his base. 

Dexter’s presence attracted the best local musicians, who soon became much more than mere accompanists, but excellent individual soloists in their own right.

It’s hard to improve on a rhythm section composed of drummer Alex Riel, pianist Tete Montoliu and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (aged 18 at the time) and they rise splendidly to the occasion as can be heard on recordings they made at the club with Dex beginning in 1964.

“Gordon was in great form, and his supple, mercurial style, with a tendency to phrase just behind the beat, would have been pretty demanding, but you can tell that Gordon feels at home from the number of outrageous quotations he inserts into his solos and the warm, dry breadth of his tone, clarity of improvised line and sheer, uplifting command of the instrument.” David Gelly, review in The Guardian].

Dexter Gordon: Dexter Calling [Blue Note CDP 746544 2] was the second, individual LP to be issued in the Blue Note series.

Here’s Leonard Feather’s notes to the second of Dexter’s Blue Note LPs 

“THE first time I saw Dexter Gordon, all of twenty years ago, he was a teen-aged member of the new and at that time very exciting Lionel Hampton band. Because the band's first hit was Flyin' Home, with Illinois Jacquet as the focal point, there was no opportunity at that time to gain an adequate musical impression of Dexter. He was merely the other tenor player in the band, about whom the only noteworthy aspects were his height (even today at 6'5" he towers above every jazzman except Randy Weston] and his remarkable facial resemblance to the young Joe Louis.

A couple of years later, when the bebop phenomenon had just begun to shake up the whole jazz scene, Dexter reappeared as a member of the wild and wonderful Billy Eckstlne band, in which he had taken over Lucky Thompson's chair. The band's recordings during that potent period were few in number and atrociously recorded, but those of us who were fortunate enough to hear the Eckstine outfit in person can still think back fondly on the profound impression made by the bond and the complete upheaval effected by its soloists, principal among whom were Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Dexter. It was then that followers of the jazz revolution became aware of Dex's status as well as his stature. He was the first major soloist to transfer the characteristics of the new music (bebop, as it was just then beginning to be called) to the tenor saxophone.

From that point forward, through a four-year era that proved to be formative and definitive in Dexter's career, Manhattan was his home base. It was in New York that he made his first combo records, with his own group, with Dizzy and with Sir Charles Thompson (featuring Bird); around the same time he was part of the fast-changing small-night-club scene on and off 52nd Street. But at the end of this period, in 1948, Dexter Gordon went back home—to Los Angeles.

Despite his long association with New York music and musicians, Dexter had always regarded Los Angeles as home base. He was born there February 27, 1923, the son of a well known doctor whose patients included Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington. During his high school years he studied harmony, theory, clarinet and alto. Despite his height, he didn't make a specialty of basketball ("baseball was my bag," he says), and at 17 quit both school and athletics to become a full-time musician.

It was a complete shock to him when he was catapulted into the big time. "I thought Marshall Royal was kidding," he recalls, "when he called me up to offer me a job with Hamp's band. I went over to Hamp's pad, and we blew a while, and that was it. We went right out on the road, without any rehearsal, cold. I was expecting to be sent home every night!'

Dexter's orchestral experience — the three years with Hampton, six months with the Louis Armstrong big bond of 1944 and 18 months with Eckstine - were invaluable in rounding out his musicianship, but as the big band era began to fade and combos accentuated the trend toward individualism, if became obvious that Dex's future lay in this more personal context. Though he still works occasionally in big bands, such as the sporadically active Onzy Matthews group in Los Angeles, he has spent most of the past decade as a soloist backed by a rhythm section.

When Alfred Lion signed him to a Blue Note contract in the spring of 1961, he had been off the scene in the Apple for close to 13 years. All those years away from the center of modern jazz could easily have corroded the style of a less formidable personality, but fortunately in recent years, as Dex points out, there has been an increasing influx of the best modern musicians into the Southern California scene, and it has been less difficult for him to find capable musicians to work with. Nevertheless, when Lion decided to fly him to New York for his first two albums, he found an excitement and stimulus that proved invaluable in bringing out the best in him.

The first product of his visit, Doin' Allright, with Freddie Hubbard and the Horace Parlan rhythm section, was released on Blue Note 4077. This second session was recorded the night before Dex flew back home.

One member of the rhythm section on this date was an old friend. Kenny Drew, during a three-year residence in California (1953-6), frequently worked as part of Dex's accompanying team on gigs around Los Angeles.

Of the other two participants, Dexter observes: 'I'd never worked with Paul Chambers before, but I'd met him when he was out here with Miles, and of course, what I'd heard of his work made me very happy at the prospect of having him on this date.  And Philly Joe, though I hadn't worked with him since I moved back to California, did play a gig with me once in Philadelphia, when he subbed for Art Blakey in a group I had. Fats Navarro, Tadd Domeron and Nelson Boyd were the others, and Philly at that time was just known as Joe Jones. He was cool that night, but I had no special reaction and no idea he'd become the major influence he is today"

Soul Sister, the original that launches the first side, is one of the themes Dexter wrote for the score of the Hollywood version of The Connection in which he had an acting, playing and writing role; it is the equivalent of Freddie Redd's Theme for Sister Salvation, composed for the original East Coast production of the Jack Gelber play and recorded by Redd's quartet on Blue Note 4027.

The opening and closing passages are played in a contagiously swinging 3/4 (Dexter's first recorded work in waltz time), but the main blowing body of the performance is in four Coincidentally, right after making this data, Kenny Draw joined still another company of The Connection for an overseas tour. Dexter, Kenny and Paul, in their solos on this track, all manage to convey the essence of a gospel-tinged soul feel without descending into the bathos that has accompanied too many performances along these lines.

Modal Mood, a beautifully conceived original by Kenny, shows several facets of Dexter's development in recent years. Compare this track (or, for that matter, any track on this LP) with some of his earlier work in the bop days, and you will find an extension of his dynamic range as well as his harmonic and melodic resourcefulness. Particularly impressive is the kicking end to his solo just before Kenny takes over. Kenny's facility, too, is brilliantly demonstrated here; there's one sudden run — I'm sure you'll notice it immediately — that is technically amazing and musically startling.

I Want More, the significantly titled Gordon theme that closes the first side, is the West Coast equivalent of O.D. (overdose), for the scene toward the end of The Connection when Leach keels over. Dexter's strength, conviction and masterful sense of building are demonstrated. Philly, after supplying an inspiring backing, is heard in fours with Dex, and has the channel to himself, on the lost chorus before the me-reprise.

End of a love Affair, the only pop song in this set, one for which Dex had developed a liking after hearing several singers use it, has some of the most authoritative blowing of the session by all concerned and is Dexter's favorite track.

Clear The Dex, a Kenny Drew original, makes impressive use of off-beat pedal-point effects on the dominant. Philly shows how vital his contribution can be at an up-tempo such as this; Paul's solo this time is arco, and Kenny gets into a funky chordal groove.

Ernie's Tune is the last of the three themes on this LP from Dexter's Connection score. It parallels Music Forever, in Freddie Redd's score, in the scene triggered by the psychopathic Ernie's wild outburst. "The interlude here,” says Dex, "represents Ernie's Jekyll-and-Hyde personality?' This is one of Dex's most attractive tunes, with unusually pretty changes.

Smile was remembered by Dexter as a song he had heard Nat Cole sing; he had no idea, until I pointed it out, that the Chaplin who wrote it is the same Charlie Chaplin who has starred in all the movies for which he has composed original scores. Dexter got into such a fine groove in tackling the vehicle that it was decided to let him retain the spotlight all the way instead of stepping aside for other soloists. It's an electrically energetic performance for which the cooking of this superb rhythm section furnished an ideal complement.

Summing up his feelings about the circumstances preceding this session and the results it produced, Dexter said: "It was beautiful to be back East after so long. Things are not as competitive, not as intense as in California. Besides, it was a gas to work with Kenny again, and to record with Philly and Paul for the first lime.

"There were no hassles at all on this date. I couldn't have asked for anything more!' For those who knew Dexter long ago — like the fans who hung up a "Dexter We Love You" sign in the hall where he recently staged a Chicago reunion with his old Eckstine band buddy, Gene Ammons — the arrival of this tenor titan on the Blue Note scene is on event rich in both music and nostalgia. For the newer student, too young to have heard him when bebop was in flower, these sides offer an indispensable introduction to a man who, in more than one sense, is a towering musical figure of our time.”

-LEONARD FEATHER (Author of The New Encyclopedia of Jazz)

“Added to this, Dexter Gordon's second Blue Note album, is an original which Dexter titled "Landslide" when it was first issued some twenty years after its recording. He explained the title by saying that something about the piece reminded him of tenor saxophonist Harold Land. For this CD release, this tune has been added to complete the session.”

-MICHAEL CUSCUNA

Dan Morgenstern Sessions Notes from the Boxed Set Booklet -

(B) MAY 9,1961

“A mere three days elapsed between Dexter's first and second Blue Note dates — obviously the label wanted more. A distinguished trio assembled for the occasion. 

Pianist Kenny Drew, born in New York in 1928, was a prodigy, performing his debut recital at age 8. While still attending the High School of Music and Art, he worked with dancer-choreographer Pearl Primus. He recorded with Howard McGhee and had the opportunity to accompany Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Charlie Parker and make his recording debut on Blue Note prior to moving to the west coast in 1953, where he had his own trio and recorded with Dexter, among others. Back in New York, his associations included Dinah Washington, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Donald Byrd and Buddy Rich. Shortly after this date, he went to Europe with a production of "The Connection" and settled first in Paris, and then, from 1964 until his death in 1993, in Copenhagen, where he often worked with Dexter. Bassist 

Paul Chambers, born in 1935 in Pittsburgh, moved to Detroit at 13 and went to school with Donald Byrd and Doug Watkins. He was with Kenny Burrell in 1949 and came to New York in 1955, joining Miles Davis later that year and staying until 1963, when he formed a trio with section mates Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb. In declining health for the final years of his life, he died in 1969. 

Philly Joe Jones was Chambers' colleague in the Miles Davis Quintet until 1958. Born in Philadelphia in 1923, he studied piano as a child; after discharge from military service in 1943, he became involved in music, hanging out with the Heath brothers, making his pro debut with Benny Golson two years later, and playing with many luminaries in his hometown, Dexter among them. After touring with Joe Morris and Johnny Griffin, he came to New York, worked with Tony Scott at Minton's, and spent some seminal time with Tadd Dameron before joining Miles. His last work as a leader was with the group Dameronia. He died in 1985.”