Jazz Articles about Dexter Gordon

About Dexter Gordon

Album Review

Dexter Gordon: More Than You Know

Read "More Than You Know" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 13, 2026

Intitolato come un 33 giri orchestrale del lontano 1975 dello stesso Dexter Gordon, questo doppio album, uscito prima in CD e da poco più di un mese anche in vinile (poco meno di ottanta minuti totali, parlati compresi), documenta il passaggio del grande tenorsassofonista al festival genovese di Villa Imperiale del 1981, in un'edizione che ospitò anche, fra gli altri, Art Pepper, Lee Konitz con Art Farmer e, in chiusura, un piano solo di Borah Bergman. Il gruppo ...

Album Review

Dexter Gordon: More Than You Know (1981)

Read "More Than You Know (1981)" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
November 6, 2025

More Than You Know is a previously unreleased live recording by jazz legend Dexter Gordon. It is the first in the GleAM Records series dedicated to the giants of jazz. The recording features saxophonist Gordon performing with his early 1980s quartet: Kirk Lightsey on piano, David Eubanks on bass and Eddie Gladden on drums. Dating from July 1981, it was recorded at the Villa Imperiale, Genoa, Italy and has the full backing of Gordon's estate. Having played with ...

Album Review

Dexter Gordon & The Stooges: Raw Blow Power

Read "Raw Blow Power" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 1, 2025

Imagine a Detroit dive bar in 1969, where the feral howl of The Stooges collides with the towering tenor of Dexter Gordon in a haze of sweat, distortion, and cigarette smoke. Raw Blow Power, released on the FuzzTone rock label, is that feverish hallucination brought to life--a snarling, swinging beast of an album that fuses proto-punk savagery with hard bop finesse. The story goes that someone taped this lost session in a single booze-soaked night at the Grande ...

History of Jazz

Gravity and Resurgence: The Many Dimensions of Dexter Gordon

by Arthur R George
February 6, 2025

Long Tall Dexter; swinger, bebopper, saxophone balladeer; acting the dissipated genius expatriate who was not unlike himself in the movie Round Midnight; his dressed-up persona “Society Red;" the laconic elder statesman of his later years. Dexter Gordon is all those things, but more than a kaleidoscope of caricatures. Those who trace their lineages through Sonny Rollins or John Coltrane and beyond contain within them the earlier influence of Dexter Gordon. Joshua Redman, among contemporary players, attributes his robust ...

Radio & Podcasts

Our Man in Paris: An American Travelogue

by David Brown
August 1, 2023

For this week's show, let's travel to Europe with a variety of American artists performing in France, recording for French film soundtracks, and collaborating with French artists. Etes-vous prêt? Co-hosted by Lisa Jo Epstein. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 06:10 Sidney Bechet “Ooh Boogie!" from Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Feetwarmers (Esquire) 03:00 Les Double Six “Naima" from Les Double Six (RCA Victor) 05:55 Dexter Gordon “Scraple from the Apple" ...

Album Review

Various Artists: The Birth of Bop

Read "The Birth of Bop" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
May 3, 2023

Someone famously called jazz the sound of surprise, but all too often, what is on offer is the dull hum of routine. Or something like that. This historic reissue is, however, anything but routine. This is not the first time that Teddy Reig's Savoy sides have been reissued (was he also the mysterious Buck Ram listed as producing one track?), but Craft Recordings took a lot of trouble to produce this very fine selection. If a listener were, ...

Book Review

Dexter Gordon - Sophisticated Giant. La biografia del grande sassofonista

by Angelo Leonardi
October 11, 2021

Dexter Gordon—Sophisticated Giant Maxine Gordon 294 pagine ISBN: # 9788859257523 EDT 2019 Questa splendida biografia di Dexter Gordon è in circolazione da un po' ma resta attuale come ogni classico: è infatti uno dei migliori (e appassionanti) esempi di letteratura jazzistica. Nessuno, meglio dell'ultima moglie Maxine, poteva delineare la figura artistica e le vicende umane (spesso ignote) del grande sassofonista inserendole nel grande affresco storico e sociale del jazz moderno.