Maxine Gordon: The Legacy of Dexter Gordon

AAJ: In a way, the music is a devotion, a spiritual act that brings people together. It goes deeper than almost any other art form. There's a real sense of community.

MG: Facebook is an example of that. My son does Dexter's Facebook page, where there are over 33,000 Dexter Gordon fans, and they're so devoted and know so much about Dexter, and many of them write about "the first time I heard him"—and with the younger ones it's on a recording—it's unbelievable how they connect. And with Dexter it's his sound that captivates people. Also, Dexter was like us—he was a jazz fan. One time, he played at the Village Gate with Machito. A group of musicians were having a conversation in the dressing room. A woman journalist who couldn't get their lingo asked Dexter, "Do you understand what they're talking about?" He said, "Maxine can translate for you. She speaks bebop." [Laughter]

AAJ: There is a special language the musicians and speak in common.

MG: The historical tradition is also a source of commonality. Dexter would point out to me how, since I first got interested in jazz in 1957, I missed hearing a whole slew of jazz greats perform live, like Bird, and Billie Holiday, of course.

AAJ: The tradition lives in the music despite the changes. And we have recordings. But one does miss not having heard one or another player live in concert or at a nightclub.

MG: And the recordings don't always measure up to live performances. I heard Junior Cook on almost a daily basis when we were on tour together, and he was terrific night after night. But he suffered from claustrophobia, so in the recording studio, he was very uncomfortable. The truth is that if you never heard Junior Cook in person, you'll never know how great he was. He was very restrained on the recordings.

AAJ: Even the best recordings miss a dimension that you get when you're in the room experiencing the whole ambience of the performance. Now, to conclude, what's on tap for Maxine Gordon?

MG: On February 27, Dexter's birthday, I'm giving two talks at Brown University in Providence, RI. And I'm going to L.A. in March. In May, I'm going to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Of course, I need to complete Dexter's biography. And when that's done, I plan to work on developing The Dexter Gordon Foundation, especially the educational component and preserving and disseminating Dexter's legacy, a task which my son Woody III is increasingly doing. I'm also planning my next book, which will be on Shirley Scott, Melba Liston, and Maxine Sullivan, a social history of three prominent women in jazz. They're three very important figures in jazz, and I'll include a fictive conversation on what they would say to each other now. Melba was very close to Dexter, who felt he learned so much from her. When he was a student in L.A., she did all the band arrangements. He loved her. He always called her "Mischievous Lady," and they hung out together until the end.

AAJ: You also mentioned Mary Lou Williams, one of the great women in jazz.

MG: Yes. Woody III is on the Board of The Mary Lou Williams Foundation, Inc. and I work with the Foundation in an advisory capacity. Woody handles their website.

Selected Discography

• Dexter Gordon, Night Ballads: Montreal 1977 (Uptown Records. 2012)
• Dexter Gordon, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Columbia Legacy, 2011)
• Dexter Gordon, Round Midnight (Columbia, 1985)
• Dexter Gordon, Gotham City (Columbia, 1980)
• Dexter Gordon, Live at Carnegie Hall (Columbia, 1978)
• Dexter Gordon, The Apartment (SteepleChase, 1974)
• Dexter Gordon, Tangerine (Prestige, 1972)
• Dexter Gordon, Body and Soul (Black Lion, 1967)
• Dexter Gordon, Gettin' Around (Blue Note, 1965)
• Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris (Blue Note, 1963)
• Dexter Gordon, Go! (Blue Note. 1962)
• Dexter Gordon, Doin' Allright (Blue Note, 1961)
• Dexter Gordon, The Chase (Dial,1947)
• Dexter Gordon, Long Tall Dexter (Savoy, 1946)