Dexter Gordon: Tangerine

The program, a mix of standards and originals, doesn’t offer much in the way of new material, but it does provide the players with familiar melodic terrain on which to improvise. Gordon sounds calm, cool and collected from the opening strains of the title track taking a quick succession of choruses before opening things up to the Jones brothers and Clarke. Clarke, a mere lad of 21 at the time of this date, lays down thick bass lines on his amplified upright strings that are an interesting portent to his work in later years as a leader. His globular walking figures on “August Blues” are similarly groove-laced. Gordon’s own “What It Was” is a colorful product of the era fueled by a bouncing boogaloo beat that allows both saxophone and flugelhorn ample space to shimmy expressively. The final track, a remainder from an earlier session switches rhythm section and brass and Hubbard in particular seems to revel in his reunion with Gordon. What’s on tap here is largely interchangeable with the rest of Gordon’s work of the period, but considering the credentials of the bartender it’s still a brew guaranteed to intoxicate the senses.Tracks:Tangerine/ August Blues/ What It Was/ Days of Wine and Roses/ The Group*.

Players:Dexter Gordon- tenor saxophone; Thad Jones- trumpet; Hank Jones- piano; Stanley Clarke- bass; Louis Hayes- drums; Freddie Hubbard- trumpet*; Cedar Walton- piano*; Buster Williams- bass*; Billy Higgins- drums*.

Recorded: June 22 & 28, 1972, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.