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Dexter Gordon - Live in Chateauvallon 1978


mjzee

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Release date October 30:

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In 1978, Dexter Gordon signed with Columbia, which boosted his career and allowed him to form and groom his own working band for the first time in his life. The wonderful quartet included George Cables on piano, Rufus Reid on bass, and Eddie Gladden on drums and was at its peak, as this November 8, 1978 concert at the Chƒteauvallon Jazz Festival bears out. Dexter is in a joyous and fiery mood, peppering his solos with outrageous quotes from other songs and stretching out.

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1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

oh this are very good News. 

1978 was a very good year for Dexter. He recorded "Manhattan Symphony", Maybe his best Columbia Album , Maybe one of his alltime best Albums and Maybe one of the best acoustic Albums of the year. 

I´m really Looking Forward for this, it´s a must have.

Btw vast parts of the outstanding "Dexter Gordon - Nights At The Keystone" (Blue Note) were recordedin 1978 .... with the very same Rhythm Section  ....

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  • 1 month later...

Saw it on the counter display at my local record store this afternoon and bought after just a moment's hesitation (welllllll geeeeeee I already have a lot of live 1970s Dexter... awww, go ahead, why not?).  Not even to the end of the first track (all of which are quite long) and am already very glad that I purchased this.  Like HutchFan, I'm a big fan of the Keystone recordings from the same year/band, which is another factor that nudged me pretty quickly into picking it up.  

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12 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Saw it on the counter display at my local record store this afternoon and bought after just a moment's hesitation (welllllll geeeeeee I already have a lot of live 1970s Dexter... awww, go ahead, why not?).  Not even to the end of the first track (all of which are quite long) and am already very glad that I purchased this.  Like HutchFan, I'm a big fan of the Keystone recordings from the same year/band, which is another factor that nudged me pretty quickly into picking it up.  

I am going to have my Dexaholic registration revoked but I have to admit I am not having a hard time resisting this one after seeing some reviews.  37 minute track with 1/2 taken up by bass and drum solos is something I can live without.  And while my opinion is in the minority, I just don't love the Cables recordings, especially on ballads. I recall Cables saying how great it was that Dex let him play whatever but I'm particular about ballads and Cables ruined every ballad released from the Keystone with his clangs and whatever-the-hell. I rank every Dex pianist ahead of Cables. Sorry not sorry.

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On 2.11.2020 at 0:00 PM, Gheorghe said:

I tried to order it on Amazon.de, but it seems it is not available . 

update: Yesterday I saw it on Amazon, only one item left, so I ordered it imediatly. 

Is this stuff a limited Edition since they had only one item ? 

Now I´m lookin Forward listening to it. 

Well, 37 minutes and half of the time bass and drum solo is a bit too much. 

I saw many Dexter Performances and after some time it became a Routine. There were not so many tunes played. 

On the usual Festival sets Dexter would start with a medium fast number, mostly "It´s You or No One" , than Play a ballad (mostly "As Time Goes By" or "More than you know"  with that Long solo piano feature and a fast blues as a Closer (usually "Backstairs" or "Gingerbread Boy") And on that last up tempo tune there would be a sheer endless drum solo . It was a great experience for me then, being Young and being a big fan of Dexter, but now Looking back it was some Kind of Routine. Between 1978 and 1983 Things changed very Little, I must admit. Well, George Cables was replaced by Kirk Leightsey and Rufus Reid by David Eubanks. 

For those who didn´t like George Cables way to Play ballads I think many of you might like the way Leightsey played the ballads…..

Edited by Gheorghe
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5 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

On the usual Festival sets Dexter would start with a medium fast number, mostly "It´s You or No One" , than Play a ballad (mostly "As Time Goes By" or "More than you know"  with that Long solo piano feature and a fast blues as a Closer (usually "Backstairs" or "Gingerbread Boy") And on that last up tempo tune there would be a sheer endless drum solo . It was a great experience for me then, being Young and being a big fan of Dexter, but now Looking back it was some Kind of Routine. Between 1978 and 1983 Things changed very Little, I must admit. Well, George Cables was replaced by Kirk Leightsey and Rufus Reid by David Eubanks.

Dexter Gordon is not the only player who kept to a script. I've seen several shows where the set list is almost the same as the previous time I saw the person. Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Johnny Griffin and JJ Johnson played similar sets year after year. In his last few shows, Jackie McLean seemed to require 'Little Melonae' in his set. Bobby Hutcherson always seemed to play 'Little B's Poem' and Jimmy Heath liked to play 'Gingerbread Boy'. Donaldson & Griffin even told the same stories between the tunes.

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1 hour ago, bresna said:

Dexter Gordon is not the only player who kept to a script. I've seen several shows where the set list is almost the same as the previous time I saw the person. Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Johnny Griffin and JJ Johnson played similar sets year after year. In his last few shows, Jackie McLean seemed to require 'Little Melonae' in his set. Bobby Hutcherson always seemed to play 'Little B's Poem' and Jimmy Heath liked to play 'Gingerbread Boy'. Donaldson & Griffin even told the same stories between the tunes.

You can add Percy France to that list and especially when he toured with Oliver Jackson/Leonard Gaskin/Cliff Smalls. Almost always the same tunes from the Le Quartet album, and same order.  He had a little variation on his own shows at the West End and the Flamingo Lounge.

But LD - I don't know how many private recordings I have with LD singing "give me back my wig" ... and his "not for fusion or con-fusion musicians" patter. 

Edited by Dan Gould
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I am not sure how this works elsewhere, but in this country, performing musicians regularly report set lists to the performance rights organization. They are sometimes more than happy to include many of their own compositions to get some extra royalties. That said, they can still spice up their life by playing different tunes from night to night (if they have enough of them). 

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17 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

You can add Percy France to that list and especially when he toured with Oliver Jackson/Leonard Gaskin/Cliff Smalls. Almost always the same tunes from the Le Quartet album, and same order.  He had a little variation on his own shows at the West End and the Flamingo Lounge.

But LD - I don't know how many private recordings I have with LD singing "give me back my wig" ... and his "not for fusion or con-fusion musicians" patter. 

 

18 hours ago, bresna said:

Dexter Gordon is not the only player who kept to a script. I've seen several shows where the set list is almost the same as the previous time I saw the person. Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Johnny Griffin and JJ Johnson played similar sets year after year. In his last few shows, Jackie McLean seemed to require 'Little Melonae' in his set. Bobby Hutcherson always seemed to play 'Little B's Poem' and Jimmy Heath liked to play 'Gingerbread Boy'. Donaldson & Griffin even told the same stories between the tunes.

If I remember Right, the last time I saw Dexter live (it must have been february 1983) he played Dameron´s "Good Bait" and Billy Eckstine´s "Jelly Jelly Jelly". He had not played those tune all the years before on the occasions I saw him live. 

About Jackie McLean: It seems I saw him on earlier occasions, not in his last Shows. On those earlier occasions everytime he played else stuff. 

And yes, Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Johnny Griffin, I saw them live and can share your opinion. Damn, I missed J.J., and I saw Bobby Hutcherson, but not leading his own band, he was in a band with Jackie McLean, Herbie Lewis and Billy Higgins...….

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