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After the most interesting discussions about Dexter Gordon on my thread Dexter/Stitt , considering the decline in Dexter´s playing in the late 70´s /80´s here is a very interesting 2 CD set of live music from 1973 in Copenhaga at Montmatre. Those recordings originally were issued as 2 LPs "The Meeting" and "The Source" and there is a bonus track on each CD too. It´s fascinating how great those two giants are playing together . Jackie McLean is my favourite alto player from Birds´ death until Jackie McLean´s death, and we all were big Dexter fans then and spinned the two LPs all the time. Dexter here is fantastic, it´s bop tenor at it´s best and some of the best Dexter from 1945 to that year 1973. You listen to them both and could listen to them for hours and hours..... The rhythm section is superb: Kenny Drew great as ever, Nils Henning really fine, maybe one ore two solos are a bit too long, and Alex Riel must have been one of the very best drummers from Danemarca . The tunes: From the first LP/CD I like especially "On the Trail" and "Rue de la Harpe", and on the second LP/CD it´s vintage bop with Half Nelson, Bird´s rare played "Another Hairdo" (a blues in C), "I can´t get started" with very interesting chord modulations in the A-part, (I know them since we also do it that way on some occasions), and "Dexter Dig´s In" much faster than the original Savoy, and in Bb instead the original Db.

I haven´t even heard about that band. Maybe I´m prejudiced but as I read the name of the band it doesn´t sound like something that might be interesting for me. Well, but pseudo funk, indifferent if white or black is not really my stuff. I was into electric jazz, jazz rock, funk in the 70´s when it was the current style of the music, played it until into the 80´s (though I never ceased to love acoustic jazz)...., but that´s all.....

I heard something vice versa, Bud sounding like Sonny Clark ! Listen to "The Scene Changes".... you hear a lot of Sonny Clark influence on it, About Sonny Clark himself, I like most his albums with horns like "Cool Struttin´" which is magic, THE hard bop album. And I heard it after I had heard "Scene Changes" and was astonished that Clark sounds like Bud on "Scene Changes". I think this was mutual influence. Clark was influenced by Bud, developed a more simple hard bop style and then Bud borrowed some of Clark´s ideas. Like in the case of Dexter influencing young Trane, and later Dexter borrowed some of Trane´s stuff, like the version of Body and Soul.....

I think I don´t have books written by Lees. I heard about his Oscar Peterson bio, it was very much advertised, but since Peterson never was so interesting to me, I didn´t buy it. I have 2 or three Peterson albums that are not so much bang bang , I think "We Got Requests" I spinned some times just for easy listening, and the "In Tune" with the Singers Unlimited, since this was quite popular in the early 70´s .....

In the 60´s I was too young. In the early 70´s some LPs were available here. They had other album covers than the original albums. This was my very first "Jazz Album", I mean the first jazz I heard. Another one was the Tadd Dameron-John Coltrane which I also liked because it had Trane and Philly J.J. so I bought it shortly after the "Steaming". Further albums followed (Rollins, Monk, MJQ). About the 60´s the most I bought would be the Impulse label, which I associated with the 60´s, and the few BN we could get (I got the Sam Rivers 2 LP set from the BN LA Series with brown paper cover). So maybe I didn´t really know that Prestige had continued in the 60´s. Maybe what came out was not exactly on my focus. I associated Prestige as one of the two major labels of leading musicians of the 50´s, and Impulse as a leading label of the 60´s. And goin back to bop, Savoy and Dial as bop labels....

I clicked the link but got some warning about to subscribe or to reject or so. Can someone reproduce what she said. Well that´s very interesting. And anyway, the relationship between her and Dex remains an enigma to me. In her book she writes that their relation started on business base and I think she still was married to Woody Shaw. See, I don´t need to read a "love story", but it seems a quite strange combination. A very very slow moving and slow speaking old man with a heavy alcool problem and - from what I have heard - a more that 20 years quite irrascible and tough business woman. Was she to Dex was Buttercup was to Bud ? Dexter always may have had his cups, in Danemarca too, but maybe people were softer, kinder to him, and maybe a tough irrascible woman who starts throwing things around in the hotel room, might have got Dexter to even increase his alcool consumption ?????

Very well told. That´s the reason why I knew from the very start that I would never try to make a living out of it. Even as a teenager, getting some acknowledge from professional musicians and people from the audience, I never considered to take the risk to live in poverty or having to be supported or being forced to play stuff that I don´t dig . Even then I saw that for example when I´ll have a wife I couldn´t imagine to ask her to help me out or telling her that we can´t take a cab because it´s to expensive or I can´t take her out or she can´t buy clothes and styling stuff, because I can´t afford it. And not to know how I pay my rent for the next month and all that...... You must be born for this, like a kind of Francisc de Asissi , not considering the materialistic aspects of live or, to have health ensurance and all that..... I did it as a second little income for some time, but when I was 30 I thought what I´m doin carryin all the stuff, the tubs, the bassfiddle the aplifiers , the keyboard on stage and after gig back into the car, drivin in the small hours, eating some terrible bean or gulaș soup in gas stations, carryin the stuff back into the rehearsal room and have few hours to sleep to get ready for the day job..... I let that all behind me for 20 years until the old guys said they want me back for two-four gigs the year, until the clubs closed due to pandemia....

Galaxy is somehow a strange label. There were a lot out then in the late 70s, it was the comeback of Griffin, it was Red Garland, and I think some stuff recorded in Japan, something like Galaxy Allstars. A lot of Art Pepper, but I don´t remember if the individual LPs made it into CD. I could purchase a CD "Return of the Griffin" for expensive money but boxes are not my ideal choice since I seldom listen to the whole output of an artist. I had a 1979 Art Pepper in Japan with George Cables, Tony Dumas and Billy Higgins, and bought two Widow´s taste, I think Londra 1981 and Stuttgard 1981 becauses I wanted to hear how he´s interpretation of "Your´s my Heart Only" from Lehár Ferenc, and it was helpful, they played it as a bossa, and I used it when we were booked for a wedding where they wanted a jazz combo. So we started with "Your´s my Heart Only" fitting to the event...

Great stories, indeed. I always wondered about the relation with Maxine. Strange to say, in her book about Dexter she doesn´t write much about their live as a married couple. But I always thought how is it to be married first to a young junkie (Woody Shaw) and then exchanging him with an old alcoolic (Dexter Gordon). Both key musicians of the 20th century, both super destructive. As a woman how can you manage that. You might be a kind of "mama Teresa" or the kind of woman that "Buttercup" was to Bud ? And .....slamming things around, sounds like a very irrascible woman, that´s even more difficult to handle. Maybe that got Dexter to increase his alcool consumption more and more ?

Yes, maybe Art Pepper would be worth a separate thread. I know about the standing ovations in Japan, since I have some of his recordings from their. Back to Gordon: How was his reception in Japan in his last years. I only heard that a concert in Tokyo in 1975 was less successful.... I also saw him in 1981 in good form. As in 1980, when John Heard was a short replacement on bass until David Eubanks arrived. But in general, faster tunes were so laid back it was difficult to find out wether they were together, and ballads were just too slow. His cadenzas, maybe it´s a question of taste, but I heard other tenor players playing better cadenzas. Anyway, I didn´t see Dexter in 1982, so the next time was in 1983 and it was hard to recognize the man who had performed in 1980,81.

Could be....Eddie was with Dex until the end of his playing career in 1983 which I witnessed. It was a painful thing and I left with embarrased disapointment. Dexter´s sets from 1978 - 83 were almost identical. If it was a short set , it was 3 tunes, usually a faster start like "It´s You or No One", then the ballad "More than you know" or "As Time goes by" and then a fast blues in B flat. If it was a longer set, the second tune would be a medium tempo swing, like "Tangerine" or "Fried Bananas" for example. Those fast Blues in B flat.....Dexter played almost every time the same phrases, one of them was always "Here comes the Bride", some cliché riffs you know from tenor battles, and a lot of one note solo, only the B flat in diferent registers, almost a "one note soloist"...... But .....he had that charisma, the audience loved him and went nuts as soon as he walked on stage or announced a tune.....

That´s it: Same generation, same sources of musical inspiration. In my case it was the stride section Byard plays on Parkeriana, since the ATFW USA didn´t appear on the original edition of the French 3 LP-Set "The Great Concert of Charles Mingus". It was written on the liner notes that it was the first piece, but that it was not well recorded and omitted . So the first stride I heard was in the couse or Jakies solo on Parkeriana. I loved that contrast between old and "new" and actually it was just my second "jazz album" (the first was Miles´ Steamin). To almost start listening to jazz by listening to Mingus´ 1964 touring band, I think, was a wonderful start into that wonderful music. You could hear some of the spirit of 60´s avantgarde mixed with lookin back to bop, and even stride. I got the ATFW USA a bit later when I purchased "Town Hall Concert" which was done just a few days before the european tour. Yeah, great times, it was so new when I was at high school....

oh you really flexible. I think when I was young I also could leastening to completly different music. Now I couldn´t listen to Fats Waller AFTER Weather Report. Sure I love both of them. Maybe Fats Waller in my case was more for "studying" the tehnique of stride. I mean I first heard Jakie Byard on Mingus64 when I was 14,15, and later other pianists of his generation like Bud and Monk and both liked some stride sections in it, so I bought two Art Tatum albums, and a RCa-2-LP set of Fats Waller. Sure I never could have the left hand of Fats Waller, but at least it´s a good lesson because many Bop and Hard imitators became single handed pianists so I wanted to overcome that weakness.

I have them all with the cover of the Newport Rebels, but to my surprise it also has the other two Candid Albums. That was a good choice by my wife for Chrismas. I didn´t have them. As for "Faubus". It´s okay but the really "Faubus" I loved from first hearing when I was a teenager was with Dolphy, Byard in Paris. I noticed I knew some tunes from other albums. I heard Hora Decubitus and imediatly I knew it is "A´s flat E´s flat Too" from Blues´n Roots. But very nice music. And my admiration for the veterans Eldrige and Papa Jones. They really fit in and Eldrige anyway was thousends of miles ahead of his time. And Joe Jones really plays much more modern than other drummers of his generation. An yes, it´s a pity there is no Ornette and Cherry recorded....

Never thought about the colours of the cover. But I love very much what Clifford Jordan does on it. Cliff and Art Farmer, if I remember right, and from God knows from where, the former Bird bassist Teddy Kotick. My favourite Horace Silver albums of the 50´s are 6 Pieces of Silver, the Stylings of Silver and this one.

Nice pics of the room. Is this 50´s style ? My first radio and turntable (I think I got grandma´s , after she died in the early 70´s , was also those old wooden radios, and an old late 60´s early 70´s tape recorder. About Prestige: Prestige records were easy to purchase here in Austria. It was mainly the label from which we "learned" about the music of our idols Miles, Trane, Rollins, Monk. Those classic RVG sessions. The next Prestige I saw was some early 70´s Dexter Gordon when I wondered that Prestige still existed. We also had heard that they didn´t pay a lot of money so we wondered why Dexter made a deal with them. But those two "Tangerin" and "Capurange" are nice...

I knew that I wanted to read your point of view in this thread. The interesting thing is, that in those late 70´s there was such a Dexter Gordon hype that I and some friends of mine really jumped on that train. "Manhattan Symphony" was wonderful. Sure we witnessed great moments, some great concerts here in Austria with the exception of the last time in february 1983 which was a mess..... A friend from Cehoslovacia went to NY in 1978 and taped two shows of Dexter on July 4th 1978 at Vanguard. I don´t know HOW he could do that, because it was not only a small casetofon with integrated mike, it was recorded with 2 mikes in stereo. When he came back, we heard it on revox or how you called those big things....., this was very good. But later, and mostly after reading your critical point of view I gave it a thought and started to listen back to some stuff from then, from another perspective, and started to understand what you mean. "Tangerine" sounded much better on the 1972 Prestige album with the same title. Here it seems that Dexter really was loaded. And it´s just too long tracks, to long solos. And somehow it sounds that you wanted when comes the point where it falls a piece. "Strollin´".... I never head a concert in which this tune would have been in the repertory, but it sounds much better than Tangerine. But I never heard or read about a Dexter-Horace Silver connection..... "More than you know" and "Backstage" was almost on every concert. "More than you know" just too slow for my tastes, and Backstage....well everybody here knows how much I like drum solos, but it was always too long.. STITT: Wow I didn´t know about this reason.....refusing to transpose tunes when switching from tenor to alto. I can play in any key but I am a very weak reader. I got perfect pitch and can play in any key, but if I "read" a G flat or an E-flat, it has to be a G flat or E-flat.

I have the BN CD but have not spinned it for years. If I remember right, because I´m not such a fan of Dave Burns or Stanley Turrentine. Don´t ask me why......

Thank you so much !

Just wonderful ! I never had thought that Lee Morgan performed with the Oscar Peterson Trio. The Messengers All Star Band is phantastic. I only saw an excerpt of it on the Blue Note documentary film. Does a DVD of the whole event exist ? Once I also saw on you tube some shortages of a Japanes BN Festival at the Mount Fuji, but I don´t know if it exists as whole performances, CD or DVD....

I´m so glad you are back. I had your critical point of view about the later style of Dexter Gordon, when I started this topic:

Just got a mail from Viena Concerthaus with jazz in spring schedule. I saw the names "Billy Childs" and "Branford Marsalis Concert". Billy Childs, wasn´t he that great keyboardist who played in the 70´s , I think with Freddie Hubbard, and with J.J. Johnson at Yokohama ? But the guy on the photo looks younger than I thought.... Would it be interesting to see the Branford Marsalis Quartet. I saw Branford only with VSOP II in 1983 and he was great. What kind of music are they playing ?

oh yes, we did that also, my wife and me. On the same occasions. We cook together and have joke-hassles who will be the chef cook (bucătar șef) and the "șef" would be the first to take a break and have a glass of wine

I saw Art Taylor in 1985 with Tommy Flanagan and George Mraz, really an all star trio. The strange thing was, that Flanagan and Mraz started and there was no Taylor. He came on stage late, in the middle of a tune played by Flanagan and Mraz, and slowly started to settle his drum set, and while doing that, he slowly began to play with them, first only the hi hat, while continuing to get his traps fixed, and at least we had the complete Art Taylor. I don´t know what was the cause, did they travel with different airoplanes, or was it a worse reason ? His book Notes and Tones is wonderful, I bought it in 1982. He was such a Bird and Bud lover that he asked all the artists he interviewed about their impression of Bird and Bud.

I also say first I´ll see what the issue. If it is 1973-75....I already have the Dark Magus, Aghartha and Pangeea, all of them live albums, but Dark Magus I like most. And I have the 1973 Vienna, which I saw on TV at that time. 1974 in Brasilia could be interesting, maybe. I´d like to hear another good live performance from 1981. We Want Miles is the greatest, but almost all the good stuff is from the club gig at KIX in Boston. I think 2 years ago my wife bought me a bootleg of Miles 1981 at Hollywood Bowl, were he is celebrated with "Miles Davis Day". But to my disappointment , other than at the KIX club, he plays mostly muted and barely audible. I like the strong open Horn from the KIX. I saw some TV of Miles in Japan in octombrie 1981 too, but it´s again almost only muted in pianissimo.....