Dexter Gordon - Go! (1962)

"Love, warmth and sheer joy are all present in Gordon's sound and attack." - from the original album liner notes by Ira Gitler.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs studio on Monday, August 27, 1962, this album is swinging, classic hard bop from one of the masters of the genre. The band is tight and supportive. My only complaint would be that Billy Higgins is a bit overactive on his kit at times, but I love how Sonny Clark is as good an accompanist as he is soloist - totally tuned in to what everybody is doing at all times. And then there's Gordon's solid blowing over it all. Dig!

Gordon - tenor saxophone
Sonny Clark - piano
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

I was able to resist the temptation to use a popular board game reference, but the liner notes could not:

Meanwhile, proceed directly to Go! You won't collect $200.00, but you will get a monopoly of Melody Avenue, Swing Street and Inspiration Place.

Reviews/ratings:

• CashBox: "displays a fine sensitive brand of wailing"
• Stereo Review: Recording of Special Merit
• DownBeat (★★★★★): "There are few LPs one can get high on simply by listening; this is one of them."
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★

Critics seem split as to whether Go! is Gordon's best or the later Our Man In Paris (1963). Nevertheless, Go! was selected by Blue Note (Europe) in 1987 as one of the 25 Best Albums ever issued on the label.

In 2018, Go! was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Update: In 2024, uDiscover Music ranked this album at #9 on its list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: All six are great, but of all the tracks, my top picks are Cheese Cake, Love For Sale, and the beautiful ballad I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Round Midnight - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1986)
American Classic (1982)

Dexter Gordon - American Classic (1982)

ELEKTRA/MUSICIAN MONTH (FEBRUARY 2023)

Gordon's final album (not counting his soundtrack work on the 1986 film Round Midnight) is a throwback of sorts to the kind of music Gordon released 20 years prior: blues and hard bop cuts including a few standards and a couple of originals. Gordon doesn't play with the same abandon he did in the '60s - and I wouldn't expect him to - but his tone and improv skills were still top-shelf.

What we've got here is actually two different sessions originally split over the two sides of the LP. The first three tracks were recorded in Philadelphia on March 8, 1982 with Grover Washington, Jr. and Shirley Scott, "Queen of the Organ." Those tracks include a Gordon original, For Soul Sister, along with two standards from the '40s: Jumpin' Blues and Besame Mucho. It's fun to hear Grover play some straight-ahead solos and Scott is a delight, both as soloist and accompanist.

Side Two was recorded in New York City on March 16, 1982 with what was Gordon's touring band at that time. That side starts off with another Gordon original, Sticky Wicket, and includes another standard from the '40s, Skylark. Like the Bud Powell album featured last week, the last track is a brief interview with Gordon, where he is asked generic questions along the lines of "Where do you find your inspiration?" and "How much time do you spend on the road?"

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "it's still Gordon's laconic phrasing and big tone that will be the immediate lures"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Gordon - tenor saxophone
Grover Washington, Jr. - soprano saxophone
Shirley Scott - organ
Eddie Gladden - drums
Kirk Lightsey - piano
David Eubanks - bass

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #19
• CashBox Jazz: #17
• Radio & Records Jazz Radio National Airplay Chart: #12

Tracks: Nothing skippable among the five music cuts. You'd think my favorite track would be one that includes Grover Washington, Jr., but it's actually the gorgeous 12½ minute take on Skylark. Of the tracks with Washington, the interplay between Gordon and Washington on the Gordon original For Soul Sister is a master class.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Round Midnight - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1986)

Round Midnight - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1986)

Soundtrack to the 1986 film which starred saxophonist Dexter Gordon as an jazz musician and addict who finds acceptance in the jazz clubs of Paris in the 1950s. The album, put together by Herbie Hancock, consists of jazz standards and a few original tracks performed by an all-star group of musicians:

Soundtrack cuts not on this album are included on Dexter Gordon's 1986 companion album, The Other Side Of Round Midnight, which features the last recordings released under Gordon's name before his death in 1990.

For his work in the movie, Gordon was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, losing to Paul Newman for The Color Of Money. However, this soundtrack won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Hancock. Many people consider that Oscar win to be controversial as there isn't much original music in the film and it beat out the wonderful scores of Ennio Morricone (The Mission) and Jerry Goldsmith (Hoosiers). Maybe those two split the vote and allowed Round Midnight to sneak in? It's happened many times.

I found this CD in the clearance bin and wondered how a star-studded Oscar winner could end up in such a place and then I spun the thing. Simply put, it's just ok. There are some great performances to be found - Hancock is fantastic throughout - but Gordon was dealing with health issues during filming/recording and sadly doesn't sound like the Gordon I know from his historic albums Go! and Our Man In Paris.

Reviews/ratings:

• High Fidelity: "[Gordon's] tone is weak, his facility faulty, and his ideas serviceable yet never soaring"
• Billboard: "Mostly standards, with performances of varying quality"
• Stereo Review: "not the best Dexter Gordon album of recent years, nor is it hard to find more satisfying jazz albums"
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #196
• Billboard Jazz: #7
• CashBox Jazz: #3
• Radio & Records Jazz Radio National Airplay: #2

Tracks:

1. Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk, 1944) - could use a real trumpet player instead of Bobby McFerrin imitating a muted trumpet.
2. Body And Soul (Johnny Green, 1930) - great solo from McLaughlin
3. Bérangère's Nightmare (Herbie Hancock, 1986) - incidental music, not particularly interesting but certainly not a nightmare (see what I did there?)
4. Fair Weather (Kenny Dorham, ca. 1964) - Not only was I surprised by Chet Baker's vocals, I was moved by them. One of the best cuts on the album.
5. Una Noche Con Francis (Bud Powell, 1964)
6. The Peacocks (Jimmy Rowles, 1975) - a tasty ballad featuring Wayne Shorter and an elegant solo from Hancock
7. How Long Has This Been Going On? (Ira & George Gershwin, 1927) - In which Lonette McKee does her best Billie Holiday imitation and succeeds
8. Rhythm-A-Ning (Monk, 1957) - Another choice cut. Wow does this thing swing - what a band!
9. Still Time (Hancock, 1986) - a great last-call melancholy ballad from Hancock. I'd bet it fit the scene perfectly.
10. Minuit Aux Champs-Elysées (Henri Renaud, 1969) - just Hancock on piano and the great Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. They play off each other perfectly.
11. Chan's Song (Never Said) (Hancock, Stevie Wonder, 1986) - McFerrin's wordless vocals on a pop piece that would be noticeably anachronistic in a period film such as this. A bizarre way to end the album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. I don't recall ever seeing the film and it's not currently available on any legal streaming service (very few films released in the 20th century are available via streaming, but that complaint/frustration/discussion/argument is beyond the scope of this blog); however, I see that there's a new Criterion Collection Blu-ray release available.