Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm), thus he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant". His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years.
Gordon's sound was commonly characterized as being "large" and spacious, and he had a tendency to play behind the beat. He inserted musical quotations into his solos, with sources as diverse as "Happy Birthday" and well-known melodies from the operas of Wagner. Quoting from various musical sources is not unusual in jazz improvisation, but Gordon did it frequently enough to make it a hallmark of his style. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Rollins and Coltrane then influenced Gordon's playing as he explored hard bop and modal playing during the 1960s.
Gordon had a genial and humorous stage presence. He was an advocate of playing to communicate with the audience, which was his musical approach as well. One of his idiosyncratic rituals was to recite lyrics from each ballad before playing it. In an interview, pianist Dave Bass recalled, "Dexter would get up to the microphone, holding his horn horizontally, and he'd say 'You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.' It was a little bit of a shtick, but it was how he approached a song, and I remember that."
A photograph by Herman Leonard of Gordon taking a smoke break at the Royal Roost in 1948 is one of the iconic images in jazz photography. Cigarettes were a recurring theme on covers of Gordon's albums.
Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the Bertrand Tavernier film Round Midnight (Warner Bros., 1986), becoming the first Jazz musician to do so. He won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance for the soundtrack album The Other Side of Round Midnight (Blue Note Records, 1986). He also had a cameo role in the 1990 film Awakenings. In 2018, Gordon's album Go (Blue Note, 1962) was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Dexter Keith Gordon was born on February 27, 1923, in Los Angeles, California. His father, Frank Gordon, one of the first African-American medical doctors in Los Angeles, arrived there in 1918 after graduating from Howard University Medical School in Washington, D.C. Among his patients were Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. Dexter's mother, Gwendolyn Baker, was the daughter of Captain Edward Lee Baker Jr. one of the five African-American Medal of Honor recipients in the Spanish–American War.
Gordon began his study of music with the clarinet at the age of 13, then switched to the alto saxophone at 15, and finally to the tenor saxophone at 17. He studied with multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Reese while attending Thomas Jefferson High School, and also with the school's band director, Sam Browne. While still at school, he played in bands with such contemporaries as Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette.
In 1942, Gordon was drafted into the U.S. Army following America's entry in the Second World War. He was assigned to the Signal Corps for two years and was stationed in North Africa, where he served as a radio operator and played trumpet in a military band. Between December 1940 and 1943, Gordon was a member of Lionel Hampton's band, playing in a saxophone section alongside Illinois Jacquet and Marshal Royal. During 1944, Gordon was featured in the Fletcher Henderson band, followed by the Louis Armstrong band, before joining Billy Eckstine. The 1942–1944 musicians' strike curtailed the recording of the Hampton, Henderson, and Armstrong bands; however, they were recorded on V-Discs produced by the Army for broadcast and distribution among overseas troops. In 1943, he was featured, alongside Harry "Sweets" Edison, in recordings under Nat King Cole for a small label not affected by the strike.
By late 1944, Gordon was residing in New York, a regular at bebop jam sessions and a featured soloist in the big band of Billy Eckstine ("If That's the Way You Feel", "I Want to Talk About You", "Blowin' the Blues Away", "Opus X", "I'll Wait and Pray", "The Real Thing Happened to Me", "Lonesome Lover Blues", "I Love the Rhythm in a Riff"). During early 1945, he was featured on recordings by Dizzy Gillespie ("Blue 'n' Boogie", "Groovin' High") and Charles Thompson ("Takin' Off", "If I Had You", "20th Century Blues", "The Street Beat"). In late 1945, Gordon was recording under his own name for the Savoy label. His Savoy recordings during 1945–46 included Blow Mr. Dexter, Dexter's Deck, Dexter's Minor Mad, Long Tall Dexter, Dexter Rides Again, I Can't Escape From You, and Dexter Digs In.
He returned to Los Angeles in late 1946, and in 1947 was leading sessions for Ross Russell's Dial label (Mischievous Lady, Lullaby in Rhythm, The Chase, Iridescence, It's the Talk of the Town, Bikini, A Ghost of a Chance, Sweet and Lovely). After his return to Los Angeles, he became known for his saxophone duels with fellow tenorman Wardell Gray, which were a popular concert attraction documented in recordings made between 1947 and 1952 (The Hunt, Move, The Chase, The Steeplechase). The Hunt gained literary fame from its mention in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, which also contains descriptions of wild tenormen jamming in Los Angeles. Cherokee, Byas a Drink and Disorder at the Border are other live recordings of the Gray–Gordon duo from the same concert (all issued on the album The Hunt in 1977; all four reissued on the 3-CD set Bopland in 2004). In December 1947, Gordon recorded again for the Savoy label (Settin' the Pace, So Easy, Dexter's Riff, Dextrose, Dexter's Mood, Index, Dextivity, Wee Dot, Lion Roars). Through the mid-to-late 1940s, he continued to work as a sideman on sessions led by Russell Jacquet, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Ralph Burns, Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Gerry Mulligan, Wynonie Harris, Leo Parker, and Tadd Dameron.
During the 1950s, Gordon's recording output and live appearances declined as heroin addiction and legal troubles took their toll. Gordon made a concert appearance with Wardell Gray in February 1952 (The Chase, The Steeplechase, Take the A Train, Robbins Nest, Stardust) and appeared as a sideman in a session led by Gray in June 1952 (The Rubiyat, Jungle Jungle Jump, Citizen's Bop, My Kinda Love). After incarceration at Chino Prison, from 1953 to 1955, he recorded the albums Daddy Plays the Horn and Dexter Blows Hot and Cool in 1955 and played as a sideman on the Stan Levey album This Time the Drum's on Me. The latter part of the decade saw him in and out of prison until his final release from Folsom Prison in 1959. He was one of the initial saxophone players for the Onzy Matthews big band in 1959, along with Curtis Amy. Gordon continued to champion Matthews's band after he left Los Angeles for New York, but left for Europe before getting a chance to record with that band. He recorded The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon in 1960. His recordings from the mid-1950s onward document a meander into a smooth, West Coast style that lacked the impact of his bebop-era recordings or his subsequent Blue Note recordings.
The decade saw Gordon's first entry into the world of drama. He appeared as a member (uncredited) of Art Hazzard's band in the film Young Man with a Horn (1950). He appeared in an uncredited and overdubbed role as a member of a prison band in the movie Unchained, filmed inside Chino. Gordon was a saxophonist performing Freddie Redd's music for the Los Angeles production of Jack Gelber's play The Connection in 1960, replacing Jackie McLean. He contributed two compositions, Ernie's Tune and I Want More to the score and later recorded them for his album Dexter Calling..., in 1962.
Gordon signed to Blue Note in 1961. He initially commuted from Los Angeles to New York to record, but took up residence when he regained the cabaret card that allowed him to perform where alcohol was served. The Jazz Gallery hosted his first New York performance in twelve years. The Blue Note association was to produce a steady flow of albums for several years, some of which gained iconic status. His New York renaissance was marked by Doin' Allright, Dexter Calling..., Go!, and A Swingin' Affair. The first two were recorded over three days in May 1961, with Freddie Hubbard, Horace Parlan, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, George Tucker, Al Harewood, and Philly Joe Jones. The last two were recorded in August 1962, with a rhythm section that featured Blue Note regulars Sonny Clark, Butch Warren, and Billy Higgins. Of the two, Go! was an expressed favorite. The albums showed his assimilation of the hard bop and modal styles that had developed during his years on the west coast, and the influence of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, whom he had influenced before. The stay in New York turned out to be short-lived, as Gordon got offers for engagements in England, then Europe, that resulted in a fourteen-year stay. Soon after recording A Swingin' Affair, he left the United States.