New Jazz Release: Dexter Gordon – The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Avail Now)

There are no second acts in American lives” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, a man who never would have put those words to paper had he lived to see Dexter Gordon’s triumphant late career revival.  Actually, the great tenor saxophonist had a number of “second acts” during his lifetime. Yet the late 1980’s flourish that found Gordon (1923-1990) an international star and an Oscar nominee could hardly be topped for a dramatic finale.

Gordon may have come of age in the Swing Era worshipping the dual tenor deities Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, but he made his mark during the subsequent rise of bebop, translating Charlie Parker’s revolutionary rhythmic and harmonic language to the tenor saxophone.  From 1945 to 1962 “long tall Dexter” (LTD) maintained his status as one of the unimpeachable tenor titans, notwithstanding prison spells that somehow never stalled his momentum. Relocating to Europe, Gordon, his ear ever open to stylistic changes in jazz, retained his celebrity.
On returning Stateside in 1976, Gordon was signed by Columbia Records, who documented him on the celebratory Homecoming: Live At The Village Vanguard.  Subsequent albums found Gordon, still in fighting shape and now receiving higher public visibility than ever before, turning out a series of acclaimed recordings that united him with younger associates including Bobby Hutcherson, Woody Shaw, and George Cables.

Gordon’s ultra hip manner and regal bearing made him a natural for films, and in 1986, he starred in Round Midnight in a role loosely based on both Bud Powell and Lester Young, ultimately garnering a deserving Academy Award nomination. (Gordon also appeared in the posthumously released Awakenings alongside Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams.)  He went out a “star, ” a role he had already embodied in the jazz world for some five decades

Albums included: