ous creative pursuit: “Music is a philosophy, it’s a way of life; I learned this from Lester.” Although many musicians influenced the development of Dexter’s unique sound, it is his emulation of the spirit of Lester Young that best explains his contribution to jazz. “Hawk [Coleman Hawkins] was the master of the horn,’ a musician who did everything possible with it, the right way. But when Prez [Lester Young] appeared, we all started listening to him alone. Prez had an entirely new sound, one that we seemed to be waiting for. Prez was the first to tell a story on the horn.” Telling a story with your horn, twisting that man’s melody until you make a statement all your own.... What has made Dexter so popular and effective a jazzman has been his ability to get through to almost any audience with the emotion in his playing, to get his “story” across with his horn. In his most recent appearance, he accomplished this supremely on the ballad “More Than You’ll Ever Know,” which unfolded in loping strides that bridged chord spans and crossed bar lines in swinging time and measure. Like Lester Young, Dexter’s best work is “far out” but right there at the same time, creating a completely unique thematic variation that always lands on its feet. In fact, landing on his feet has been an attribute that has kept Dexter Gordon alive, responding to his times, and producing long after many of his contemporaries have burned out or died... .The late ’40s were the heroic years for be-bop, especially in New York, where 52nd Street was “the most exciting half-block in the world” and everyone lived and breathed the jazz life. During those years Dexter also appeared regularly in L.A., teaming with Wardell Gray and other tenor players to create the famous “chases” in which two musicians trade solos for chorus after chorus, driving each other to more and more frantic leaps. The otTier side to all this creation and glamour was racism and heroin. By 1944 Dexter already had the habit many musicians at that time shared, and he didn’t shake it until he spent two years in prison. His partner Wardell Gray, to name only one, wasn’t so lucky: three days after Dexter got out of prison in 1955, Gray died under mysterious circumstances in Las Vegas. The fifties were lean years for Dexter Gordon, and he made only one record in the entire decade. “There were times when I thought it would be better to be a bricklayer or a plumber, but that was only a momentary relapse. I always had the opportunity to play my horn, and of course I never quit.” Even though he recorded The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon in 1960, he could only get one-night work in New York for lack of a cabaret card (also a factor in the careers of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker), and in 1962—like a number of other jazz performers before him—he left for Europe... .“Son,” Charles Mingus’ father says in his autiobiography Beneath The Underdog, “Don’t get married to anyone. Go to Europe or someplace where you can get a chance to express yourself.” Dexter eventually settled in Copenhagen, where he married and bought a house in the suburbs. “I was given respect as an artist and no one asked how much money I made or what car I drove.” But Dexter didn’t stay there, he continued to make periodic visits to the U.S., where he maintained a loyal following. Finally, in 1976, he returned to New York for the engagement where his first Columbia album, Homecoming, was taped. Since then he has toured extensively in this country and just completed his fourth album, Great Encounters. Why did he come back? “Things have changed here in the last twenty years... .There’s not as much racism as there used to be.... I guess the thing that influenced me were the young people.. .three- fourths of my audience is under thirty.” SO DEXTER Gordon has been crowned bebop’s superstar, alone at the top in the entertainment business’ blockbuster formula for success. “Bop Is Back,” nationally circulated magazines announce: “Dexter Gordon: Riding The Crest of Another Wave.” The city of Los Angeles even proclaimed Wednesday, June 13, 1979, to be “Dexter Gordon Day,” although at that night’s performance at Sunset Strip’s famous rock hall, the Roxy, there were plenty of empty seats. Dexter, it was reported, accepted the honor “with continental grace, but not without a hint of parody.” Yes, the honor really is well-deserved. But at the same time, the company that records Dexter, Columbia, part of the CBS conglomThe late '40s were the heroic years for be-bop, especially in New York, where 52nd Street was. "the most exciting half-block in the world" and everyone lived and breathed the jazz life. erate which includes TV and movies as well as major hard- and paperback publishers, has dropped respected jazz artists like Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton from its lists... .CBS Records president Bruce Lundvall saw what was happening in 1976, and signed Dexter Gordon. Well, this in no way takes away from the achievement of Dexter Gordon, whose shows here in the provinces, while perhaps not his greatest performances, did provide us the opportunity to see him develop those moving stories, to watch his crazy hipster motions, and to hear that famous tone come out of a very real body. Maybe the sets were shorter than I’d have wished, maybe the rendition of Coltrane’s “On a Moment’s Notice” was a little muddy — it was still a privilege to see him. Dexter Gordon is a commanding presence, his musicianship inspiring to anyone serious about his craft, and even this brief contact has enriched my life. • • • IT IS interesting to note that Dexter Gordon’s music is decidedly masculine: the adjectives used to describe it are all male, and his sexuality is as present in the sound he projects as are his intelligence and wit. In contrast, then, we were fortunate to have another bebop great visit the Northwest recently, when jazz singer Betty Carter appeared at Seattle’s Kool Jazz Festival and at the Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz. Although seven years Dexter’s junior, Betty Carter began performing professionally when she was very young. She toured with Lionel Hampton’s band at the age of 18, just as Dexter had in his first national gig before her, and she has performed with nearly everyone in New York and at the Apollo Theatre since. Betty Carter is blessed with a handsome contralto voice which she used to improvise on a melody in the same way horn players do. She selects her notes with a daring that — at best — can transform a song into a poetic vehicle for her vocal theatre. It takes real courage to deliver the many slow ballads she presents, out in front of only three backt * "The record companies up pieces, phrases suspended and hanging by only the quality of her voice and her unerring sense of time; it’s like working without a net. Betty Carter is as much a jazz master as Dexter, with her vocal proficiency, a wealth of original ideas, and a dramatic, captivating delivery. Her group included Curtis Lundy on bass, a tall, thin young man wearing an elegantly tailored hipster suit cut in a ’40s style, whose strong, taut lines were the pegs on which Betty hung her melodies, Khalid Moss on piano and Lewis Nash on drums. They were restrained behind her singing, and made sure that when Betty was on stage, all the energy was focused through her. The singer herself wore a blue gown with silver spangles, and gold high heels. While on stage she was never still, basing her moves on a wide-legged stance with ducks and bobs and pivots, while using arm and hand gestures that provided a physical emphasis for almost every note. Accepting our applause, she swung her whole body in a kind of aw-shucks toss and flashed a winning smile of real pleasure. Her program featured twenty separate vocal numbers in less than two hours, and given that two or three were quite long, one realizes just how short most were. The performance, then, was a showcase for Betty Carter’s voice and delivery, her lovely short phrases dramatized only by their inherent power and expressivewant an association with jazz. They try to make a jazz person out of someone who ain't, but they won't spend the money on somebody who's really a jazz person." 28 Clinton St. Quarterly
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