Dexter Gordon - The Complete Prestige Recordings [Box]

Artist:

Gordon, Dexter

UPC:

025218444224

See Also:

Ellington, Duke Monk, Thelonious Blakey, Art

Description:

Personnel: Dexter Gordon (tenor saxophone); Gene Ammons, James Moody , Booker Ervin.
Liner Note Author: Ted Panken.
While it`s unquestionably true that saxophonist Dexter Gordon is best known for his Blue Note sides made between 1960 and 1965, it is on his Prestige recordings, the vast majority of which were taped between 1969 and 1973, where the full depth and breadth of his gift and contribution are documented. What`s more, this box finally sets the historical and chronological record straight as many of Gordon`s records were assembled from various sessions. The Complete Prestige Recordings consists of 11 CDs, charting Gordon`s rise as a soloist in 1950 as part of the With Wardell Gray memorial album, and his reemergence after a period of drug addiction and imprisonment in 1960 with the album Resurgence. The story drops again as Gordon went on to record his seminal Blue Note sessions and picks up again with Booker Ervin, Jaki Byard, Reggie Workman and Alan Dawson on the electrifying Setting the Pace five years later. Gordon moved to Europe following this date for an extended sojourn there, and isn`t heard from again until 1969`s Tower of Power and More Power, two albums` worth of material recorded while visiting New York, with Barry Harris, Albert "Tootie" Heath, James Moody and Buster Williams. From these sessions, there are six previously unissued takes of the material in addition to the albums themselves. From 1969 until `73 Gordon`s is featured in all sorts of settings, from quartets with Junior Mance, Martin Rivera and Oliver Jackson, as well as with Larry Ridley, Tommy Flanagan and Alan Dawson, to a quintet co-led with Gene Ammons that starred a young Steve McCall on drums! There is also the fine Jumpin` Blues session with Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones and Roy Brooks, as well as a gorgeous quintet with Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins and Buster Williams that was issued first as Tangerine and then as Generation. The Montreux performances are included here as well. From the quartets with Hampton Hawes, Kenny Clarke and Bob Cranshaw, to the steaming Gene Ammons and friends jam at Montreux with that trio, plus Ammons, Nat and Cannonball Adderley and Kenny Nash in addition to Dex. There are no less than eight unreleased performances from these various outings making for a wealth of previously unavailable Gordon in this box. What it adds up to is one of jazz music`s most compelling and labyrinthine stories. One of an expatriate jazzman whose style was moving ever more expressionistically into new expansive harmonic and lyric conceptions informed by a tough, swaggering swinging application of the blues. The sound is phenomenal, the track by track documentation is a bit idiosyncratic in description but is nonetheless complete. There are also many fine and rare photographs, and the liner essay by Ted Panken is both exhaustive and authoritative. This set is long overdue and, combined with the Blue Note box, this gives for all practical and intent purposes, the definitive portrait of Gordon. ~ Thom Jurek

Track Listing:

DISC 1:

1. Move
2. Home Run
3. Dolo
4. Lovely Lisa
5. Affair in Havana
6. Jodi Field Day
7. Setting the Pace

DISC 2:

1. Dexter`s Deck
2. Montmartre
3. Lady Bird
4. Sticky Wicket
5. Montmartre - (alternate take)
6. Lady Bird - (alternate take)

DISC 3:

1. Sticky Wicket - (alternate take)
2. Those Were the Days
3. Stanley the Steamer
4. Rainbow People, The
5. Boston Bernie
6. Meditation (Medita_No)
7. Fried Bananas
8. Dinner For One Please, James
9. Stanley the Steamer - (alternate take)
10. Rainbow People, The - (alternate take)

DISC 4:

1. Boston Bernie - (alternate take)
2. Fried Bananas - (alternate take)
3. Boradway
4. Boston Bernie
5. In a Sentimental Mood
6. Blues up and Down

DISC 5:

1. Rhythm-a-Ning
2. Misty
3. Love For Sale
4. Fried Bananas
5. Sophisticated Lady

DISC 6:

1. Rhythm-a-Ning
2. Body and Soul
3. Blue Monk
4. Panther, The - (two versions)
5. Body and Soul
6. Valse Robin
7. Mrs. Miniver
8. Christmas Song, The

DISC 7:

1. Blues Walk
2. Valse Robin - (alternate take)
3. Mrs. Miniver - (alternate take)
4. Blues Walk - (alternate take)
5. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
6. Wee Dot
7. Happy Blues, The
8. Lonesome Lover Blues - (alternate take)

DISC 8:

1. Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) / I Can`t Get Started / My Funny Valentine / Misty
2. Chase, The
3. Lonesome Lover Blues
4. Evergreenish
5. Rhythm-a-Ning
6. For Sentimental Reasons (I Love You)
7. Star Eyes
8. Jumpin` Blues, The

DISC 9:

1. Evergreenish - (alternate take)
2. Rhythm-a-Ning - (alternate take)
3. For Sentimental Reasons - (alternate take)
4. Star Eyes - (alternate take)
5. Jumpin` Blues, The - (alternate take)
6. Milestones
7. Sacred to Be Alone
8. Group, The
9. Days of Wine and Roses
10. We See

DISC 10:

1. Milestones - (alternate take)
2. Scared to Be Alone - (alternate take)
3. Group, The - (alternate take)
4. Ca` Purange (Jungle Soul)
5. Tangerine
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, The
7. What It Was
8. Alegrin
9. Oh! Karen O
10. Alegrin - (alternate take)

DISC 11:

1. August Blues
2. Gingerbread Boy
3. Blues B la Suisse
4. Some Other Spring
5. Secret Love
6. Tivoli
7. Treux Bleu

Album Information

Release Date:

10/12/2004

Type:

Boxed Set

Genre:

Jazz Instrument

Subgenre:

Bebop

Label:

Fantasy

Catalog Number:

4442

Original Release Year:

2004

# of Discs:

11

Studio/Live:

Mixed

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

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