Dexter Gordon - Settin' the Pace (Mini Lp Sleeve)
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Artist: Dexter GordonEdition: Music CD
Format: Box set, Import
CD Release Date: 2001-01-22
Music Label: Proper Box UK
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- I've Found A New Baby
- Rosetta
- Sweet Lorraine
- Blowed And Gone
- Blowing The Blues Away
- Groovin' High
- Blue 'N' Boogie
- Lonesome Lover Blues
- Last Night
- Honeysuckle Rose
- Takin' Off
- If I Had You
- The Street Beat
- Blow Mr. Dexter
- Dexter's Deck
- Dexter's Cuttin' Out
- Dexter's Minor Mad
- Looking For A Boy
- Long Tall Dexter
- Dexter Rides Again
- I Can't Escape From You
- Dexter Digs In
- Jump Call
- Mischievous Lady
- Lullaby In Rhythm
- The Chase
- Chromatic Aberration
- It's The Talk Of The Town
- Blues Bikini
- The Hunt
- Byas A Drink
- Disorder At The Border
- Cherokee
- After Hours Bop
- I'll Follow You
- Bop
- Ghost Of A Chance
- Sweet And Lovely
- Hornin' In
- The Duel
- Settin' The Pace
- So Easy
- Dexter's Riff
- Wee Dot
- Lion Roars
- Dexter's Mood
- Dextrose
- Index
- Dextivity
- Sid's Delight
- Move
- Ain't Gonna Quit You Baby
- Helen's Advice
- Knockin' Myself
- Airplane Blues
Music reviews of Settin' the Pace (Mini Lp Sleeve)
Music Review: The Real Greats of the "Greatest Generation" ...
Rating: 5 Stars
... were not politicians or generals! They were jazz musicians, and among them few if any were greater than tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. Dex was born in Los Angeles in 1923. He started 'setting the pace' in the last years of the '30s, in the big bands of nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, and especially the singer Billy Eckstine. His heyday came in the be-bop 1940s, when he shared the stage with Charlie Parker. Dex is often credited with being the 'seminal' be-bop performer on the tenor sax. The four CDs in this super-bargain package include most of his best recording sessions from 1943 to 1950. In addition to the players already mentioned, you'll hear Gordon alongsdied Bennry carter, Bud Powell, Wardell Gray, Howard McGhee, Errol Garner, Fats Navarro, Clark Terry, and lots of lesser-knowns, including trombonist Melba Liston, one of the few female jazz arrangers and instrumentalists of the era. The 1950s were mostly grim for Dexter Gordon; he was busted again and again for drug use and spent several terms in ever-nastier prisons. In 1962, he left the USA to perform in London; he spent the following 15 years living chiefly in Denmark and performing to great acclaim. In 1986, he acted the role of the drug-addicted jazzman in Bernard Tavernier's magnificent film "Round Midnight", the best film ever made about jazz. Gordon was Oscar-nominated for "Best Actor" but lost out to Paul Newman. He died in 1990.
Dexter was both a great front man soloist and a great side man. If he'd been a basketball player, he'd have lead the league in assists. You'll hear him in both roles on these four CDs. His own compositions turn up also; disk 2 includes his most famous track, the saxophone duel called "The Chase", followed immediately by "Chromatic Aberration", a classic-that-should-have-been.
Just as the 18th Century was the zenith of music in European history, the decade of the 1940s was the zenith of jazz, and for basically the same reason: musical and emotional intelligence, encouraged by the patronage of an audience, however restricted, that was capable of appreciating the genius of its musicians. Yes, of course, jazz didn't end with the repressive '50s. There have been greats aplenty in more recent decades, but never in the concentrated splendor of be-bop.
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Description of Settin' the Pace (Mini Lp Sleeve)
55 tracks from 1943 to 1950...mostly be-bop with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Ben Webster, Billy Eckstine, Sonny Criss and more. Includes 44 page illustrated booklet. Four standard jewel cases with individual artwork, housed together in a deluxe slipcase.This CD gathers all of Dexter Gordon's recordings as a leader for Savoy, with one session each from 1945 and 1946 and two from December 1947. Gordon had already worked in the bands of Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, and Billy Eckstine, and he was among the very first players to adapt the innovations of Charlie Parker to the tenor saxophone, creating his own voice out of an amalgam of Parker and Lester Young. Gordon's sound was already his own, a harder-edged tenor sound with very little vibrato, and there's evidence as well of the striking harmonic imagination that would later influence John Coltrane. Ballads like "I Can't Escape from You" and "Dexter's Mood" show Gordon's romantic side, but it's the bop tunes that most clearly chart his rapid evolution.
Two of bop's most brilliant--and doomed--players make substantial appearances here. Pianist Bud Powell is present on the eight takes from 1946, adding Tatum-esque filigree to the ballad and driving, incandescent play to the other tracks, prodding, testing, and usually exceeding the horns. Trumpeter Fats Navarro appears on the final session, along with composer-pianist Tadd Dameron, and it's once again apparent that he was Dizzy Gillespie's only serious rival among bop trumpeters.
Whether it's the presence of a working band or growing maturity, Gordon is at his best on "Index" and "Dextivity," with a relaxed drive and full command of his substantial ideas. While most of the tracks are around three minutes--the compressed jolts of bop energy dictated by the limited playing time of the 78--"Settin' the Pace," originally divided over two sides, is nearly six minutes. It's a saxophone chase with baritonist Leo Parker, in the same vein that Gordon explored to great acclaim with Wardell Grey. The wealth of alternates includes several issued for the first time, among them tracks with Powell and Navarro. --Stuart Broomer
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