A Night In Tunisia
What’s New
Blues Walk

Second Balcony Jump
You’ve Changed

Lady Bird
Body And Soul

24-page booklet
Liner notes by Dexter's widow, historian Maxine Gordon
Foreword by Michael Cuscuna
Cover photo by Francis Wolff
Booklet photos by Jan Persson, Lee Tanner, Riccardo Schwamenthal
Memorabilia collage
Total time: 69 minutes

Foreword: He was a one-of-a-kind in so many ways. Musicians are by trade citizens of the world, but I’ve never seen anyone quite as comfortable and acclimating as Dexter no matter where he was. He was also a voracious reader, favoring 19th-century French writers (he learned to read French while he was the librarian in Chino Prison where a patron had donated a collection of books in French) and contemporaries like J. P. Donleavy (The Ginger Man was one of his favorites).

On the performances on this DVD, Dexter at age 40 was at the peak of his powers. His tone resonates with power and beauty, his chops enable him to execute whatever occurs to him and his ideas flow seamlessly. Lester Young once told him that it was essential to know the lyrics to a song to play it properly. Based on his ballad performances here, especially on “You’ve Changed,” it’s a lesson learned well.

—Michael Cuscuna

Sample Liner Notes by Maxine Gordon: When the performances on this DVD were filmed in Europe in 1963 and 1964, Dexter Gordon was not on tour from the United States. He was living in Copenhagen, Denmark, working for months at a time at the Montmartre Jazz Club. At the time of the concert in Lugano, Switzerland, on September 20, 1963, Dexter was 40 years old and was referred to as an expatriate even though he never considered himself anything but a jazz musician living in Europe where he could find steady work and peace of mind. When he wasn’t working, he would often be seen riding around town on his bicycle. Though clearly attached to the United States —he made numerous trips back to visit his family—he considered Copenhagen his second home.

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Dutch TV, Amersfoort, Holland
July 29, 1964
Dexter Gordon often used the rhythm section on this performance in Amersfoort, Holland, and on the last one on the DVD recorded January 8, 1964, in Brussels, Belgium, when he was on tour. Asked to recall these concerts, which took place more than 40 years ago, pianist George Gruntz replied, “this trio with Humair and myself went on tour so often with American jazz artists who came to visit and play in Paris and often from there we went on tour with them. We were the preferred rhythm section!” This was surely the case because they can be seen in many European TV appearances, including those with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Johnny Griffin and Donald Byrd.

The “preferred” drummer, Daniel Humair, when asked to recall the days with Dexter, commented: “Dexter was the perfect jazz musician because the music was always about purity and creation. He never played the role of the leader, he never dictated, because he knew that this would have a negative effect on the musicians and would cancel the purpose of the mutual adventure. As a drummer, he was one of the most pleasing soloists to be behind. We never had an argument and he was devoid of an ego. His attitude was respect of musicians to musicians.”

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On this performance, Dexter plays “Second Balcony Jump”, which he had recorded in 1962 on the Blue Note album Go! The Billy Eckstine and Gerry Valentine composition certainly reminded him of those days that he considered his best, when he was playing in a band with Sarah Vaughan, Fats Navarro, Gene Ammons, Leo Parker and Art Blakey. He never tired of talking about the great Eckstine Band and all that he had learned from its musicians. He is also heard on the beautiful ballad, “You’ve Changed”, which he had recorded in 1961 on the Blue Note album, Doin’ Allright. He was certainly thinking about Billie Holiday when he played this tune. On both compositions, Dexter is able to stretch out and give plenty of solo space to his stellar sidemen.

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Jazz Prisma (Brussels, Belgium)
January 8, 1964
The personnel on this performance is the same as that on the July 29, 1964, television recording in Amersfoort, Holland: George Gruntz, piano; Guy Pederson, bass; and Daniel Humair, drums.

The compositions played on this DVD were part of Dexter Gordon’s repertoire during this period when he was living in Europe. He played “Body and Soul”, “You’ve Changed”, “Second Balcony Jump”, “What’s New” and “Lady Bird” almost nightly—and re-worked them every time. (“Lady Bird” was written by Tadd Dameron. Called “the romanticist of the bebop movement” by Dexter, he also composed “If You Could See Me Now”, which became Sarah Vaughan’s first signature song.) The chance to hear and see these performances after listening to them on LPs and CDs makes us acutely aware of the ability of jazz musicians to interpret and re-interpret and then re-interpret again what we think of as a perfect performance.
When Dexter played “Body and Soul”, he often announced, “There comes a time in every tenor saxophonist’s life when he must play his rendition of ‘Body and Soul’. If it weren’t for Coleman Hawkins, where would we all be by now?” This composition is a fitting finale to this Jazz Icons DVD as it gives us Dexter Gordon as he was in 1964—not only as part of a very long line of tenor players whom he respected and listened to over and over again, but also as a modern tenor saxophonist listening to everything around him and using what he found beautiful and meaningful and leaving the rest aside.

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—Maxine Gordon

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