Dexter Gordon

Before his "lost decade"...

Long Tall Dexter was the tenor man Coltrane and I admired and wanted to be like when we changed from alto to tenor. We listened to everything he recorded. He and Sonny Stitt set the pace for the bebop tenor players.

-Jimmy Heath

Round Midnight was not Dexter Gordon’s first Hollywood film. Over 30 years earlier, in 1955, he appeared in the Warner Bros. film Unchained:

Unchained was filmed at the California State Prison in Chino, while Dexter Gordon was an inmate. He appeared in a scene with the Chino jazz band. In her 2018 book The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, Maxine Gordon writes:

Because imprisoned musicians were not allowed to be union members, Dexter, and the other band members are only seen and not heard on the film’s soundtrack. When we see Dexter on screen playing tenor, the sounds we hear come from the horn of Georgie Auld. In later years, whenever Dexter would be asked to do a gig that he couldn’t – or preferred not to – make, he would say, “Call Georgie Auld. He sounds like me.”

The film is best known for the popular song Unchained Melody, with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. A few years earlier, in 1951, Alex North’s music for Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire opened up jazz scoring to a new generation of composers, including Elmer Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Bernard Herrmann, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, and Lalo Schifrin. Unchained also starred pro football player Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 (that’s him in the bottom left of the sheet music).

From the film, here is Tony Duncan singing Unchained Melody:

Unchained was filmed during what Gordon called his “lost decade” - the 1950s. When Maxine started to put together the information to write her book, Dexter gave her an outline. In the book, she writes:

I said, “Dexter, you left out a decade from the outline.”

“I know,” he said.

I pointed out that one could not write an autobiography and exclude an entire decade. What about the 1950s? He just looked far away with a kind of wistful expression, and then turned to me and said, “If you want the fifties in the book, you will have to write it yourself. I don’t want to think about it or talk about it.” That was the end of the conversation.

This week on that Big River called Jazz, we will explore the world of Dexter Gordon’s earliest work up to his first jail stint in 1952 and the start of his “lost decade.”

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In 1940, when Dexter was 17 years old, he got a call from alto player Marshal Royal asking him if he’d like to audition for Lionel Hampton. Hampton hired him and Gordon was on his way.

The band left Los Angeles in December 1940 for his first tour. He traveled to Texas, with gigs in Galveston, Houston, El Paso, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. Then he traveled to New Orleans, Florida, up the coast through the Carolinas to New York City, where they played at the Savoy Ballroom. From there they went to Chicago where they played at the Grand Terrace Ballroom.

In February 1941, Hampton’s band made a live radio broadcast at the Grand Terrance that included Flying Home, a big hit for the band, and Illinois Jacquet. Here’s their 1942 recording of that hit, which was used in Spike Lee’s 1992 movie Malcolm X:

Although Gordon was only 18 years old, he was already making a name for himself. In Music and Rhythm magazine Coleman Hawkins reported:

Dexter Gordon is another young newcomer, and like [Don] Byas he’s doing very well by himself. In drawing a comparison, I would say that he is most closely allied to Charlie Barnet. Dexter has the same drive and push, a terrific rhythmic attack. Of course, Dexter hasn’t developed as far as Charlie, but I think he will.

From the Decca label in New York City, here is Gordon’s debut recording with the Hampton orchestra, which they cut on December 24, 1941,

Here’s what the band sounded like:

Here’s a picture from 1942 of Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra, showing his horn section. From left to right in the back row: Illinois Jacquet, Marshall Royal, Dexter Gordon, Ernie Royal, and Karl George; and in the front row Lionel Hampton, Jack McVea, Henry Sloan, and Joe Newman:

By the end of 1943, Gordon was getting restless and left Hampton’s band and returned to Los Angeles. He played around the area with Lester Young’s brother Lee Young and with Fletcher Henderson’s big band. It was during this time, in late 1943 or early 1944, that Gordon recorded his first record as a leader with Mercury Records, a quintet featuring Nat King Cole on piano and Harry Edison on trumpet:

Here’s what his Quintet sounded like - the first time we get to hear Gordon out front playing his tenor:

The tracks from this session are a little trumpet-heavy for my taste, but it’s nice to get a chance to hear Gordon stretch out on these early solos - remember that he was still only 20 years old.

In May 1944 Gordon joined Louis Armstrong’s Orchestra. He only stayed six months and got an offer from Billy Eckstine’s band. He joined up with Eckstine’s band at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 1944.

According to Dizzy Gillespie in his autobiography, To Be, or Not To Bop, “There was no band that sounded like Billy Eckstine’s. Our attack was strong, and we were playing bebop, the modern style. No other band like this one existed in the world.”

In early December 1944, Gordon made his first recording with Billy Eckstine and his Orchestra on the De Luxe label:

Also at the session, he recorded the classic Blowing The Blues Away:

This is a seminal recording in that it is judged by many to be the first time bebop was translated into the language of the tenor sax.

His next session with Eckstine was in May 1945 for the National label. From that session, they recorded the classic I Love The Rhythm In A Riff:

Gordon would leave Eckstine’s band on September 4, 1945, and join Sir Charles Thompson and His All-Stars. From a 1945 session for the Apollo label, Gordon played with a star-studded line-up with Charlie Parker on alto, Buck Clayton on trumpet, and Thompson on piano. From that session here is Takin’ Off :

While working at the Spotlight Club on Fifty-Second Street with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sir Charles Thompson, Leonard Gaskin, and Stan Levey, Gordon made his first recording with Savoy. On October 30, 1945, he recorded two sides, Dexter’s Deck and this one Blow Mr. Dexter:

I find this record every bit as compelling as his Blue Note sessions over 15 years later.

In a 2014 interview with Maxine Gordon, saxophonist Jimmy Heath shared:

Coltrane and I would listen to Dexter on his Savoy discs. Dexter’s Deck is one we really listened to, and Dexter’s Minor Mad, Dexter Cutting Out, Long Tall Dexter, Dexter Rides Again, and Dexterity. He was letting you know that “this is me, and this is my style, and this is what I do. I’m playing the saxophone with power.”

We listened to those sides at Coltrane’s house or my house. John lived in North Philly and I lived in South Philly, but he would come down to my house, because I had the band, and we’d rehearse in my living room. And we’d put on the earphones and listen to Dexter for hours.

Coltrane and Heath were commenting on a January 29, 1946, Savoy session by Gordon’s Quintet that included Bud Powell, who with the help of fellow pianist Elmo Hope was released from Creedmoor State Hospital where he had been institutionalized. From that session, here is Dexter Rides Again:

Gordon continued to record many fine sides with the Savoy and Dial labels until the end of 1947. On January 18, 1949, Dexter went to New York City with Tadd Dameron and his orchestra to record for Capitol Records. After the session, he returned to Los Angeles and as the 1940s ended, Gordon’s “lost decade” began.

According to Maxine Gordon, Dexter’s first significant incarceration began on May 19, 1953, when he was sent to Chino prison to serve a one to fifteen-year sentence for second-degree burglary (entering a structure with intent to commit a crime). He was released on parole after serving fifteen months. He had already been arrested eight times before this conviction, and he had been on probation once. He was only thirty years old.

According to Maxine:

Although Dexter never talked about this period in his life in detail, he did say that his time at Chino had a profound effect on him and probably saved his life. The prison had a boxing arena on the grounds, and on holidays they would hold special concerts, boxing, wrestling, or weightlifting events. There were football and baseball games on Sundays with visitors welcome… the band at Chino was as strong as any playing anywhere in California. With Dexter in the band were his old friends Hadley “Little Dex” Caliman and the drummer Roy Porter.

Here’s one more for the road. According to Maxine Gordon, she could not have written about the 1950s in her book without the help of Hadley Caliman, who was in Chino State Prison with Dexter when Unchained was filmed there in 1955.

Caliman was part of the Central Avenue jazz scene in Los Angeles in the 1950s and studied under Dexter Gordon. Caliman soon became known as “Little Dex.” Among the musicians Caliman performed, recorded, and toured with were Gerald Wilson, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Nancy Wilson, and the Grateful Dead. He also recorded on Carlos Santana’s album Caravanserai, along with Welcome one of my favorite Santana albums. Here’s the first track Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation, with Caliman playing sax at the beginning - after the crickets:

Shortly after recording this album, Hadley Caliman moved to Seattle and started teaching at the Cornish College of Arts. He remained in Seattle until his death in 2010.

After satisfying all his parole and probation requirements, Dexter Gordon was formally discharged from the California penal system on February 25, 1962. He never forgot that date. He was allowed to leave the Los Angeles area and soon recorded Doin’ Alright and Dexter Callin’ at Van Gelder’s studios in New Jersey for Blue Note Records. He was finally back on his way again - the “lost decade” was over.

Next week, on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in and explore the world of the French label De Chant du Monde.

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