Go!

Gordon, Dexter

album cover

Behind the Beat, and Right on Time

Every jazz musician has a different approach to time. Some play exactly on the beat, some push ahead like commuters afraid to be late for work, and some, like the tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923–1990), hang a mile back, forever threatening to grind the music to a crawl.

The L.A.-born tenorman knew that it took only that threat—the hint of a work slow-down—to keep things interesting. On his wonderful career highlight Go!, Gordon zozzles through a swinging original called "Cheese Cake" at a perfectly serene pace that almost disregards the tempo. He does the same thing on the medium bounce "Second Balcony Jump," and the ballad "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry." The music might be galloping, but Gordon just pokes along, timing his phrases to create tension with his precision-minded rhythm section, which includes pianist Sonny Clark and drummer Billy Higgins. Having played with Gordon some, they came to this date prepared: They let him ramble, and reinforce his allusions to nursery rhymes and pop songs while doing everything they can to keep the train running on time.

Go! was recorded in August 1962, just before Gordon, who'd already done time on drug-related charges and mounted at least one "comeback," left the U.S. to live the expatriate jazz life in Europe, which he did for the next fifteen years. Although his stated intention for leaving was to reach a wider audience, he also managed to miss the social upheaval of urban America in the 1960s. The isolation had an interesting impact on his art: The music Gordon made after this date, including such well-respected works as Our Man in Paris, has a time-capsule quality, as though he's willfully clinging to the sounds of a long vanished bebop moment. Jazz changed dramatically, but Gordon stayed put. This worked to his advantage when, upon returning to the States in the late '70s, he began another comeback—reinventing himself as a ballad-playing elder statesman. He capped his career acting and playing in 'Round Midnight, the 1986 film about the lives of expatriate jazzers; Gordon proved convincing in the starring role, hitting the notes of determination and dissipation that defined his own career while staying, as always, just a shade behind the beat.

Genre: Jazz
Released: 1962, Blue Note
Key Tracks: "Second Balcony Jump," "Cheese Cake."
Catalog Choice: Our Man in Paris; Sophisticated Giant
Next Stop: Johnny Griffin: A Blowin' Session
After That: Red Garland Quintet: Soul Junction
Book Page: 318

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