Sid Angel - 28 Jul 2021

Album Sleeve Notes

Dexter Gordon: Tall Tales on Tenor Sax

Long tall Dexter was indeed a tall man. On stage at Copenhagen’s famed Jazzhus Montmartre, his head would barely miss the artistic low ceiling over the stage, and a single office lamp would give enough light for us to see the changes in his facial expression during his long, long solos, from smile to intense concentration, his light green eyes tightly closed. When he opened them it was like he came back from a long trip and had to re-orientate himself. In all his years in Copenhagen – from 1962 to 1976 - that little stage was his home away from home and the club was synonymous with the name DEX. Gordon was a handsome, sexy and graceful man. The women would swoon when he looked directly at them, maybe through a smoke ring from his cigarette – he smoked two packs a day. He oozed a kind of exotic super charm in then-so-innocent little Denmark.

Born in 1923, Dexter began playing clarinet, but joined Lionel Hampton’s band just a few months after picking up the tenor sax at the age of 17. After that it was Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong and Billy Eckstine. In Eckstine’s band he developed his powerful bebop and ‘invented’ the long tenor battles with Gene Ammons, a trademark he would nourish throughout his entire career with anyone who had the guts to challenge him. Gordon had a special way of wobbling his knees while playing, and he would say, “You have to keep your wobbling in shape if you play the tenor.”

This recording will give you a comprehensive impression of Gordon’s mastery in his artistic trajectory.

The reason for Dexter Gordon’s lusty playing in the three numbers here – the hardest bop, the swingiest Afro-inspired music, the most tender of ballads – is without doubt that his stay in Copenhagen brought out the best and most powerful playing of his whole career. Gordon himself acknowledged this several times publicly in radio and TV interviews. Just recently (2014) DRTV (Danish Public Television) aired four 40-minute programmes dealing specifically with Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster in Copenhagen, with several quotes by a bright and optimistic Gordon about his wellbeing, as well as the known and dreaded picture of a man trying hard to escape his addiction. His ‘crime’ gave him a ton of legal problems with work permits and no access to France or Great Britain for a long while, but a group of jazz intelligentsia – if there is such a label – convinced the Danish Justice Department that Gordon was an important cultural figure in Denmark and thus fixed his permit, etc. As payback, Gordon offered to bring his knowledge of music out to schools and music institutions with small live sessions, teaching in his broken-but-charming slow Danish.

The media was friendly to Gordon - and to all jazz in those days, for that matter. Two years of direct weekly radio transmissions from the Montmartre club was a natural. Dexter was also the main character and soloist in at least seven TV specials and features – very much like the other expatriate, Ben Webster. Dexter knew he was the beloved ‘Lord Mayor of Jazz in Copenhagen’ and the mutual respect with the media resulted in rewards like the session on this record.

Magleaas is an old school in the tradition of what we call ‘højskole’, a special Danish invention from around 1900, a place for people who seek further input or wisdom in artistic, musical, literary or gymnastic pursuits. Once a year in the summer there is – still - a good week for professional or semipro jazz musicians to meet and have mostly American ‘stars’ as teachers. Enter Dexter Gordon and his quintet in August 1967 before an enthusiastic crowd of young musicians-to-be. Bam! It was a bull’s-eye on a bright afternoon, the Danish TV was there and the sound is now on your vinyl. The group came from almost two months at the Montmartre in the unusually hot summer of ‘67. Pictures show Tootie Heath topless behind the drums, and I have solid memories of those nights that never seemed to end. Dexter would play from 9 pm to 3 am if the feeling was there – and it often was. Johnny Griffin had gigs at the Montmartre as well, and he told me once: “Oh God, do I have to climb this mountain again tonight?”, meaning that Dexter would come for Griffin’s last set and destroy him in a tenor battle, with ‘The Blues Up And Down’ as the favoured duelling grounds. Gordon’s towering tremendous solo on the B-side of this album explains why Griff dreaded going against the tallest of all tenor players. Here you have a five-minute exhilarating solo where everybody gets a bite before Dex re-enters for a stunning chase with Heath.

In Montmartre Dexter had what he called “the best rhythm group in Europe”, which included old friend and dope compatriot Kenny Drew, who also chilled out and went clean in ‘Copenheaven’, as he called it. Add to this the now legendary – then almost adolescent (21 years old) – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (in non-Danish jazz media known has NHOP), plus the eminent drummer, Alex Riel, forever young and still playing with everybody at the Montmartre. But it got even better. Dexter often mentioned that he needed a New York drummer to kick his behind, a different attitude than the European drummers’ very schooled and maybe polite, polished way of playing. Enter Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath, who also settled in Copenhagen for a while and saw to it that everybody had a ball. He prescribed Dexter the right medicine, as one can hear on these tracks. He came here to play again in December 2013 and can be seen in Niels Lan Doky’s documentary ‘Between a Smile and a Tear’, reminiscing with Johnny Griffin about the old Montmartre.

According to NHOP, Kenny Drew was one of the finest - but often underrated – pianists in the world. Listen to his beautiful solo on ‘The Shadow’ and you’ll know what he meant. NHOP himself was right on the spot every time. Dexter Gordon used this ballad often. “It seems like a plain ballad, but it has some challenging changes. And it’s a good song with catchy lyrics,” Dexter explained about this tune by Johnny Mandel, from the film, ‘The Sandpiper’.

My personal friendship with Dexter was not tight; few people came too close for comfort, except, of course, his Danish family. We partied and socialized often, before and after hours. When we talked about music, he had his heroes ready: Billy Eckstine and Duke Ellington. Style and elegance meant a lot to Dexter, and now and then he would try his vocal baritone on ‘Hello Baby’ and other Eckstine imitations. It was fun when experienced live, but not for recording, and one is spared Dex’s singing on this session. Perhaps surprisingly, Gordon’s personal guru was Basie’s grand tenor, Herschel Evans, and not Lester Young, as one might think. Evans was a compassionate teacher for Gordon during the formative years in Los Angeles and Dex never forgot him. Still, he named his son Benjie, after Ben Webster.

These selected live recordings bring back Dexter Gordon in full flight, like we want to remember him: the elegant, concentrated tenor, the wobbly knees and the will to express a world of feelings from deep inside.

Henrik Wolsgaard-Iversen,
Jazz writer, radio commentator
Chairman of the Ben Webster Foundation, DK.

Dexter Gordon: tenor saxophone
Kenny Drew: piano
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: double bass
Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath: drums

Recorded on August 5, 1967, live at Magleaas High School, by Danish TV. 
Producer: Jørgen Nissen

Dexter Gordon - The Blues Up And Down, Down And Up

PRE-ORDER: https://slumprecordings.bandcamp.com/album/slump006-line-in-the-sand-ep

SLUMP006 sees Brothers Will and Max, aka Duowe deliver a fresh 4-track EP of dancefloor ready, rollers with an authentic 90’s-00’s feel.

Catchy drum grooves, low-end heavy basslines & dreamy chords sees them continue to mesmerise clubs with their classic OG house sonics.

Tracklist:
1. Duowe - Monster Island
2. Duowe - Bits N Bobs
3. Duowe - Xyloroll
4. Duowe - Sandy's Sway

SLUMP006 - Duowe 'Line In The Sand' EP (clips)

German trailblazer - mpeg kicks things off on the brand new digital off-shoot imprint SLUMPED with a sleek, driving house cut that blends his signature proggy-synths with an effortless bounce to keep a joyous bounce on any dancefloor in its path!  Released 22.3.24.

SLUMP RECORDINGS:
https://slumprecordings.bandcamp.com/

PREMIERE: MPEG - FEEL IT [SLUMPED001]

A 2-hour recording from a sweaty spring tear-up at @nosediveinn with a beautiful crew! Big love to the Ollie & Cheng...
✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ ✼ 
Photograph by Jamie Henderson

Baby Rollén live @ Nosedive - April 13th 2024

Binker and Moses release their debut duo LP Dem Ones on analogue vinyl record label, Gearbox Records

Binker and Moses are tenor saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd - two of the most exciting young jazz musicians on the thriving London jazz scene. Originally meeting through double bassist/educator Gary Crosby’s Tomorrow’s Warriors jazz development programme, they have played together in various large and small format groups including recording and touring extensively as members of Zara McFarlane’s band.

Dem Ones is their debut recording as a duo and will be released as a 12” 180gm vinyl LP on 29th May 2015. The record has its roots in experiments between soundchecks and gigs while on the road with McFarlane. Over time these initial ideas and jams have become templates for improvisation, and with their echoes of late period Coltrane and Charles Lloyd are as listenable and memorable as they are full of invention and surprise.

All the tracks were performed in the live room at Mark Ronson’s Zelig Studio and recorded direct to Gearbox's vintage Studer 1/4" tape machine next door. The vinyl lacquers were cut directly from this original stereo master on Gearbox’s 1967 Haeco Scully lathe with Westrex RA1700 series amps, using a Westrex 3DIIA cutting head and Telefunken U73B tube limiter, Maselec master control and equalisation and Audio Note monitoring equipment.


Binker and Moses - No Long 'Tings

Prototype (Butcher Brown Cover)

Founded in 2009, Gearbox is a vinyl-led record label, mastering and vinyl-cutting studio and turntable manufacturer situated in London and Tokyo. What started out as a focus on previously-unreleased archival jazz recordings,  (including Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, and Yusef Lateef), has now branched into contemporary jazz, electronic music, and folk. 

Output includes London jazz duo Binker and Moses, Indian percussionist and tabla-player Sarathy Korwar, tubist Theon Cross, and American jazz and funk five-piece Butcher Brown.

Dexter Gordon - The Blues Up And Down, Down And Up

Gearbox Records

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