The American tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-90) first came to Europe in 1962 for a two-week gig at Ronnie Scott’s, and decided to stay for a while. Apart from a few brief visits home, that stay lasted 14 years. He settled in Copenhagen, with the city’s Montmartre jazz club as his base. His presence attracted the best local musicians, who soon became much more than mere accompanists, as this collection of live recordings proves.
Gordon was in great form, and his supple, mercurial style, with a tendency to phrase just behind the beat, would have been pretty demanding, but drummer Alex Riel, pianist Tete Montoliu and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (aged 18 at the time) rise splendidly to the occasion. You can tell that Gordon feels at home from the number of outrageous quotations he inserts into his solos, but the warm, dry breadth of his tone, clarity of improvised line and sheer command of the instrument are uplifting. Outstanding among the seven tracks are I Want More and Cheese Cake, both Gordon originals, and a masterly rendition of Misty, which is as close as we’ll ever get now to the man himself.
