Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was one of the first to play bebop on the tenor saxophone, translating Charlie Parker’s alto language to the bigger horn and adding his own relaxed, behind-the-beat phrasing. He stood six foot five, and the playing had the same unhurried grandeur – big-toned, witty, never rushed, with a habit of quoting other melodies mid-solo like a man sharing a private joke.

His sound bridged two worlds. He had bebop’s harmonic sophistication but a warmth and ease that leaned toward cool, and a deep blues feeling under all of it. The young John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins both listened hard to Gordon on their way to finding themselves.

Like too many of his generation he lost years to heroin and prison, and in 1962 he moved to Europe, where he was treated as the visiting master he was. He spent fourteen years mostly in Copenhagen and Paris, playing beautifully for appreciative crowds, before a triumphant return to New York in 1976 that felt like a coronation.

Then came an unexpected final act. In 1986 he starred in the film Round Midnight, playing a character based on Lester Young and Bud Powell, and earned an Academy Award nomination. He was essentially playing a version of himself – the expatriate jazzman, weathered and wise – and he was magnificent.