{"id":6117,"date":"2014-10-11T17:50:58","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T00:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=6117"},"modified":"2014-10-11T19:54:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-12T02:54:23","slug":"correspondence-meeting-dexter-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2014\/10\/correspondence-meeting-dexter-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"Correspondence: Meeting Dexter Gordon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Greg Curtis, author<\/a>, former editor of Texas Monthly<\/em>, former TIME<\/em> magazine special correspondent, knowledgeable jazz listener and occasional Rifftides<\/em> reader, writes about meeting Dexter Gordon. He encountered Gordon at a used record store in San Francisco in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

I was aware that there was some discussion going on in small groups here and there around the store when I saw a very tall, elegant black man in an immaculate trench \"Dexter<\/a>coat and a blue beret riffling through the records in a corner of the store. I recognized that it was Dexter Gordon. No one else was approaching him. <\/p>\n

I went up, and being sure to give him plenty of room to duck away from me, introduced myself and said I had heard him a few days ago in Austin. He had played at the Armadillo World Headquarters there about a month before. We saw many jazz acts there\u00e2\u20ac\u201dCount Basie, Sam Rivers, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Stephane Grappelli, Sonny Rollins, and probably\"Greg<\/a> more. Extraordinary, looking back, that so many of the greats performed there. He was very gracious and quite willing to talk. Did the concert go all right? Yes. The crowd was so young. Did they like it? Yes. Then he asked me if I knew about the Texas tenor Budd Johnson. Thank God, I did. And then, I’ll never forget, because Dexter had a beautiful, deep voice, he said, “Very great. Very great.” Just those words in his voice were very moving. I then said good-bye and left him. An indelible memory.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lovely story. Veteran Rifftides<\/em> readers will suspect that publishing it is a reason (no excuse is needed) to present Gordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music. That is only partly correct. It is also an occasion to present Budd Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music. First, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gordon in the period when Greg met him. Dexter lived in Copenhagen for a time, and his musical headquarters was the Club Montmartre. More often than not, his colleagues were Kenny Drew, piano; Niels-Henning \u00c3\u02dcrsted-Pedersen, bass; and Alex Riel, drums. The more or less bilingual Dexter introduces the tune.<\/p>\n