Sophisticated Giant

The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-0-520-28064-9
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 284 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 536 g

Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923–1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his “solo” turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter’s personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, “Man, you ought to leave your karma to science.”

Dexter Gordon the icon is the Dexter beloved and celebrated on albums, on film, and in jazz lore--even in a street named for him in Copenhagen. But this image of the cool jazzman fails to come to terms with the multidimensional man full of humor and wisdom, a figure who struggled to reconcile being both a creative outsider who broke the rules and a comforting insider who was a son, father, husband, and world citizen. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gordon, Maxine

Weitere Mitwirkende

Griffin, Farah Jasmine

Shaw III, Woody Louis Armstrong

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Einzelne Komponisten und Musiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Jazz

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The Saga of Society Red

2. An Uncommon Family

3. Education of an Eastside Altar Boy

4. Leaving Home

5. Pops
6. Blowin’ the Blues Away

7. Business Lessons

8. Mischievous Lady

9. Central Avenue Bop
10. Trapped
11. Resurgence

12. New Life
13. Very Saxily Yours

14. Trouble in Paris

15. The Khalif of Valby

16. Homecoming

17. Bebop at Work

18. Round Midnight

Über Autor(innen)

Maxine Gordon is an independent scholar with a lifetime career working with jazz musicians. As an oral historian and archivist in the fields of jazz and African American cultural history, Sophisticated Giant fulfills the promise she made to her late husband, jazz saxophonist and Academy Award-nominated actor Dexter Gordon, to complete his biography.