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Dexter Gordon, who would have been 81 this year, was born on February 27, 1923 in Los Angeles, California. He began studying clarinet at 12 and later moved to alto, then tenor saxophone. At the age of 17, in 1940, the first of what he called “those bebop moments that look like luck, but are moments when your destiny is shaped" occurred. He went on the road with Lionel Hampton in a band that included Illinois Jacquet, Marshall Royal, and Joe Newman. Gordon went on to perform with the Louis Armstrong Orchestra, Fletcher Henderson, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis in New York, and to record with Nat 'King' Cole and Dizzy Gillespie. In the 1950s, he teamed with Wardell Gray for the classic recording of “The Chase." In the 1960s, he recorded his classic albums for Blue Note and lived and performed in Europe, finally settling in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In the years after Gordon returned to New York in 1976, he began to reap the benefits of a now-legendary career: he signed with a major label, received multiple awards for his recordings including a Grammy, and was nominated for an Academy Award as leading actor for his role in the film Round Midnight. Gordon died in April of 1990.
“Dexter Gordon translated the language of bebop for the tenor saxophone," said Robert G. O'Meally, Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. “With his robust tone and modernist conception of soloing (and of composing bluesy lines for small group play), he influenced everybody who came after him
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