Dexter Gordon Quartet: Tokyo 1975

Elemental Music

Raising the roof of Tokyo’s Yubin Chokin Hall, the late Dexter Gordon, a giant in every sense, combines commanding directness on tenor sax with witty melodic inventiveness in the company of pianist Kenny Drew, double-bassist Niels-henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. These hitherto unreleased recordings see Gordon in full flight in his own Fried Bananas, the others keeping him athletic company. He takes introductory vocals in a strutting treatment of the Eckstine-hines hit Jelly, Jelly,

Jelly, while two numbers recorded elsewhere with different line-ups include Thelonious Monk’s Rhythma-ning. It’s during a Tokyo moment, however, halfway through a tenderly handled Misty, when Gordon breaks off and Drew’s piano cascades on over shushing brushwork, that we’re struck by the sheer glamour – in the word’s old, magical sense – of what is going on.