I've found myself reaching for a jazz masterpiece of perfection. I bought Dexter Blows Hot And Cool in my sojourn in the capital some time in the eighties, when I was full of my
love of modern jazz, that seemed to effortlessly combine with my equally strong love of beat-inspired poetry and prose and left bank Parisian outpouring of ideas and beliefs from the twenties. All Henry Miller and F Scott meets Kerouac and the rest.
Somehow it was all combined with records like this one. Dexter Gordon, the great early bebop tenor saxophonist, and his band, including young pianist Carl Perkins, released this in 1955, though my copy was a re-release from Boplicity records with sleeve notes from Honest Jon from 1984. The sleeve notes say the record was originally released on "the obscure Dooto label" when Gordon was 32. It also relays a little tale that the opener Silver Plated had been on a local village bar in Jamaica in the 50's, which I find particularly inspirational. I love the power of music to connect people, from that wonderful sunny island on the other side of the world seventy years ago, to me in overcast England in the third decade of the twentieth century. Sit back, sip a beer and imagine the hip cats doing their thing. Music and words can do that. And the sax has a language its own.
I was always impressed by the fluent, fluid style of playing on tunes such as Silver Plated, the heartfelt cover of Cry Me A River and the invitation to get up and dance that is Bonna Rue. Gordon of course has an appearance in On The Road, where Jack waxes lyrical about his bebop classic The Hunt. That's certainly a tune to dig out, so easy with the wonders of the web, though less authentic than finding it in a dusty second hand shop. The same goes for Go, his seminal album from 1962. The perfect way to follow Dexter Plays. So very good.