C. Daniel Dawson
At 6 feet 6 inches, the late tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon cast a long shadow across jazz stages in the U.S. and Europe, earning him the nickname “Sophisticated Giant.” His musical reach was equally long, with an expansive sound that helped usher in the bebop era and influenced legendary sax players John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and others.
Gordon was already into his autobiography when he died in 1990, leaving deathbed instructions to his wife, Maxine Gordon, to finish the book in a way that recognized the jazz community in which he was so influential. Almost 30 years later, Maxine complied with Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon (University of California Press). The book, released earlier this year, earned rave reviews from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and was named “Book of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association.
Gordon, traveling to promote the book, stops in Madison next week as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival. She also will enmesh herself in the area’s jazz scene, speaking to high school and college jazz students, conducting interviews and lectures, and appearing as a guest at several concerts, including a Dexter Gordon tribute concert on Nov. 1, at Café Coda, featuring saxophonist Hanah Jon Taylor and pianist Johannes Wallmann.
“Dexter was a very educated person, an avid reader, nonjudgmental and kind,” Gordon tells Isthmus by phone from her New York City home. “He always thought of himself as part of the bigger picture of musicians. Ask any young tenor player studying jazz, and they always point to Dexter, the first bebop tenor player, as inspiration.”
In an attempt to escape racism in the U.S., Dexter Gordon spent much of the 1960s and ’70s living and playing in Europe, primarily in Paris and Copenhagen, which named a street after him. That experience in part led to Dexter being cast as Dale Turner, a fictionalized jazz musician and U.S. expat in Bernard Tavernier’s 1986 film Round Midnight. The role earned Dexter an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role and a Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Instrumental category for the film’s soundtrack.
“Dexter’s Oscar nomination brought people to jazz who didn’t know a lot about it,” Maxine says. “When he was offered the film he said, ‘I need to do this for those who never got the opportunity.’ He was a big guy, and I think his legacy is secure.”
For a complete list of Maxine Gordon’s Madison public appearances, visit the “Featured Events” section of the Madison Jazz Consortium website at jazzinmadison.org.
