Driftin’

Dexter Gordon (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (piano), Butch Warren (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). From the album Takin’ Off (1962).

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, being the first to translate the language of bebop into his instrument. His musical career lasted more than forty years. He had a life so full of events that his story would be a good script for a Hollywood movie. His sound was spacious, he had a tendency to play behind the rhythm and inserted musical quotes into his solos. He was known for his humorous stage presence and recited the lyrics of the ballads before playing them. From 1940 to 1943 he was a member of Lionel Hampton’s big band and in 1944 of Fletcher Henderson’ big band and Louis Armstrong’s group.

That same year he moved to New York and joined Billy Eckstine’s big band. He played with Ben Webster and Lester Young at Minton's Playhouse and in 1945 he recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and Sir Charles Thompson. He also recorded as a leader for Savoy Records before returning to his hometown Los Angeles in 1946. In 1947 he recorded again with Savoy Records and worked as a studio musician. From 1952 onwards he began to have drugs problems and was in prison, so he remained virtually inactive for the rest of the decade.

The theme is cheerful and fun, of those who lift the spirits. After a Higgins’s drumroll, Gordon enters with a kind and good-natured tone, but then his phrases get more complicated. Then Hubbard appears with a solo surprisingly constructed with very few notes, but then adds somewhat faster phrases. Hancock follows with an equally engaging and expressive speech that leads with skilfull and masterful hands. Lastly, the group re-exposes the theme and Hancock repeats a fading out coda.