Personnel: Dexter Gordon (tenor saxophone); Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd (trumpet); Sonny Clark, Barry Harris, Bud Powell, George Cables, Horace Parlan, Kenny Drew (piano); Neils-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Paul Chambers, Rufus Reid, Butch Warren, Bob Cranshaw, George Tucker, Pierre Michelot (bass); Billy Higgins, Philly Joe Jones, Kenny Clarke, Art Taylor, Al Harewood, Eddie Gladden (drums).
Producers: Alfred Lion, Francis Wolf, Todd Barkan.
Compilation producers: Michael Cuscuna, Society Red Productions.
Engineers include: Rudy Van Gelder.
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey between May 6, 1961 and May 27, 1965; CBS Studios, Paris, France on May 23, 1963 and June 2, 1964; live at The Keystone Korner, San Francisco, California on September 16, 1978.
The reputation of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was destined to be overshadowed by John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, not to mention the three titans of the previous era--Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. This wouldn't matter so much if Gordon wasn't a musician of the first rank himself. Indeed, Coltrane initially derived much of his hard, piercing sound from the older bop player. Part of the problem is that there isn't one key Dexter Gordon album that crystalizes his achievement, not like Rollin's SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS or Coltrane's GIANT STEPS or A LOVE SUPREME.
BALLADS partially fills this gap and is an excellent introduction to Gordon's tenor artistry. Compiled from a number of mostly '60s Blue Note sessions, these familar standards, including Billie's "Don't Explain" and Sinatra's "I'm A Fool To Want You," are given long and bracing workouts in the modern tenor style. Underrated Gordon might have been, but he was never outdated. The grand finale is an electrifying 16-minute "Body And Soul," recorded live in 1978, which includes a nearly 4-minute unaccompanied cadenza.
