Dexter Gordon: One Flight Up (Blue Note Tone Poet series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Tone Poet edition is on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket, mastered from the original analog tapes. Side A is given over entirely to "Tanya," Donald Byrd's 18-minute tune.

This edition

• Blue Note Tone Poet series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Plenty of American jazz greats found Paris a welcoming place in the 1960s, and Dexter Gordon made the very most of it. On June 2, 1964, he recorded this session in the city with a transatlantic band, and Blue Note issued it the following year with Francis Wolff, who produced the date, also handling the photography.

Donald Byrd joins on trumpet, Kenny Drew plays piano, a young Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen holds down the bass and Art Taylor is on drums. Gordon is a generous leader here. The LondonJazzCollector noted how much space he gives the others on "Tanya," where Byrd, Drew and Taylor all stretch out and Pedersen walks dreamily through the long groove. Side B swings harder on "Coppin' The Haven" and then lets Gordon's big, warm tenor take the spotlight on the ballad "Darn That Dream." AllMusic called the album a testament to Gordon's strength as a bandleader and a teammate.

Joe Harley chose it for the Tone Poet series, and the long-form playing suits a quiet room. Three tunes across two sides works out at about one per cup of coffee, which we consider the correct way to take a Dexter Gordon record.

Also at Kops: more Dexter Gordon on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0032871-01), a reissue of the 1965 album.