3:33⅓ - Dexter Gordon - Love For Sale

Dexter Gordon was born one hundred years ago today. Think about that. We are listening to a record he made in 1962. The album is an amazing document of a particular moment in jazz to me. In my mind there’s a select group of musicians that were at the absolute height of tangible technical facility when they were doing bebop. They were so razor sharp. And when they moved into the hard bop moment, chord changes slowed a bit, there was a larger focus on groove, the records sounded less like contests for who could swing faster. It’s always a great sound in music when you take musicians who could win competitions and instead they shoot for something different but equally inspired. The record is spinning right now and I’m remember how much I like Sonny Clark and how much I forget about Billy Higgins. To me in these settings Higgins always sounds like Blakey if Blakey wasn’t so strident and powerful. Higgins is much more subtle, but still very inspired and feel oriented. Dear lord, I like some jazz and I’m liking it more and more being here at Jazz88.