News & Updates — Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon / Feb 27, 1923 - April 25, 1990
(Photo by Herman Leonard, 1948) Tenor genius, Oscar-nominated actor and cigarette fetishist Dexter Gordon had an incredible sound that inspired Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Jack Kerouac. Out of Los Angeles, he started on the clarinet as a teen before moving to alto. He finally switched to tenor around 1940. He was greatly influenced by Lester Young, whom he encountered in '43 in a jam session with Ben Webster. He received training from Illinois Jacquet as he toured early with the Lionel Hampton band. They made some recordings in Chicago in '41, Gordon's first. He worked in the bands of...