Sophisticated Giant – The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon

Sophisticated Giant – The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon

by Farah Jasmine Griffin (Author), Farah Jasmine Griffin (Author), Maxine Gordon (Author), Woody Louis Arm Shaw Iii (Author)

Synopsis

Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his solo turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter's personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, Man, you ought to leave your karma to science.

Dexter Gordon the icon is the Dexter beloved and celebrated on albums, on film, and in jazz lore--even in a street named for him in Copenhagen. But this image of the cool jazzman fails to come to terms with the multidimensional man full of humor and wisdom, a figure who struggled to reconcile being both a creative outsider who broke the rules and a comforting insider who was a son, father, husband, and world citizen. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.

$25.74

Save:$5.68 (18%)

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 284
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 30 Nov 2018

ISBN 10: 0520280644
ISBN 13: 9780520280649

Author Bio
Maxine Gordon is an independent scholar with a lifetime career working with jazz musicians. As an oral historian and archivist in the fields of jazz and African American cultural history, Sophisticated Giant fulfills the promise she made to her late husband, jazz saxophonist and Academy Award-nominated actor Dexter Gordon, to complete his biography.