Wild Bill Davison (cor) Sidney Bechet (ss) Art Hodes (p) Walter Page (b) Fred Moore (d) WOR Studios, NYC, January 21, 1949 Ray Diehl (tb) Slick Jones (d) replaces Moore WOR Studios, NYC, March 23, 1949 Pierre Dervaux (tp) Bernard Zacharias (tb) Claude Luter (cl) Sidney Bechet (ss) Christian…

Wild Bill Davison (cor) Sidney Bechet (ss) Art Hodes (p) Walter Page (b) Fred Moore (d) WOR Studios, NYC, January 21, 1949 Ray Diehl (tb) Slick Jones (d) replaces Moore WOR Studios, NYC, March 23, 1949 Pierre Dervaux (tp) Claude Phillippe (tp, bj) Mowgli Jospin (tb) Claude Luter (cl)…

Dexter Gordon was on a roll in 1962 when he recorded A Swingin’ Affair. Two days earlier he and this same quartet recorded his classic album Go!; the band included pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Billy Higgins. Gordon wrote two of the set’s six tunes, the…

The title of this Blue Note set, Doin’ Allright, fit perfectly at the time, for tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was making the first of three successful comebacks. Largely neglected during the 1950s, Gordon’s Blue Note recordings (of which this was the first) led to his rediscovery. The tenor is…

From the first moments when Dexter Gordon sails into the opening song full of brightness and confidence, it is obvious that Go! is going to be one of those albums where everything just seems to come together magically. A stellar quartet including the stylish pianist Sonny Clark, the agile…

Dexter Gordon’s mid-’60s period living in Europe also meant coming back to the U.S. for the occasional recording session. His teaming with Bobby Hutcherson was intriguing in that the vibraphonist was marking his territory as a maverick and challenging improviser. Here the two principals prove compatible in that they…

Dexter Gordon’s second recording for the Blue Note label is a solidly swinging affair, yet constantly full of surprises. It’s not unexpected that Gordon’s tenor at this time — 1961 — is one of the most enjoyable in mainstream jazz, but his transition from the cool California scene to…

Takin’ Off was an impressive debut effort from Herbie Hancock, and his second record, My Point of View, proved that it was no fluke. Hancock took two risks with the album — his five original compositions covered more diverse stylistic ground than his debut, and he assembled a large…

Less overtly adventurous than its predecessor, Empyrean Isles, Maiden Voyage nevertheless finds Herbie Hancock at a creative peak. In fact, it’s arguably his finest record of the ’60s, reaching a perfect balance between accessible, lyrical jazz and chance-taking hard bop. By this point, the pianist had been with Miles…

My Point of View and Inventions and Dimensions found Herbie Hancock exploring the fringes of hard bop, working with a big band and a Latin-flavored percussion section, respectively. On Empyrean Isles, he returns to hard bop, but the results are anything but conventional. Working with cornetist Freddie Hubbard, bassist…