At the Subway Club 1973
| At the Subway Club 1973 | ||||
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| Live album by Dexter Gordon | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Elemental Music | |||
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Format (s) |
2 CD, LP, download |
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running time |
2:24:58 |
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At the Subway Club 1973 is a jazz album by saxophonist Dexter Gordon . The tracks were recorded in Stuttgart on November 23, 1965, in The Hague on March 22, 1971 and in the Cologne Club Subway on September 11, 1973. The recordings were released on May 10, 2019 on the reissue label Elemental Music .
background
The recordings were made in quartet formations over a period of eight years. The first CD (and the first track of the second CD) contains Dexter Gordon's guest performance at the Cologne Club Subway in 1973 with pianist Irv Rochlin , bassist Henk Haverhoek and drummer Tony Inzalaco . The album is supplemented with additional archive material, a recording from Stuttgart from 1965 with the pianist George Gruntz , the drummer Stu Martin and the bassist Jimmy Woode , etc. a. with a version of Thelonious Monk's classic " 'Round Midnight ". A gig in The Hague with a Dutch quartet dates from 1971, with Cees Slinger , Maarten Van Regteren Altena and Martin van Duynhoven .
Track list
- Dexter Gordon: At the Subway Club 1973 (Elemental Music - 5990433)
CD edition
- CD 1
- Wave ( Antonio Carlos Jobim ) 20:46
- Didn't We ( Jimmy Webb ) 11:06
- On the Trail ( Ferde Grofé ) 16:31
- Secret Love ( Paul Francis Webster , Sammy Fain ) 19:49
- CD 2
- It's You or no One ( Jule Styne , Sammy Cahn ) 27:45
- Fried Bananas (Dexter Gordon) 13:25
- Some Other Spring (Arthur Herzog, Jr., Irene Kitchings ) 10:29
- 'Round Midnight ( Thelonious Monk ) 11:14
- Lady Bird ( Tadd Dameron ) 14:02
LP edition
- Dexter Gordon: At the Subway Club, 1973 (Elemental Music - 5990533)
- Wave (Antonio Carlos Jobim) 20:44
- Secret Love (Paul Francis Webster, Sammy Fain) 19:56
reception
Thom Jurek rated the album in Allmusic with 3½ (out of 5) stars and wrote: “The club concert from the subway stands for the best recordings of Gordon from this time. Starting with a lengthy rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'Wave', the saxophonist sounds excited as he digs his way through the bossa to find his jazz essence, then creates a solo that is elastic in its relationship to the beat and of you Topic flits to the next. He fills his skilfully constructed solo with these striking fragments from other pieces. His adaptation of Jimmy Webb's 'Didn't We' is, of course, a sad ballad that fills Gordon with slow, simmering emotions. It gradually arises from carefully worked out and dissolving tensions. "
After delivering his own airy version of Jimmy Heath's version of Ferde Grofes ' 'On the Trail', Gordon's band starts the song ' Secret Love' known from Doris Day and turns it into “the hardest swinging track on set. The interplay between Haverhoek and Inzalaco under Gordon's long, rushing solo unfolding in athletic arpeggios , honking and groans is almost hectic, while Rochlin brings in compings and adds speed and texture. ”The last track (on CD 2) is an almost half-hour version of "It's You or No One" which includes solo quotes from his earlier versions of the piece. According to the author, its intensity persists even when all band members play solo, and Gordon is in excellent shape and inspires both the rhythm section and the audience. The 1965 Germany Show with pianist George Gruntz, drummer Stu Martin and bassist Jimmy Woode offers an excellent version of “ Round Midnight ” with two excellent Gordon solos (especially the second), while the Hague gig with an all-Dutch quartet from 1971 is pleasant, but nothing special. Given the focus, inspiration, and energy of the Subway Club performance, it's an essential entry in Gordon's catalog, Jurek summarizes.
The critic Nic Jones ( Jazz Journal ) investigates the question of whether it is justified to raise “average music making to a status” by publishing historical recordings, which is not always justified. He wrote that Gordon mostly trundled around inconspicuously, "but if he doesn't, we hear a man who runs his musical business with commitment and love." "It's You or no One", almost 28 minutes long, is unfortunately rather a Example of Gordon often not knowing how to work on himself. Inspiration is more likely to come from Jimmy Webb's “Didn't We”, whose presence is welcome not only because it is the most likely Gordon vehicle, but mainly because it shows what a master he was at a slower pace. In summary, he praises the author for the fairly good fidelity of the recording, although Gordon sometimes stands noticeably away from the microphone.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dexter Gordon - At The Subway Club 1973 at Discogs
- ↑ Dexter Gordon - At The Subway Club 1973 (LP) at Discogs
- ↑ Listing of the album At the Subway 1973 on Allmusic (English). Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- ↑ Nic Jones: Dexter Gordon - At the Subway Club 1973. Jazz Journal, June 7, 2019, accessed September 7, 2019 .