Soul Sister

デクスター・ゴードン、ヨーロッパ時代初期の貴重な62・63年音源を初出し

デクスター・ゴードンはヨーロッパ時代(1962-1976)に、愛するデンマークを拠点に、プロフェッショナルなキャリアを積極的に積んでいく。アメリカでの激動の時代を経てヨーロッパに到着した彼は、心機一転新たな活力を得、キャリアの頂点と評価されているディスコグラフィーの大部分を構築した。

しかし、1962年から1964年にかけての録音はとても少なく、1962年と63年に録音された本作は、新たな船出の記録として非常に貴重なもの。前半3曲は冒頭に本人のコメントが入る。

ソニー・クラークらと演奏したブルーノート盤に比べ、憂いに満ち間の取り方が絶妙なMー1 など、ニールス・ペデルセンをはじめとする北欧のミュージシャンの空気感をより濃く投影した演奏になっている。

「ジャズ界のストーリーテラーの一人、デクスター・ゴードンの演奏が主役。彼のキャリアの劇的なルネッサンスの舞台となったこの作品は、長い間欠けていた章の一つを埋めるものである。」(ニール・テッサーによるライナーノーツより)

Recorded at the height of Dexter Gordons career resurgence following his signing to Blue Note in 1961, Soul Sister captures the tenor saxophonist on two intimate and hard-swinging live quartet dates at the beginning of his 14-year European sojourn. These recordings fit chronologically after his iconic 1962 album Go! and just prior to his 1963 album Our Man in Paris, and as such nicely spotlight one of his most creatively fertile and musically adept periods. The first date finds him in a club in Copenhagen, Denmark in February of 1963 leading a group with Bent Axen on piano, William Schiopffe on drums, and most notably, a young Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass. Opening with a rendition of composer Julian Robledos 1922 waltz "Three OClock in the Morning," reworked here as a dusky midtempo ballad in 4/4, the set is pure, unfiltered Gordon as he pulls his group along with his warm tone and broad, languorous lines. This is Gordon the half-lidded crooner, his burnished sound evoking the cigarette-and-suit profile he displayed on so many album covers. Equally vibrant moments follow as he dips into the bluesy title track (culled from his 1961 album Dexter Calling) and offers a propulsive take on Dizzy Gillespies "A Night in Tunisia." No less intoxicating, the second set (recorded in a public radio studio in Oslo, Norway in November 1962) features a group with Einar Iversen on piano, Erik Amundsen on bass, and Jon Christensen on drums. Here, he dives into a jaunty version of the "Ive Got Rhythm" contrafact "Second Balcony Jump" off Go! before easing into a gauzy take on his ballad "Ernies Tune." The album ends in rousing fashion as Gordon revisits the bop blues "Stanley the Steamer," referencing, but also pushing beyond his classic solo from the version on drummer Stan Leveys 1955 date This Times the Drums on Me. This is Dexter Gordon in his easy going, 1960s expatriate prime (an early version of the role hed play in 1986s loosely biographical Round Midnight) playing the kind of robustly delivered and romantic jazz you can get lost in. ~ Matt Collar