Dexter Gordon – One Flight Up

Remastered and reissued as part of the Blue Note 75th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Campaign

A Blue Note essential, One Flight Up by Dexter Gordon is part of the Blue Note 75 anniversary LP reissue campaign, featuring 100 titles. Key to the initiative is high quality audio at affordable prices.

After gaining experience playing with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Louis Armstrong, Dexter Gordon became the first tenor-saxophonist to not only master bebop but to develop his own distinctive sound in the new style. He recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and as a leader, and starred in late night jam sessions in Los Angeles with fellow tenors Wardell Gray and Teddy Edwards. After a largely uneventful decade in the 1950s, Gordon made a major comeback in 1961 when he emerged in prime form with a series of releases on the Blue Note label.

1964’s One Flight Up served as his sixth effort for Blue Note, recorded with producer Francis Wolff and a quintet rounded out by Donald Byrd (trumpet), Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass) and Art Taylor (drums) in Paris, France during his years spent living abroad. Free from the restrictions of the American music scene, Gordon and company offer up three extended numbers including the 18-minute “Tanya,” 11-minute “Coppin’ the Haven” and 7 1/2-minute “Darn That Dream.”

There was no mistaking Dexter Gordon for anyone else, and he always gave the impression that he could play for hours without running out of inventive ideas or personality.

Musicians:
Dexter Gordon, tenor saxophone
Donald Byrd, trumpet
Kenny Drew, piano
Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, bass
Art Taylor, drums