Customer Reviews

Live at Carnegie Hall - Complete

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I'M CRAZY ABOUT DEXTER'S " ONE FLIGHT UP", BUT LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL HAS GOT TO BE HIS BEST RECORDING EVER. I DO NOT HAVE ALL HIS RECORDINGS BUT I CAN NOT IMAGINE HIM EVER BEING IN AS FINER FORM AS HE WAS IN AT THAT LIVE CONCERT. YOUR CD/MUSIC COLLECTION IS INCOMPLETE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS CUT

This was my introduction to Dexter Gordon. I enjoyed the CD, and I still pull it out from time to time. I liked "Secret Love" so much that I figured out how to play it myself. Dex's duel with Johnny Griffin on "Blues up and Down" is very spirited stuff. All of the songs were generally quite good. The rhythm section is top notch, especially George Cables on piano. Some complaints - Dexter's solos can sometimes go on a bit long. And the head on "Blues up and Down" wasn't synched up entirely. A good CD however, but mainly of interest to Dexter Gordon or Johnny Griffin fans.

I've owned this disc for years but just the other morning while jogging my mp3 shuffled through the nearly 2,000 (mostly bop) tracks in its memory and came up with "Blues Up and Down." As I listened once again on a fresh, brilliant morning to Dex and "Little Giant" Johnny Griffin trading 16s and 8s, I was reminded of a passage in Art Pepper's "Straight Life" in which Pepper describes an encounter with Sonny Stitt one night in a Central Avenue club. In the book, Pepper recalls a mammoth cutting session in the aftermath of which 'the people were screaming; the people were clapping, and I looked at Sonny, but I just kind of nodded, and he went "All right." And that was it. That's what it's all about.'

That the particular tune that touched off this reflection happens to be the product of a classic Stitt and Jug Ammons tenor duel is fitting. As is the contribution made by pianist George Cables, whom Pepper referred to as "Mr. Beautiful" during their long association.

Inspired by this hearing I'm now listening to the entire disc and reacquainting myself with what I'd perhaps simply taken for granted--the towering talent that was Dexter Gordon. I have about a dozen of his solo discs and cannot say I have a favorite. This one, however, provides as good a compendium of the essential LTD as one is likely to find.

His balladeer's sensibility is amply on display in "More Than You Know" and an intriguingly mid-tempo treatment of "The End of a Love Affair"; his distinctive humor apparent in incorporating trademark quotes into his playing, as well as his puckish, gravel voiced commentary (Griffin introduced as a "European Soul tenor"); not to mention the fiery up-tempo improvisations for which he is so justly celebrated. If "BUAD" and a unique reading of "Secret Love" isn't enough, listen to he and Griffin tearing through "Cheesecake" with hell for leather abandon. And to a Carnegie Hall audience that plainly doesn't want the music to end.

'That's what it's all about' indeed!

Thanks so much for the quality of this CD !! Good condition and a fantastic sound from one of the truly great Jazz Tenor players of all time !! Thanks Amazon for your service!! Regards, Eric D'Arcy

A fantastic album! If there is a number 1 way to listen Dexter (or any jazz for that matter) it is live! His soulfulness, phrasing and dexterity are wonderful and in full flight on this album. The rythem section are smokin' on 'Secret Love', End of a love Affair', 'Blues Up and down' and Cheesecake. The interplay between Dexter and the rythem section on 'More than you know' is brilliant. With the addition of Johnny Griffin later in the programme is purely the icing on the cake. You will not be disapointed with this one, a must for any Dexter fan!