You could say that tenor-and-rhythm is just about the most stable form of jazz group. Certainly it’s a combination that shuns pretension and exposes weakness. With Gordon there don’t seem to be any weaknesses to consider. His last LP on SteepleChase was an altogether more extravagant affair with a big orchestra. Predictably this unsophisticated offering is several times as good as its predecessor.
He plays brilliantly on every track – stomping and wailing on Just Friends, striding easily through Miles’ So What and touching Misty with a firm, no-messing ballad style. On Sentimental Mood he plays soprano, and he’s chosen a piece which stretches that very fallible instrument to its limits of tone conservation. He’s really exposed here, and one fluff could have destroyed the whole performance – needless to say it doesn’t happen.
A far lesser man than Gordon would sound good with a trio like this. Horace Parian has been alternating with Kenny Drew as Dexter’s pianist since 1972, so he knows what’s required of him, while ‘The Kid’ on bass gives a prodigious performance both in solo and backing – beautifully recorded, incidentally. Inzalco is also an expatriate American well suited to the group.
Discography
Just Friends; Misty; Red Cross (24 min) – So What; In A Sentimental Mood; Stablemates (25½ min)
Dexter Gordon (ten/sop); Horace Parian (pno); Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bs); Tony Inzalco (dm). Copenhagen 10/3/75.
(SteepleChase SCS 1040)
