Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon’s quartet album "Go!" was recorded in August of 1962. It is regarded as a veritable masterpiece, in part because of the leader’s playing, and in part because of the talent of the other members of the formation: Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.

Gordon only recorded one other session with this same formation (on August 29, 1962), which was issued on the album A Swingin’ Affair. Sonny Clark would die shortly after this session in January of 1963 at the age of 31. "Go!" received a five-star rating in Down Beat, with critic Don DeMicheal stating that, “I have been greatly impressed with the playing of Gordon in the last year and a half. In sessions of this caliber so much is done by the soloists that the drummer and bassist often are overshadowed, at least when plaudits are given. But without Higgins and Warren heating up the background this wouldn’t be the superior album it is. There are few LPs one can get high on simply by listening; this is one of them.”

PERSONNEL:

DEXTER GORDON, tenor sax
SONNY CLARK, piano
BUTCH WARREN, bass
BILLY HIGGINS, drums

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, August 27, 1962.

SIDE A:

01 CHEESE CAKE
02 I GUESS I’LL HANG MY TEARS OUT TO DRY
03 SECOND BALCONY JUMP

SIDE B:

01 LOVE FOR SALE
02 WHERE ARE YOU?
03 THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING