
Sophisticated Giant
The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon
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Narrated by:
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Joe Morton
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Terria Joseph
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Prentice Onayemi
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By:
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Maxine Gordon
About this listen
Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his “solo” turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter’s personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, “Man, you ought to leave your karma to science.”
Dexter Gordon the icon is the Dexter beloved and celebrated on albums, on film, and in jazz lore - even in a street named for him in Copenhagen. But this image of the cool jazzman fails to come to terms with the multidimensional man full of humor and wisdom, a figure who struggled to reconcile being both a creative outsider who broke the rules and a comforting insider who was a son, father, husband, and world citizen. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.
©2018 The Regents of the University of California (P)2019 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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The Abyss
- Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Bestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history—the Cuban Missile Crisis—providing a people-focused narrative that explores the attitudes and conduct of Russians, Cubans, Americans, and a terrified world that followed each moment as it unfolded.
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Good book, but has some issues
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-10-22
By: Max Hastings
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The Jazzmen
- How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America
- By: Larry Tye
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz—Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie—who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet.
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Well Organized and Themed
- By unhae campbell on 05-23-24
By: Larry Tye
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Welcome to the Universe
- An Astrophysical Tour
- By: Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all - from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.
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All About What We Know About the Universe - ALL
- By J.B. on 02-17-17
By: Michael A. Strauss, and others
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Beneath The Underdog
- By: Charles Mingus
- Narrated by: Mark Ebulue
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Mingus is a musician, a mongrel musician who plays beautiful, who plays ugly, who plays lovely, who plays masculine, who plays feminine, who plays all sounds, loud, soft, unheard sounds, sounds, sounds, sounds.... Beneath the Underdog is the memoir of the Angry Man of jazz, Charles Mingus - the genius whose adventures began at the feet of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, and led him on a tour of every bottle, bar and bed in the world.
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It's not about music at all.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-25-23
By: Charles Mingus
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12 Notes
- On Life and Creativity
- By: Quincy Jones
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Quincy Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Wisdom and musings on creativity and life from one of the world’s most beloved musicians, producers, and mentors, Quincy Jones. 12 Notes is a self-development guide that will affirm that creativity is a calling that can and should be answered, no matter your age or experience.
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I lived these notes with Quincy
- By Thomas Bähler on 04-29-22
By: Quincy Jones
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Thelonious Monk
- The Life and Times of an American Original
- By: Robin DG Kelley
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
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The definitive bio of Monk
- By ricardo on 12-27-17
By: Robin DG Kelley
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Duke
- A Life of Duke Ellington
- By: Terry Teachout
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century - and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world's most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style.
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This audiobook needs music
- By John on 04-08-14
By: Terry Teachout
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Deliver Me from Nowhere
- The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
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Much more than a “Making of” story…
- By W. Smith on 05-31-23
By: Warren Zanes
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Energy Follows Thought
- The Stories Behind My Songs
- By: Willie Nelson, David Ritz, Mickey Raphael
- Narrated by: Willie Nelson, Ethan Hawke
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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From his earliest work in the 1950s to today, Willie looks back at the songs that have defined his career, from his days of earning $50 each to his biggest hits, from his less well-known songs (but incredibly meaningful to him) to his concept albums. Along the way, he also shares the stories of his guitar Trigger, his family and “family,” as well as the artists he collaborated with, including Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Dolly Parton, and many others.
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Would rather read
- By KSC on 11-06-23
By: Willie Nelson, and others
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Every Good Boy Does Fine
- A Love Story, in Music Lessons
- By: Jeremy Denk
- Narrated by: Jeremy Denk
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Every Good Boy Does Fine, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey. His life is already a little tough as a precocious, temperamental six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey, and then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico.
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Read by Denk, with music to illustrate examples
- By VT on 04-02-22
By: Jeremy Denk
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NFL Century
- The One-Hundred-Year Rise of America's Greatest Sports League
- By: Joe Horrigan
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the 100 years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL.
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C+
- By Eryn S. McGary on 09-02-23
By: Joe Horrigan
This was one of the best bios I have ever read about an artist. Totally loved all the references and detail on sessions, people, and Mr. Gordon's highs and lows. I may have to listen again and order the book for the photos!! I pulled out my documentaries on Miles and 'Trane to watch for the umpteenth time along with 'Round Midnight. Enjoy everyone and stay safe!!! -TGH
One of the best!!
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Well researched and well-written.
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Well Done Maxine!
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Highly recommend
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SOPHISTICATED GIANT Is a Sophisticated Giant of a Book.
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Long Tall Dex Was Indeed a Sophisticated Giant
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Overall, this is a sympathetic treatment of Dexter's life while being open about his flaws and failures (of which there are many). I would have liked to have gotten more details around Dexter's relationship with his other children, but I understand the sensitivity/privacy issues around these details, especially as this work has been written by Dexter's widow.
This is certainly highly recommended reading for jazz fans; you get the previously mentioned side stories about other musicians and I really appreciated the intricate details on recording contracts and the paltry sums these musicians received for their work. As a Blue Note fanatic, I relished the details on Dexter's professional/personal relationship with Alfred Lion and Francis Wolf. I also enjoy finding out what jazz musicians thought of the musicianship and playing chops of their fellow musicians.
To conclude, you walk away from this book having a good feel of not just Dexter Gordon's personality but Maxine Gordon's (the author) as well; you have a front row seat to Dexter's growth as a human being; you gain a better understanding of the lifestyle (good and bad) of jazz musicians; you discover new artists whose music you should be exploring (in my case Ike Quebec), and you also discover new narrators to follow on audible.
This book is a beautiful addition to the jazz biography canon and I really hope many people take a chance to read/listen to it.
Beautifully Told
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