Dexter Gordon: Gingerbread Boy

This recording contains all the feeling of New York in the 70s. It was a big event in jazz when Dexter Gordon returned to the scene as a bandleader, his personal charisma in good part spurring on the resurgence of straight-ahead jazz in the latter part of the decade. The collaboration of the Shaw/Hayes group with Dexter on this recording, Live at the Vanguard, led to Woodys signing with CBS and the inception of the most fruitful and successful period of his career. On Gingerbread Boy, a blues, Woody engages in a canny strategy (after Dexters long solo) of starting his solo trading twelves with Louis Hayes, then moving to a continuous solo statement later ona great way of focusing attention and refreshing a long piece! Hearing Woody alongside Dexter, I really feel the continuity of tradition between these two players of different generations. Even as Woody stakes out his own position (and puts some fire on Dexter in the process!), his reference and knowledge of the tradition complements the older master quite well indeed.