Dexter Gordon: You Stepped Out of a Dream

Part of a jazz lover's impossible mission, should you decide to accept it, is to champion artists forsaken in fashion's fickle frenzy. One such is Dexter Gordon, who in the movie Round Midnight (1986) sparked a flash in the pan, but quickly faded into the answer of a trivia question: "What jazz tenorman was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for portraying a jazz tenorman?" Probably more people know the answer than know this laid-back track, which is sad. With his spacious tone and abiding sense of song, Dexter could treat a standard respectfully, yet make it singularly his own.