“When Dexter Gordon recorded ‘GO’ for Blue Note Records on August 27, 1962, jazz was
moving in many different directions. Tenor/soprano saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Miles Davis were leading the modal explosion, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman and pianist Cecil Taylor were exploring the possibilities of dissonant free jazz, and the soul-jazz organists of Philadelphia favored a funky, groove-oriented mixture of jazz and R&B. Gordon, however, remained a committed hard bopper, although ‘GO’was by no means a carbon copy of the tenor saxophonist’s 1940s and 1950s output. ‘GO’ came at a time when Gordon was enjoying a renaissance despite his well-publicized battles with heroin addiction and periods of incarceration during the 1950s. Although Gordon was among the most influential bop saxophonists of the 1940s, he recorded only sporadically
during the following decade. Gordon, in fact, was on parole from California’s Chino Prison
when, in 1960, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley…