[Dixielandjazz] Herb Ellis -- Dexter Gordon

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Saddened by the news about Herb.
Ken Mathieson was on the Benny Carter/ Herb Ellis gig in Edinburgh, with Dave Newton and dear Francis Cowan, the six foot eight bassist (and player of about every string instrument) who too soon after didn't make it home after another gig. Some sub-human businessman had been driving his car for about ten hours that day, and finished it by killing Francis and a colleague in their car. 
But some of us taped the broadcast, with Herb suddenly landing on a chord in one of his solos, and saying how much he liked it, and relishing it and playing with it...  And after three numbers by the quartet people were asking why Benny Carter was in the building and what could even he add. 
And there was the interval story about a little lad being found curled up in a corner and weeping helplessly. And somebody asking, "what's wrong, son?" And the poor fellow just managing to sob "I'm a guitarist..." 
Herb gave Benny a glorious spoken introduction, but there were still people asking what Benny was doing, some of them utterly enthralled by Herb, and others like Dick Lee and me sufficiently acquainted with the alto to appreciate that some of Benny's phrases just cannot be played... I mean, he was doing the impossible too.

A psychiatrist friend of mine had the same reaction to Dexter's performance as an actor in ROUND MIDNIGHT. He thought the film could be shown to students with a commentary on what this showed about the psychological problems Dexter was representing. Of course he was combining Lester and Bud Powell, and he was also acting with the saxophone -- so that I had to tell some very accomplished young German musicians that Dexter was a master, and he was actually playing in character.  I was very angry when Sony CBS produced a sampler of Dexter including "Body and Soul" from the film soundtrack. The virtuoso technique was not in evidence, immediately. There are even deliberate bum notes, one in particular making no harmonic sense and suddenly coming in with all the force of a collossal blunder; and yet before following it up with a relatively ordinary correct note Dexter managed to make it mean a great deal, like a properly verbal expression. 
Especially if the listener knows that Dexter was well aware this was formally a bum note. 
It was just a wholly other level of characterisation. 
Some performers are gifted to a level which is difficult to appreciate.