Maxine Gordon & Richard Lawn: Sophisticated Giant: The Life And Legacy Of Dexter Gordon at Labyrinth Books

Co-sponsored by Labyrinth Books, All About Jazz, and Jazz at Princeton University

Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. We invite you to a presentation and discussion with the author.

Maxine Gordon has completed the book--part biography, part history, part memoir--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."...

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Co-sponsored by Labyrinth Books, All About Jazz, and Jazz at Princeton University

Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. We invite you to a presentation and discussion with the author.

Maxine Gordon has completed the book--part biography, part history, part memoir--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. 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.

Maxine Gordon is an independent scholar with a lifetime career working with jazz musicians. As an oral historian and archivist in the fields of jazz and African American cultural history, with Sophisticated Giant she fulfills the promise she made to her late husband, jazz saxophonist and Academy Award-nominated actor Dexter Gordon, to complete his biography.

Richard Lawn recently retired as Dean of the College of Performing Arts at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Prior to moving to Philadelphia he was the Founding Director of Jazz Studies, Chair of the Department of Music, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. As a member of the Nova Saxophone Quartet he has recorded on the Musical Heritage Society, Crystal and Equilibrium labels. He is the author of The Jazz Ensemble Directors Manual, Jazz Theory and Practice, and Experiencing Jazz.

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