Dexter Gordon More Than You Know Documentary

you are here are yonder whether you are near our farm makes no difference where you are because I'm so eternally your and now let's face the music and dance that how creative I was talent etc what you can do are you making money homage what kind of got a cat i yeah you never Beverly Hills you're gonna pin out I mean all the material things again this is I attitudes in America this is total capital is consistently everything is based on that and and anyone that's honest as always to my knowledge has always been looked on as some kind of oddball you know out of the mainstream which of course you are we had learned from the from the older cats so what they had already showed us we could take from that and and build on it you have to have hard hmm if you don't have heart you can't be in this business you got a headlock you don't have heart you don't make every generation is moving is progressing and they want to do something other than what has already been done and now we'd like to give you the musical historian of society ready society ready those were the days my friend we thought they would never end it all began very innocently in the city of Los Angeles California where I began studying clarinet and music in school you at the tender age of 17 Wow Hampton one afternoon I got a call telephone call and person said you know Dexter Gordon I said yeah and he said well this is Marshall royal you know he said you know how would you like to join LAN Hamptons new Orchestra you know I said this couldn't be Marshall wah must be you know somebody it's one of my friends you know putting me on or something but say that I said what is this he said no he's Marshall hyung serious business for me it was like you know dream is fantastic beautiful nights that's where I got all my most of my schooling that's my finishing school you know of course I kept expecting them to send me home every night and I'd say well here's your ticket back you know go home and study for a couple more years and then maybe here but they had a little faith in me so after a few months we'll it started to to get together from there I went to with Louis Armstrong and the very very modern band the first bebop band of course Billy Eckstine which had Dizzy Gillespie Charlie Parker fats Navarro Myles Sonny stick gene Hammonds Art Blakey many more this was the strategic change over I think but the music started going into more of a concert formal it wasn't aimed at especially for for dancers you know where's the music the floor had always been with the dancers in mind you know in the urban area is where the people had a chance to kind of grow up with the bebop thing you know we had quite a following and as I say I was a little limited but as Extang was the first bebop band and we went out on the road with the band into the into the southern states and so forth you know it wasn't good you know the people just kind of laugh look at his open mouth because they didn't know what what the hell we were doing about an item's you or a Siddeley beneath the velvet moon don't tell me cuz I wanna talk to by you but of course look for next time this kind of saved us because Extang was so very popular at that time you know so the band was able to last for a while and then I began to work in New York on the very very famous 52nd Street in fact I used to go down there at that time in and going one club and set in take my own out and just walk around the street was my own and go here and playing go there and play and attend of the night go back put my owned in the case in the original club and everything happens he phrased it everybody was happy everybody was making a book understand and those were happy days there were really everything everybody was on the street they had a real real special me you the atmosphere was very electric it never in life again probably will happen where you can get three great gentlemen of modern music guys like Charlie Parker Dizzy Gillespie in Bud Powell all together in one group it's only because the Birdland that we can get such wonderful guys gentlemen who've made modern music what it is today I hope you enjoy it hope you have a lot of fun no forget make it here at Birdland the Jazz corner of the world Broadway 52nd Street dollar admission how can you go wrong like to epitome because the other people too you know Disney bud Marc the Orlan more or less the same category but it was a very close-knit society you know whereas we had our own language and my style of dress demanded more more school musicians you know it's a known phenomenon in the United States that in order for a black man to succeed in anything he has to do it 10 times better in order to to be recognized to to make anything of himself you know this is one of the reasons that birds and life was so hectic because my own has hasn't been that tranquil either but at that time you know I think I think this was the real reason behind behind the cat so many of the cats being involved in narcotics and so forth you know I returned to Los Angeles where I was for salary is walking joke down' 10/10 of players and waiting for me was happening everywhere all over them I was wars and battles and sit she's alive and split thing one way of Ellen made so very exciting period you know now when I was increasing a lot of that time because I was addicted to nose using so I was so high you know I couldn't couldn't get to the job you know it was really the best time of my life is yes and in 1961 I came back to New York and started recording for the Blue Note company and which turned out to be very successful and then in 1962 I came to Europe Fausta to London and then to here to Copenhagen to Mamata so every every night one who workout I mean apart from the romantic feeling that everybody might have about playing jazz that's where you really could test yourself because there were people in there that introduced us to that that way of thinking that there are no excuses we're being Danish being Scandinavian I think that you always find excuses first and then you maybe later you try to do something that is up some quality but there were people in there who said unless it's so-and-so I don't like it I don't like you if you can't come up with it but maybe one of the persons that really did something to that tree or was lucky Thompson because he demanded discipline and we weren't disciplined for sure another one that left big impression was Don Byas but now we go broomall Ben Webster the Dexter of course because he was there so many times the first one I found was Niels Anning Elstad business she was only 15 he could already play Magda was a teacher professor shrugged it but I didn't think of it and said well the more bring the lamp I wanted play some music on the band's van without getting sidetracked you know so I I really think that it that it meant everything for the whole discipline for the way I mean not only for the people who got to play with all these people but also for the people who had an opportunity to come down there every now and then and listen you it seemed like I became very popular and and I kept coming back to work in La Mancha and so I found out that it was Copenhagen was a nice place to be whoa Sarge you know I'm you know six years I worked I was like the house band and we're heavy selling over three four months and then in the winter a couple ones enemy training our child traveling room for me as a as a riser musica it's very central it's very easy to travel all the way up from here so with the club Montmartre and the location it's it's been very it's been very good for me and I've met some very beautiful daily people here and I feel very much at home see when I can beating was another musicians we were creating jobs as the local young musicians explain and learn later on I did a television program who would seem random and there was a progressive school in Hill Road so I Califa Belize has sponsored in my lab I didn't our ones who become Alera it's a nice teacher now we give you information mistake hey you know who would give all them had been am as you know a very big problem you know you're coming you Oh and now to the film did you say something about it yeah different top tier soda mid I'm a student from Film Institute the crushing on oh yeah they were namely add tre OCD oh the women my Coolio Kenny Jew news Henning listed Oh Micaiah and suku thrown slag yeah that's all they were figured okay I think it's very funny I'm asking in English and you're answering in Danish which language perhaps to be preferred International International taken in Swedish okay actors in tech or the AI mean sister often here a gambler mamata men for ya go you have again a say they her they have had my dad it the quality of the music has become much better in his last 10 years and no which makes me feel very good you know and it makes makes it much easier for me to to play also solve easier tack for 10 again goodnight goodnight a country dance was being a held and a garden I felt a bone and then oh I beg your pardon suddenly it seemed like polka-dots and moonbeams all around a bug knows dream the frustration of of dying alone in Europe as an old saxophone players as a truth that's always with me you know they both went out doing the same thing playing basically what they were doing they were drinking heavily not eating it taking care of themselves more lest has given up the struggle thing you know I mean I don't do often wear it much to a sneaker to switch about these these masters you know and they're easy right the Giants man they should have an integral place in our society and I can't think of a better place than on the on campus you know with all the kids man I mean people like then would thrive on that you know I mean you got to go back home sometime because you do miss it and especially a place like New York where there's so much happening you really get out of touch if you don't go back and see what's happening you get eclipsed in a minute to make it you have to make it in the space and after five years in Europe and I travel all around the world and I have pretty good reputation and I could play for my supper almost anywhere it seemed logical a logical challenge to try to make it in my own country you know I mean if that's what life's all about is to meet some challenges I mean Europe didn't no longer presented any challenges still all the happenings are there and I mean they're the new things that I am it's still coming I still coming for me and also there's a possibility of having a steady group regular group which I've never had in in Europe which is I think you'll be nice very interesting because with a steady group you're able to do a lot of things yeah and I'm gonna be beautiful you you a lot of musicians simply crossed over it sold out you know they left a big void for real pure jazz Dexter came back at the right time when there were no really major innovative saxophonist um see I think it's very ironic in America's discover Dexter Gordon I think that's wonderful you know they finally discovered Dexter well better late than never but he's very successful now in this country but he's a living legend on its own a saxophone and people who looked in three years and must be removed that to start with John Coltrane comes directly out of export when Wayne Shorter Jimmy Heath Jordan the modern sound came next because he was the most innovated tenor saxophonist you Oh more than you know more than you know girl of my heart I love you so and lately I find that you're on my mind more than you know you hydro by God as he was the God of all cello players in the world and but had a lot of problem in Paris in psychos problem Pharaoh Amore's life in the States Florian following here in Paris and after why after everybody has seen too big but now you know talking of Blasi and I've seen he was very long yeah many misery's nobody was really taking care of him and we have seen him alone in the street baking some time and of course between the ends of forests and coming back white off the hospitals like he used to do very often in his life so one day because the closing is in second reform I did everything to put him out and they decide to take with me and my wife in our house and stay two years now I mean talk to me about that told me I mean how he tried to help but I mean what what relationship and I was very very moved by their about this story and and I use some of Francis realizing that we had to adapt it first because when you write about a tenor saxophone and a pianist on the same then because I was I wanted somebody who had the personality of Lester of done by us and of Dexter - more than the bird which is very hard to dramatize he was very silent speak for a long time and I wanted somebody with a wit humor even the most tragic moment the great humor of next I didn't know if he can act only it seemed to me all right sing him on the stage that he had certain dark gesture a work moving which was interesting and then when I met him in New York when he came in the room I knew that was him the Bertrand tell me who's gonna be the female lead ins I don't know your outer told you no love scenes no no sex this drama so much sex I mean that's what manse you try without reading Stephen yeah well let me go inside in a minute yeah an army we were Negro unit with pink officers I just left Count Basie's so had bankroll with me and I asked this cracker captain to hold it for me for safekeeping Plus I saw him up forward with my wife at that time who happened to be lighter skin and prettier than his wife he made some kind of funny remark and I bopped him upside his big thick head Hey look funny laying there on the utterly room floor like some kind of dirty marshmallow but he found a way to get even with me he put my Oxford grass in the camp Scott kid camp Polk Louisiana when I was discharged dishonorably but not before they worked me over for a year we start doing the film I realized what a responsibility you know this was to present and now real honest version about jazz musician I dedicated how devoted head the head studying all your life they've never really gotten the color respect cuz it should have had and this was one of my cousin Jose the map in the movie you great thing about jazz really is that it's such a living music huh that is able to live to survive and assimilate incorporate the best things from all other kind of music what it's classical solo beater and which is really the reason I think that that it survived you you you you

Channel: Harrison Ferlauto

Views: 209,174

Rating: 4.9058146 out of 5

Keywords: Dexter, Gordon, More than you know, Documentary, Jazz, Bebop, Saxophone, Tenor, Rare, Full, Length, More, Than, You, Know, Fried, Bananas, Soy, Califa, Blues, Walk

Id: n-ScJf6hYS4

Length: 52min 51sec (3171 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2011