Dexter Gordon: more than you know [DVD]

Dexter Gordon: more than you know looks at the career of the charismatic, lyrical alto saxophone player - Dexter Gordon. The film includes interviews with Gordon and performances from various periods in his lifetime. As we follow his career we also travel through jazz history, witnessing rare footage and recordings from other jazz greats, like Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and Billy Eckstine’s Orchestra, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Bud Powell. Don McGlynn also includes interviews with Bernard Tavernier about Gordon’s involvement in the film “Round midnight”, including footage from Dexter Gordon’s screen test for the part for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. This film not only includes some fantastic music, it also gives a wonderful sense of Gordon’s warmth and humour whilst dealing honestly with his use of drugs and his years of exile in Denmark.