Album Reviews

Following a turbulent decade battling personal demons in the 1950s, tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon had mostly faded from the jazz scene by the end of that decade; after all, he only recorded three sessions (two of which he led) in the second half of it. By 1961, however, he began a successful relationship with Blue Note that commenced that year with Doin’ Allright. The Los Angeles-native moved back to New York City for the third time, got rediscovered by jazz listeners, and led a quintet on this album that included Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Horace Parlan on piano, George Tucker on Bass, and Al Harewood on drums.

Doin’ Allright is mostly made up of melodic renditions of the era’s pop standards, including George and Ira Gershwin’s “I Was Doing All Right,” Bill Carey and Carl Fischer’s “You’ve Changed,” and Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s “It’s You Or No One.” Its most interesting moments, however, are Gordon’s two originals, “For Regulars Only” and “Society Red.” The former features a swinging mid-tempo rhythm and a particularly compelling solo from Freddie Hubbard, while “Society Red,” the longest song on here at 12 minutes, features solos from Gordon, Hubbard, Parlan, and a refreshing bass solo courtesy of George Tucker. Generally, Doin’ Allright is a solid record that can just as easily be dissected as it can be pleasantly played in the background, which is one of its several strengths.

I compared this new all-analog Blue Note 80 reissue cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to the 2009 Music Matters Jazz 45rpm edition mastered by Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech Mastering. While RTI plated and pressed the MMJ 45, they only plated the BN80 which Optimal pressed. Since Gray’s cutting electronics and cabling at Cohearent are a significant improvement over that of AcousTech, this new 33rpm Blue Note 80 reissue far surpasses in many ways the Music Matters 45. What the BN80 mainly does best is offer greater transparency, lifting the proverbial veil from this recording. For example, the MMJ has Al Harewood’s drums panned hard right, and while they reverberate in that specific space, the sound is still mostly stuck there. On this new reissue however, Harewood’s drums reverberate across the entire soundstage despite the main feed being stuck in one channel. Further, it sounds more as if Gordon and Hubbard are playing together as opposed to Gordon’s tenor sax occasionally drowning out Hubbard on the 45 (albeit not surprisingly; Hoffman is known to spotlight the leading instrument when EQ’ing jazz records). Further, the Optimal-pressed record is quiet, flat, and arrived without a blemish (the only issue was the mediocre sandpaper inner sleeve).

Does this new Blue Note 33 fail in any way? The bass solo on “Society Red” is deeper and lower on the MMJ 45 than on the BN80 33, but the latter makes it sound more like a bass and less like low notes played on an instrument. MMJ’s sleeve construction is top notch of course, with session photos adorning the inside gatefold. Blue Note’s reissue on the other hand comes in a standard weight direct-to-board foldover sleeve, but it’s acceptable given the low $25 list price. However, I have a feeling that the 80th anniversary sleeve is a redesign of the original artwork. First, the type that says “Dexter Gordon” on the front is magenta on the reissue, while the Music Matters artwork more accurately recreated with the original jacket as guidance has red-orange type. In addition, Ira Gitler’s liner notes seemed retyped on the 80th, as the typeface isn’t as bold and introduces a new typo (“78rmp” instead of “78rpm”). Lastly on this subject, the bottom text that says “for complete catalog, write to BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC., 43 West 61st St., New York 23” is removed in favor of the UMe copyright info taking up all of the bottom space. Still, the image clarity of the BN80’s jacket is far better than that of Music Matters’ front and back replications. All in all, this reissue is a success for Blue Note in terms of quality at a great price point, and I look forward to the rest of this excellent and affordable series.