Hello! Tonight I've got a YouTube link to some live footage of the legendary Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone. He's performing at the famous Montmartre jazz club in Copenhagen Denmark, and this film is from 1971. After Dexter warms up and heads onstage, the band plays "Those Were the Days," a pop tune of the day (Yikes! I can remember when it was on the radio!).
Check out Dexter's enormous sound and his use of lots of simple lines (just a few notes) mixed in with much longer, more complex lines. He uses plenty of sequence (short but repeated ideas) to tie everything together.
Here's another video of Dexter and quartet (Rufus Reid, bass, Eddie Gladden, drums, and looks like George Cables on piano) playing the standard "It's You or No One." This is from another live performance in 1979, at the Maintenance Shop music club on the campus of Iowa State University.
Listen to how Dexter uses a great variety of rhythms - he doesn't just play long strings of eighth notes, but really shapes the lines as he plays with different rhythmic values. Do you use lots of rhythmic variety in your own playing?
Dexter also spends a lot of time repeating short ideas, kind of like riffs, as he develops his solo around halfway through. It's OK to repeat stuff! Just make sure what you want to repeat is worth repeating.
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