Elektra Musician 8122-79811-7 | Gordon (ts), Grover Washington Jr (ss), Shirley Scott (org), Kirk Lightsey (p), David Eubanks (b) and Eddie Gladden (d). Rec. March 1982

Though recorded in the same month and year, there are two distinctly different sessions here, documenting not so much the Indian summer as the American autumn of Dexter’s distinguished career. He still sounds imposing and charismatic in this period after his return from extended exile in Europe but before his triumphant acting debut in the Bertrand Tavernier movie Round Midnight, a vintage performance for which he was robbed of an Oscar by Robert Redford or some such thespian. Oh well.

The first session is something of a collectors’ item, Dexter rarely being captured on tape with a Hammond organ, but Shirley Scott makes her usual tasteful job of things, particularly on the gospel-tinged waltz, ‘For A Soul Sister’. Grover Washington’s presence on a couple of tracks adds to the soulfulness of the proceedings. He sticks to soprano sax, a shrewd move because Dexter was in his most authoritative, tablets-of-stone form. His laid-back yet intensely lyrical solo on ‘Besame Mucho’ is a mature gem.

The second date features the excellent quartet Dexter led on his last visit to Ronnie Scott’s, with the hip Kirk Lightsey on piano, the solid David Eubanks on bass and at rear centre-stage the admirable Eddie Gladden, one of the best drummers Gordon ever hired. The standout track is ‘Skylark’, a considered and almost stately ballad performance. Dexter’s voice, which was as deep as his tenor-sax tone, is heard on the final track, huskily explaining to a female interviewer how important it was to know the lyric of a song before playing it.

Later she asks who inspires him, and though very much a post-bop master, he unexpectedly replies: “Lester Young, Billie Holiday, The Duke, Jimmy Lunceford, Roy Eldridge – all the music I heard 30-40 years ago is still inside me. A reservoir of sound.” Jack Massarik