Track Listing

1. Soy Califa
2. Don't Explain
3. You Stepped out of a Dream
4. Backbone
5. Until the Real Thing Comes Along
6. McSplivens

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135940 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

A must!
If I had to choose only one CD out of Dexter's recordings for Blue Note (i.e. Go!, Our Man In Paris,...), I would definitely choose "A Swingin' Affair". This session is maybe not as intense as "Go!" but... what a warm, round sound! Billy Higgins does an amazing job on the drums and Sonny Clarck is impeccable. Dexter is at his best. Highlights are the first two tracks. In "Soy Califa", Dexter is amazing of humor, of energy and of mastery. "Don't Explain" (one of the two ballads of this CD) is wonderfully interpreted: his enormous tone sets a melancholic mood in just a few chords and it lasts for over 6 minutes of intense pleasure. Enjoy! As an extra bonus: an excellent quality of recording.

The perfect introduction to Dexter Gordon
It is purely my opinion that Alfred Lion upon hearing the finished product of Herbie Hancock's "Takin' Off" record debut as a leader, decided to grab drummer Billy Higgins & bassist Butch Warren to support Dexter again on this album and "Go!" Their swinging way of playing slightly behind the beat perfectly complements Dexter's preference for performing like-wise. I'm not a big fan of ballads but Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain" is breathtaking in its beauty. My favorite cuts are Butch Warren's "The Backbone" and Dexter's "McSplivens."

Business as usual
How do you select among Dexter's many stellar recordings? Even a session such as "The Panther," which Amazon currently lists 24th among his recordings, should in no way be considered inessential, containing as it does a "Body and Soul" that matches if not eclipses Coleman Hawkins' signature version. As for "A Swingin' Affair," take Dexter's solo on "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and compare it to Rollins' solo on the same tune from "Sonny Rollins Vol.2." Dexter's improvisation strikes me not only as the more lyrical and imaginative but as the more definitive and assured. In fact, listening repeatedly to this compelling storyteller's recordings is to acquire increasing evidence that his may be the one name deserving mention alongside Coltrane's 1960-1965. And as for 1968-1980, Mr. Long Tall stands above the field.

If there's a "downside" to the recording, it's the ridiculously exaggerated separation that confines Dexter's tenor saxophone to one channel and the rhythm section to the other. Let's hope consumer demand justifies a re-mastered edition.