The Dexter Gordon Society

 

Purpose:

The Dexter Gordon Society has been created to honor, preserve, document, and present the life’s work and musical legacy of world-renowned Jazz musician, band leader, composer, Academy Award nominated actor, and the world’s first Bebop tenor saxophonist, Dexter Keith Gordon (1923-1990).

The Society will serve to increase public awareness and appreciation for the cultural and artistic contributions of Dexter Gordon and his musical contemporaries through historical research and documentation, educational workshops, musical performance, public panels and presentations, technology, and archival work.

 

Your Support:

If you would like to support The Society, the following options are currently available:

Individual Online Contributions

Pre-Scheduled Monthly Online Contributions

Online contributions can be made of up to $5,000. To make contributions larger than $5,000 or to send a check instead, please contact us.

 

Overview:

The Dexter Gordon Society proudly recognizes Dexter Gordon as one of the pioneering musical icons of the twentieth century. Born in 1923, Gordon’s artistic journey spanned more than five decades, moving through several generations of the jazz tradition, from Swing to Bebop to Post-Bop and beyond. Gordon’s influence is pervasive across every stylistic period of modern jazz following his historic emergence in the 1940s, and greatly impacted countless musicians who were inspired by him, including such giants as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and many others.

In 1990, Dexter Gordon left the world with a vast wealth of documented resources from his personal and musical life, including an extensive discography of recordings, countless interviews, compositions, manuscripts, private papers, historical photographs, and many other forms of documentation. By sharing these resources with the public, The Society will provide greater knowledge and understanding of Dexter Gordon’s unique life story through direct engagement with his musical legacy.

With the use of technology, and through research, oral and written history, archival work, publications, performances, educational programs, scholarships, symposia, and community-oriented projects, The Society exists to further the memory and legacy of Dexter Gordon, and to continue the scholarly research and community work of his widow and former manager-producer, Maxine Gordon.