{"id":68217,"date":"2019-08-03T17:09:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-03T21:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=68217"},"modified":"2020-05-07T13:26:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T17:26:57","slug":"maxine-gordon-at-book-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2019\/08\/03\/maxine-gordon-at-book-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxine Gordon at Book Beat Sept. 1st"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sophisticated-giant.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-68218\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sophisticated-giant.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"255\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sophisticated-giant.jpg 348w, https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sophisticated-giant-105x150.jpg 105w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 255px) 100vw, 255px\" \/><\/a>Join jazz historian and archivist Maxine Gordon at Book Beat on <strong>Sunday, September 1st<\/strong>, from <strong>3:00 pm to 4:30 pm<\/strong>, where she&#8217;ll discuss her new book, <strong><em>Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith \u201cSophisticated Giant,\u201dMaxine Gordon has produced a homecoming even more dramatic, and perhaps more important, then the one she helped arrange for him [Dexter Gordon] in 1976.\u201d \u2014David Hajdu,&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/28\/books\/review\/sophisticated-giant-dexter-maxine-gordon.html\">New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat began as a solemn promise to Dexter Gordon to finish writing the story of his life is now an extraordinary gift to those of us who are the fortunate readers of&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Sophisticated Giant.<\/em> &nbsp;Maxine Gordon\u2019s rigorously researched, jazz-inflected, genre-bending account of the many dimensions of this prodigious life\u2014from small intimacies,&nbsp; musical and personal, to major social issues, such as racism, drugs, and mass incarceration\u2014is an occasion to appreciate Dexter\u2019s resounding musical genius as well as his wish for major social transformation.\u201d&nbsp;<em>\u2014 <\/em>Angela Y. Davis, political activist, author, and speaker<\/p>\n<div>\u201cDexter Gordon\u2019s deep tone, relaxed delivery\u2014even the frequent witty musical quotations\u2014seemed like extensions of his gravely playful speaking voice. That voice carries over on the page too. You can hear it when you read his written testimony and extracts from letters included in Maxine Gordon\u2019s illuminating biography.\u201d \u2014 Kevin Whitehead,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/11\/27\/671157968\/new-biography-reveals-the-life-and-legacy-of-saxophonist-dexter-gordon\"><i>NPR&#8217;s Fresh Air<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dexter Gordon in his Oscar nominated performance in &#8220;Round MIdnight&#8221; (1986):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"round midnight~My life is Music~\" width=\"635\" height=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gIYV5kIdK9Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dexter Gordon -Lady Bird  (Belgium, 1964) [1\/2]\" width=\"635\" height=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r0vhqDCy9eQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-68220 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/maxinegordon-1024x654.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"313\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/maxinegordon-1024x654.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/maxinegordon-150x96.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/maxinegordon-768x490.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/maxinegordon-600x383.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 313px) 100vw, 313px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxinegordon.com\/\">Maxine Gordon<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong>was born in New York City. Her long history with jazz began when she was a teenager. She and her&nbsp;friends frequented Birdland and the Village Vanguard to hear Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Art Blakey and many others. She worked as a road manager for musicians and helped them write grant applications to the NEA.<\/p>\n<p>On a tour of Europe, Maxine was sent to assist Dexter Gordon and his group to travel to Scandinavia. They began a relationship and were married in the early 80s. She became an independent scholar studying jazz musicians.<\/p>\n<p>As an oral historian and archivist in the fields of jazz and African American cultural history,&nbsp;<i>Sophisticated Giant<\/i>&nbsp;fulfills the promise she made to her late husband to complete his biography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join jazz historian and archivist Maxine Gordon at Book Beat on Sunday, September 1st, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm, where she&rsquo;ll discuss her new book, Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon. &ldquo;With &ldquo;Sophisticated Giant,&rdquo;Maxine Gordon has produced a homecoming even more dramatic, and perhaps more important, then the one she helped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,158],"tags":[454,455],"class_list":["post-68217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-african-american","category-jazz-and-blues","tag-dexter-gordon","tag-maxine-gordon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}