While I was laboring over the Wisconsin labor crisis and neglecting my regular features, Dexter Gordon, much beloved sax man, had a birthday. Gordon, who died in 1990, was born on February 27, 1923. Here is how his Wikipedia entry introduces him:

Gordon is one of the most influential and iconic figures in Jazz and is largely credited for establishing the classic, modern sound and stylistic concept for the saxophone in general, and the tenor in particular.

In 1986, Gordon played Dale Turner, a jazz musician not unlike himself, an expat living in Paris and with a drinking problem. A young Frenchman, admirer of the saxophonist’s music, takes him in care. The film Round Midnight, by Bertrand Tavernier, won Gordon an Oscar nomination.

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