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This anemic offense could use a little iron
MIAMI - The last couple of days Bobby Valentine has sat in the visiting manager's office at Marlins Park and looked through the window to the batting cage. He watched Jacoby Ellsbury take swings. He watched Carl Crawford do extra work. And the Red Sox manager patiently waits for their return.
There are some days when making out the lineup card is a bit frustrating and certainly limited.
The stats say the Sox are third in the majors in runs and lead the majors in extra-base hits, but those numbers mean little. They're not apropos of the situation in which this team finds itself offensively.
The Red Sox offense is MIA.
They needed a great pitching performance from Clay Buchholz and the bullpen to beat the Marlins, 2-1, Tuesday night. They got two doubles and an RBI from Kelly Shoppach, and a run-scoring single by Mike Aviles after catcher John Buck dropped a foul ball when he ran into the railing at the visitors' dugout.
You can certainly cite the fact that the last five pitchers Boston has faced have contributed to its recent drought. They have faced Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Josh Johnson, and Mark Buehrle and have scored 12 runs in those five games.
"This is the big leagues and you're going to face tough pitching every night, so that's not an excuse in my mind,'' said Sox first baseman/right fielder Adrian Gonzalez. "We were fortunate tonight because our pitching was so good, but we need to be able to score more runs for our guys. I know this team is capable of it and we're just going through a drought right now, but those things can change quickly the other way.''
It's tough to go out there day in and day out with the lineups available to Valentine. Granted it was an interleague road lineup, so Buchholz had to hit. It was a night in which Shoppach was able to take the load off Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Shoppach, who is not known for his offense, was hitting sixth.
David Ortiz had the night off. Ryan Sweeney had a toe injury. Daniel Nava received an injection in his thumb recently and wasn't available. So the Sox were really limited in what they could do with the lineup.
The Sox seem to need a spark, a call-up, or a trade.
They're not going to get any help from Ellsbury, who is going into his second month of a methodical rehab of subluxation of his non-throwing shoulder. Nor will they get help anytime soon from Crawford, whose throwing program is in slow motion.
And the one guy they'd love to call up - the energetic Ryan Kalish - can't come up yet despite a 12-for-28 start at Pawtucket because he has to be down 10 days after coming off the disabled list before he can be moved to the majors. So next Wednesday would be the first day he could help the big club.
Cody Ross is doing well with his foot fracture, but has yet to start rehab.
Gonzalez took an 0 for 3 Tuesday and is now hitting .260.
Kevin Youkilis went 0 for 3 and got hit below the rib cage and is now hitting .219. Right now, he's not even trade bait and he was hitting third.
Scott Podsednik, Nava, and Darnell McDonald, who contributed a pair of hits, are temporary employees. So how can the Sox jump-start their offense?
The most likely way is to deal for an established player who can play right field. The available candidates include San Diego right fielder Carlos Quentin and Minnesota outfielder Josh Willingham.
The Cubs would deal Alfonso Soriano, who is having a good season, and would pick up most of the remaining money on his contract, much as they did when they dealt Marlon Byrd to the Red Sox. The Cubs could also deal lefthanded-hitting David DeJesus.
With phenom prospect Wil Myers close to coming up to Kansas City soon, the Royals may think about dealing Jeff Francoeur, a righthanded hitter and a very good right fielder.
Would the Sox think of packaging some of their excess to get a solid major league hitter who could hit in the middle of the order?
Or is it as simple as Dustin Pedroia, Gonzalez, and Youkilis coming together at the right time?
"It's frustrating,'' said Gonzalez, "but I think I'm getting some good at-bats. I like the way I'm swinging the bat. I hit a ball 340 feet to left field and in a normal ballpark that's down the line, fair and probably out of the ballpark.''
Gonzalez said the shoulder he had surgically repaired in 2011 is just fine.
Ortiz, probably the team's most consistent hitter said, "We need to catch a few breaks and hit the ball where someone isn't catching it. We're hitting the ball right at people sometimes and that gets maddening sometimes. It's the shifts or someone makes a great play but you're hitting the ball hard. I think that's happened a lot to us lately.''
We keep saying that at some point the Sox are going to have too many outfielders and a few of them will have to either be designated for assignment or traded.
Kalish seems like a long-term solution in right or protection if the oft-injured Ellsbury stays out even longer than expected.
What the Sox have been able to do with the heavy hitters out of the lineup has been commendable, but the expiration date on some of the role players could come soon.
Sometimes you have to do more than fill in. Sometimes you have to go for a more aggressive solution. And in these days, when the lineup just can't get over the hump, you wonder if the time is now.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.


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Release Date: November 4, 2013
BUFFALO, N.Y. – It's like eHarmony® for research. That's how the ResearchMatch liaisons at the University at Buffalo describe the Web-based, volunteer, research registry now open to UB researchers and Western New Yorkers.
ResearchMatch.org is a free, national database that brings together volunteers who want to participate in research with university investigators who are recruiting volunteers for their studies.
UB qualified to be one of 85 institutions that are members of ResearchMatch through its affiliation with the Upstate New York Translational Research Network, a research consortium headquartered at the University of Rochester.
Investigators must meet the following criteria: They must have a buffalo.edu email account and studies must involve volunteers and be approved by one of UB's three Institutional Review Boards. While most studies are medical or health-related, others involve social or behavioral research. Both healthy individuals and those who meet specific disease criteria are required for research studies.
"ResearchMatch is a huge asset for Western New York," says Timothy F. Murphy, MD, director of UB's Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC).
"UB is now part of an important national clinical research network, which will expand our research capabilities substantially," he continues. "Researchers at UB and partner institutions now have access to a powerful tool to recruit subjects to clinical trials, often the biggest bottleneck to successfully performing clinical research. And the entire Western New York population now has easy access to participate in cutting-edge research studies of the latest treatments and health care methods."
Interested individuals who are at least 19 years old can sign up at ResearchMatch.org. They must provide demographic and health information, as well as information about availability and what types of research studies they would like to participate in, such as online only or those that require visits to a laboratory or physician's office. Parents can register their children as well.
Individuals chosen to be part of a study may be compensated for their time; their expenses also may be reimbursed.
Murphy explains that the success of the registry for UB investigators is directly related to the number of people in Western New York who know about it and want to participate. "Many people are interested in becoming involved in clinical research as a volunteer but do not know how to get started," he says. "ResearchMatch is a great way for people to learn about the research being done on a local, as well as a national level, and to get involved."
Pamela K. Anderson, one of the university's ResearchMatch liaisons and manager of the Clinical Trials Office in the CTRC adds: "ResearchMatch provides UB investigators with an affordable, secure way to recruit volunteers into approved clinical trials. Investigators may use ResearchMatch in addition to traditional methods for volunteer recruitment."
At the same time, ResearchMatch provides Western New Yorkers with improved access to cutting-edge treatments and diagnostic tools that may directly benefit their own health.
"You now are working with a UB medical researcher who says, 'Here's my card; call me if you need me,' in addition to an extra pair of eyes on you throughout the course of the study," adds Kimberly Brunton, clinical research nurse manager at CTRC
Pediatric research offers the same benefits, Brunton continues. "If you are a parent of a child with a disorder, you're trying to find out what research is going on related to that disease," she says. "With ResearchMatch, parents can learn about related studies going on around the U.S., as well as right here in Western New York.
"ResearchMatch places volunteers completely in the driver's seat," she says. "You just fill in the information online and wait for an email that says you've been matched. Once matched with a study, volunteers receive an email explaining the study they have been matched with and asking if they would like to be contacted. If they say yes, their contact information is forwarded to the investigator for follow-up; if they decline, the investigator never sees their contact information."
One of the first UB faculty members to try ResearchMatch was Carla Jungquist, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Nursing.
"Recruitment is the worst part of doing research," she says. "It can take several years to get enough subjects who meet the study criteria. We put ads in newspapers and other media, which costs money and can be very slow. You also get a lot of people who don't qualify."
But using ResearchMatch dramatically improved the experience. Jungquist was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to validate methods of doing sleep studies. It involved three visits to campus for the subjects, as well as use of a take-home sleep-enhancement device.
"Using ResearchMatch, I was able to recruit 300 subjects in six months in Buffalo and Rochester," she says. "Normally, that would have taken me about two years."
With ResearchMatch, Jungquist entered in the inclusion/exclusion data and she immediately received a list of 500 potential subjects; the list was narrowed to 200 subjects when she added specific age and health criteria. ResearchMatch then randomly selected 100 subjects. Individuals were notified that they were eligible with an email message approved by one of UB's Institutional Review Boards, which are charged with protecting the rights of research subjects.
"ResearchMatch is a wonderful asset, I totally recommend it," says Jungquist.
ResearchMatch also provides investigators with a way to test the feasibility of an idea before it has been funded or proposed.
"If you are a researcher and you want to know how many people in the Buffalo area meet a certain criteria for a study you want to propose, you don't need an approved protocol to see how many subjects meet certain criteria," Anderson explains. "You can find out how many people in the area with these criteria have signed up at ResearchMatch. You haven't spent any money to do it and you have your answer in two minutes. You just wanted to find out, is this study even viable? It's a great tool to offer UB researchers."
For more information and to sign up for ResearchMatch as a volunteer, go to ResearchMatch.org.
UB investigators interested in signing up as an investigator should complete and submit the online form at:https://www.researchmatch.org/partners/index_researcherinterest.php or contact one of the ResearchMatch institutional liaisons:
Kimberly Brunton, clinical research nurse manager at CTRC, at (716) 888-4840 or email@example.com
Pamela Anderson, clinical trials office manager at CTRC, at (716) 888-4841 or email@example.com
Jill Madden, regulatory specialist in the Clinical Trials Office at CTRC, (716) 888-4844 or email@example.com.
Ellen Goldbaum
News Content Manager
Tel: 716-645-4605
Twitter: @UBmednews

subset: commoncrawl


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ALEX Toys Artist Studio ABC Painting Sponges
by ALEX Toys
Please check your favorite toy retailer for availability. Prices may vary.
Buy Online:
Product Description
There's so much you can do with ABC Painting Sponges. Dip in paint and use to decorate a child's name on a wall, make paintings on paper, help teach the alphabet, add to plain wrapping paper, make greeting cards and more. Thick, sponge letters are easy to use. Rinse with water and dry.
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Tiger Woods announced that he has withdrawn his name from consideration for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. In addition to costing Woods a shot to represent the United States he will also be forced to stop playing golf during a very lucrative part of his golf calendar.
Woods announced that he will not return to competitive golf until his World Challenge in Orlando, Florida, early in December.
That means Woods will also miss the America's Golf Cup in Argentina as well as at least two corporate exhibitions in Asia.
Woods was scheduled to partner with Matt Kuchar for the inaugural team event in Argentina.
A spokesman claimed that Woods would not receive an appearance fee for the event since it is being operated by the PGA Tour Latinoamérica. However, Bob Harig of ESPN.com reported that Woods was expected to receive "a hefty appearance fee," while Ewan Murray of The Guardian suggested Woods would have received $US4 million for showing up.
It is unclear how many corporate exhibitions Woods was scheduled to play in. Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg confirmed to ESPN.com that there were multiple events.
Woods' recent history suggests he would have been paid at least $US2 million for each corporate event.
Woods received $US2 million to take part in a similar exhibition match in China last fall. Woods also received $US3 million for participating in the Turkish Airlines Open around the same time.
That means Woods is walking out on at least $US8 million with $US4 million for playing in Argentina and $US4 million for two corporate events. That number goes even higher if there were more than two corporate events.
That's a hefty pricetag for a sore back.
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Civil cases
This information has been filed in civil division of Marion County District Court.
Pamela K. Newlin vs. Jerome D. Creed; hearing on protection from abuse order continued from Nov. 21 to Dec. 11.
Elizabeth O'Brien vs. James O'Brien; each party awarded half of shared IRA account.
Newman Orthopedics & Sports Medicine vs. Trayce Warner, 133 W. 7th St., Florence; judgment of $870.04 made Nov. 19 in favor of plaintiff.
Kevin Robinson vs. Eric S. Decker, 141 W. Elm, Wichita; plaintiff's motion for summary judgment granted Nov. 27, awarded $14,600.81 judgment.
Last modified Dec. 5, 2012
© 2019 HOCH PUBLISHING | Marion County Record | Hillsboro Star-Journal | Peabody Gazette-Bulletin | Checkerboard


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Dark Matter Productions
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How I score: 90s: Must see! 80s: Most should see. 70s: Good show but not for everyone. 60s: I enjoyed something in it but wouldn't recom... read more


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Download link (right click and 'save-as') for playing in VLC or other compatible player.
I will present a new approach to information theoretic foundations of quantum theory, developed in order to encompass quantum field theory and curved space-times. Its kinematics is based on the geometry of spaces of integrals on W*-algebras, and is independent of probability theory and Hilbert spaces. It allows to recover ordinary quantum mechanical kinematics as well as emergent curved space-times. Unlike the approaches based on lattices of projections, this kinematics provides a direct mathematical generalisation of the ordinary probability theory to the regime of non-commutative algebras. The new quantum information dynamics is provided by the constrained maximisation of quantum relative entropy. The von Neumann-Lueders rule and several other rules of that type, including Bayes' rule in commutative case, are the special cases of it. Using Favretti's generalisation of the Jaynes-Mitchell source theory, I will show how this dynamics allows one to derive `interacting QFT'-like correlation functions and perturbation expansions in geometric terms of experimental control-and-response parameters, without using Hilbert spaces or measure spaces. Finally, I will present a new bayesian interpretation of quantum theory, aimed at dealing with the intersubjective experimental verifiability, but without providing any ontological claims. Quite noticeably, this interpretation leads to a concrete category theoretic formulation of the new foundations.


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If you can't manage, then use the email icon under my name on the left and I will post them for you.
two items... the salt cellars are deep ruby, the bowl blue - both bought together.
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XSPC GTX Titan Waterclock Fitting Guide
XSPC GTX Titan Waterclock Fitting Guide
Published: 19th April 2013 | Source: OC3D TV |
So, you've just bought the most powerful single GPU card in the entire world, but that's just not enough. You're a computer enthusiast, so you strive to do more with your parts, and you have a strange affinity to water. The solution? Let's get that baby stripped, cleaned, and underwater!
Now we understand that the Titan's vapor chamber heatsink being on show to the world does funny things to our funny things, and we know that the Titan's one of the best looking reference cards released in the last two years. We know this - we get where you're coming from, and we agree that it would be a shame to lose such beautiful aesthetics. We're totally on your side, until we see what XSPC have to offer.
Not only does this stunning block complement anyone's rig with its sleek looks, it also unlocks the true potential of the Titan. Replacing the ol'vapor chamber with this will allow you to run your card cooler, quieter, and yet still faster. We also included a back plate in our guide as we feel that it applies the finishing touches to the look of the card whilst aiding the cooling to the memory modules located on the back of the PCB.
Enough of the chit-chat; let's move on to the video. Make sure to pay close attention if you are considering doing this yourself. This is not a hard procedure my any means, but it still takes patience and a little know how to ensure that everything's hunky dory first time around.
So, the things to take away from this video are XSPC provide all the fittings and memory cooling pads, so there's no need to worry about buying them separately. You can use the thermal paste that XSPC provide, but we would say yourself a syringe of Noctua NT-H1 or Arctic Cooling MX-4 for better temps with zero conductivity.
Keep your eyes peeled as we will be testing this puppy under water in the not to distant future but if you would like to discuss your thoughts of the water block now you can in the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
Also, I think you missed a red washer when fitting the backplate Quote
We'll I do have a clue just won't go into it here Quote
FYI we will be putting more of the video only stuff I do front page like this in future.


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Brenda Epperson
Brenda K. (Hein) Epperson, 42, of Olathe, Kan., passed away Dec. 31 at the Kansas City Hospice Center in Kansas City, Mo. She was born July 31, 1971, to Richard and Phyllis Hein in Florissant, Mo.
She was a stay at home mom who was very involved with Girl Scouts. She also taught religion at Prince of Peace Catholic Church and volunteered in her children's classrooms at Black Bob Elementary School in Olathe.
She is survived by her husband, Michael; children, Zack, Alana, Cohnr, and Aiden; her parents, Richard and Phyllis Hein of Marion; and her grandmother, Catherine Hein of Marion.
Funeral services were Jan. 4 at Prince of Peace Catholic Church.
A Mass is scheduled 9 a.m. Feb. 1 at Holy Family in Marion. Interment will follow services at Marion cemetery.


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There are rumors swirling right now. Baron Davis is rumored to have a setback. Mike D'Antoni's job is reportedly on the line tonight. With a loss tonight, the Knicks may be propelled into full crisis mode. And they haven't won in Boston since 2006.
Here is what to watch for:
- Fast break. Fast break. Fast break. The Knicks HAVE to stop the fast break tonight and they need to try and get their bench into fast break situations. The Knicks did a decent job on the fast break last night against Derrick Rose but were still outscored in transition 12-4. Obviously Rajon Rondo kills the Knicks in transition and if the Knicks are gonna win they need to at least slow him down. Offensively, the Knicks anemic bench has to score more than 6 points. I think the best way for them to do that is to get out and run to get some easy baskets.
- Speaking of benches, Boston's has improved and the Knicks' has regressed. The addition of Mickael Pietrus and the emergence of young players Avery Bradly, Greg Stiemsma and Ju'Juan Johnson have helped spark Boston's resurgence. Meanwhile for the Knicks, Bill Walker, Renaldo Balkman, Toney Douglas and Jared Jeffries have spearheaded a largely pathetic and unproductive bench. Douglas is the main culprit. Jeffries is not a scorer and Balkman and Walker are who they are but Douglas carries the role of bench scorer and he has failed miserably this season. Not only has he not shot well, 25% from outside the arc and 32.3% overall, but his defense has suffered and he is unable to handle the ball and get others involved. Until he breaks out of his funk, the Knicks bench will continue to suck and help them lose games.
- Who guards Ray Allen? It will be interesting to see if the Knicks decide to assign Fields, who has had mixed results guarding Allen, or Shumpert to chase around the 36 year old alien. Allen always kills the Knicks will his pinpoint shooting and if the Knicks are going to win tonight they cannot let him splash 3's all night. The Knicks perimeter defense struggled last night against Kyle Korver, the lesser skilled white version of Ray Allen, and that killed them early in the game. The Knicks gotta lock down Allen from the start in order to slow Boston's offense down.
- I really hope these rumors about D'Antoni being fired if the Knicks lose tonight are false. Dolan has never been one to fire coaches mid-season but I am not sure that Dolan is calling the shots. Isiah Thomas and CAA are heavily involved in the Knick organization and both parties are big fans of Mike Woodson. I think it would be foolish to place this one game ultimatum on D'Antoni because if the Knicks lose tonight I don't think it will be because of D'Antoni. I thought he coached a very good game last night and I expect him to do so tonight. Now if he puts Jeremy Lin in the game early in the 3rd quarter then maybe the Thomas family will have some justification to fire him but I really do think D'Antoni is the man to get the Knicks out of this slump. Again, he coached an excellent game last night and you began to see the offense gel a bit more. Obviously it is only one game but I think it could be a sign of things to come.
- The big story nobody talks about is Bill Walker coming back to Boston to face his old team… Just kidding. Nobody cares about Walker, he sucks.
- Will Balkman rock the weird braided pony tail again?
- Over/under for the Knick bench tonight. I predict they score 10 points tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if they score less and I am praying to god they score more.
And now, an open prayer to Jesus Christ regarding the Knick bench:
Hello Jesus. I'd like to start by thanking you for dying for our sins. However, with all do respect I think you forgot to help a few people and I would like to point them out to you. The New York Knicks bench has been cursed all season with horrid play and anemic effort. So I pray to you to please help us desperate Knick fans. Please Jesus, help Toney Douglas dribble the ball better. Fix his color blindness and allow him to throw the ball to the guys in blue and orange. Please give him the ability to understand that you don't always shoot on the pick and roll and that there is a roll man who is usually open. Please give Renaldo Balkman a paper towel so he can wipe the butter off his hands for when he drives he always loses the ball. Please Jesus, guide Mike Bibby to the fountain of youth so that he no longer plays defense like Betty White. Please Jesus, give Steve Novak some semblance of athleticism so that maybe he won't be a complete defensively liability when he's on the floor. Give Jeremy Lin the ability to shoot the ball. If nothing else, please please please help this last man. I would be forever grateful if you could somehow insert a brain into Bill Walker's skull. I know this is a heavy task to ask of you Jesus but I cannot take it anymore. I can't take the turnovers and the stupid fouls. He has never understood that you cannot push the defender out of the way on a dunk. He does it all the time and each time I wanna punch my roommate in the face (actually I want to do that anyways). I do not even ask that you get him to cut his hair and not look like Rasheed Wallace's demented son, just please give him a brain. In conclusion, I do not ask for much Jesus. I just ask that you help these pour souls that call themselves "professional basketball players". Thank you Jesus, for everything and I hope you can help these poor souls as they are absolutely pathetic and useless in their current forms. Oh and if you could leave that Tim Tebow guy alone and let him suck, that would be awesome too. Amen.


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Convicted murderer, kidnapper on the loose after jail escape
TOPEKA, Kan. — A convicted murderer and another inmate who escaped from a Kansas jail remained on the loose Thursday, as authorities scoured the region for the missing prisoners.
Santos Carrera-Morales, 22, escaped from the Ottawa County Jail early Wednesday morning, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. He was convicted in 2008 of two counts of first-degree murder.
Eric James, 23, is also missing, the agency reported. James was convicted in 2009 of three counts of aggravated burglary and one count of kidnapping.
The men are considered armed and dangerous, and their whereabouts are currently unknown, officials said.
Two other men who escaped with them have since been apprehended.
Drew Wade, 21, was taken into custody by authorities in North Platte, Nebraska, Wednesday afternoon. The fourth man was apprehended shortly after his escape but was not identified.
Authorities are asking anyone with information related to the investigation to call 911, or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-572-7463.
Credit: CNN.


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Jimquisition: Linearity versus Replayability
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You don't get to choose how someone decides to entertain. You may like a certain style but it will not be so because you like it. I am taking it for what it is I don't understand why that should be shameful but I guess that sort of thought process is why the Jimquisition exists as it does. To be a caricature of people like you.
That episode was way too simplistic. If we look at the fun games, there are fun games with low replay value, and fun games with high replay value. The linear story driven games are definately in the lower end of replayability compared to games that are more open in their design.
Slapping multiplayer onto a game is far from the only or best way to ensure replayability. Looking at the games with the most replay value, a lot of those had no multi-player mode at all. Games like Civilization, Master of Magic, Pirates!, Sim City, X-Com, none of those had multiplayer or extra data to process for that matter. But they were made with replayability in mind.
It is a mythic struggle, you just can't make a linear game with the same amount of replayability as a non-linear one. In the same way as you can't listen to the same piece of music 50 times in a row without going crazy. But you can easily play Chess 50 times in a row without needing another game.
So Jim, maybe you should attempt to broaden your feeble mind, before you start to call your viewers stupid. You have a lot of learning to do, and a lot of games to play. :P
WHAT?!?!? Metro Last Light is going to have multiplayer? Great. That means the Single Player is going to be so short and unsatisfying because they'll have focused solely on the multiplayer. Damnit. I loved the first Metro.
I totally agree. The most linear game can have the most re-playability as long as its an awesome game. Castlevania SoTN I've played multiple times. A few shooters as well. There is only one MP I even really play, L4D2.
probably best episode so far... for the comedy that is
but i seem to be some genius-idiot-hybrid since i won't play games a second time unless i can play them in a completely different way(or if it's very short)
that's where western rpgs shine
I'm pretty sure you've missed the point here. If a game has great story and that's all, that's fine but its the way in which the story is delivered that determines whether or not you want to go through it again, with books or films you just have to read or watch, which is easy so there's nothing stopping you from doing it a couple of times however in games the story is delivered through the game play, and if the game play isn't challenging or interesting you're not going to suffer though it more then once just so you can experience the story again (at least I don't).
that's not realy what i ment... i ment when you get new maps not when you replay the old ones... i wasen't very clear on that... still you are right
Was Metro 2033 worth what you paid for without multiplayer or other features added for replayability? Did you NEED replay value to get their money's worth?
I think the point is that multiplayer the way publishers do now.
As what you said though, I think some of the new ways procedurally generated stuff like X-Com, SimCity, and Civ did back in the day (look at Left 4 Dead randomizing the maps slightly for each playthrough) will be making randomization a key component in replayability.
Personally, if I get tired of a game that I like, it's usually because it's a really long game and I played it enough that I wanted to move on to something else. But that is why I put them back on my shelf and come back to it months later. I love my meager selection of JRPGs enough that I'll come back to them over and over.
So why can't you people just put the game away if it can't hold your attention for a second playthrough? Maybe if you've played a few games after that, you can return to the one you shelved and rediscover how good it was. Assuming you bought and played it because it was an inherently good game. If not, then perhaps you should be more discerning as to what games you'll buy in the future.
On an unrelated note, if I do play a game a second time around immediately after the first, I like to do so to see how much better I was at the initial stages than when I was first starting out.
While I disagree with Jim's specific tone of approach in this vid, I agree 1000%(that is not a typo on my part) with the specific message. I'm old-school, and the old-school definition of replay-value is simply "do I want to play the game again purely for the enjoyment of experiencing it again". Extra elements like achievements, medals, trophies, badges, easter eggs, hidden characters, unlock modes, etc. intended to create replay-value, in my opinion, turn out to be nothing but chores, mindless hamster-wheeling, that, in actually, add no real value to the game. The only people I can see enjoying such extras are completionist, but they are doing so only because there is more to be done in the game. If those elements were not there, they would be just as satisfied with having completed whatever content does exist in the game. At the end of the day, they are just meaningless virtual merit badges.
In fact, in agreement with Jim, the effort to create these extra elements is taking too much away from the developer's ability to make a solid, compelling singular experience in the core parts of the game that gamers would willing replay based on its own merits of enjoyability. So, in some indirect sense, these extra elements actually decrease the overall worth of the game because the core of the game has been reduced in enjoyment value.
I'm not going to rant on the attention-span issue that Jim brings up, but I do have to concur that many gamers today seem to suffer from a constant need to be distracted by the next shiny object. Constantly running away from reality is not a healthy activity, in my opinion.
Addendum: Watching the video a second time(yes, I am watching it twice cause I enjoyed the point. Replay-value!), he claims that it is gamers that profess the idea that these extras are necessary for replayability. However, it has been my experience that it has primarily been the recent(last 15 years) gaming press that has been constantly pushing this idea in almost every review of every bloody game. This along with the idea that a game must be longer than some specified number of hours in order to be fun or present a good experience.
I perceive these warped views of fun and the requirements for fun as being derivative of the misguided effort to create precise, objective review scores to every game. As I've written in another post, I feel the precision of current review scores, such as 1 part in 1000, 1 part in 100, and even 1 part in 10, is completely bogus because it is impossible to have such precise judgement of creative works better than roughly 1 part in 5(excellent, good, mediocre/okay, bad, and shitty, and one could argue to separate the "mediocre/okay" qualification into two parts to make a 1 part in 6 precision). Humans can only give, at best, a qualitative assessment of the quality of a creative work because we are often going by mood and feeling. It also doesn't help that the scores are constantly being artificially compressed to the higher ranges(currently in the 70-100% range), causing a lost of meaning for any given assigned score.
Turning gaming reviewing into a mere number-crunching effort(count the number of achievements, modes, etc., count the number of polygons and the resolution of the textures, count the number geek references, and so on) makes assigning a review score much easier and objective, but it does not have any necessary alignment to the true qualities of value in determining the worth of the game to the gamer: did I have fun playing it, and do I want to play it again because I just enjoyed the experience that much? Not also, this worth will be different for different gamers because of different interests, perspectives, and mores; thus, it is simply impossible to assign a completely valid objective measure. Even a 1 part in 5 score precision would still have to be qualified with the type of gamer to which the game is likely to appeal.
I kind of addressed that by how new maps for most games cost a lot of money for only 3 or 4 maps. Having to pay more is not value enhancing, the price of (for example) CoD map packs is ridiculous that depends far more on group migration as in "I got to get that map-pack because my friends have it".
Remember, people say "replay VALUE", not "replay content regardless of price" as in they expect a $60 to entertain them for a certain amount of time.
No, I did not, and that's what I said (in not so many words) wonderful game, it needs no multiplayer. However I could not repeat it for the life of me. I didn't need to, and it was worth my money yes. BUT ...
Oblivion was worth just as much money ... one singe playtrough took about 84 hours (few side mission and exploration, nothing much) but then I played trough it again for over 300 hours.
While both games were worth the same amount of money, buck / hour Oblivion was a WAY better game simply because it gave me more bang for my buck due to it's replayability.
I won't comment again why a game should be / shouldn't be / is / isn't replayable.
P.S. While some may think mutliplayer is repetitive ... you might see it that way, but the fact of the matter is: People can react differently to the same situation over and over again while AI is predictable. For example MoBA games (battle arenas, DoTA) are 5v5 1 map (but with 50-100 heroes sometimes) but even though there is only a limited number of combinations (not permutations, but combinations) different players will play in different ways making them (only some, true) INFINITELY replayable!
EDIT: Not all mutliplayers are good. OFC, like duh, why should Dead Space 2 have multiplayer -_-
50 seconds in, i have to say that its rare a single player mode has replay value in my books, unless it offers some decent character creation (one that results in characters actually playing differently, e.g. oblivion) or is very fun to play, e.g. tales of vesperia...
lets watch the rest...
1:55 and im thinking...
im sure lots of disc space is taken up by these multiplayer modes that EVERY game seems to have these days that could be better used to reinforce the single player.
My most replayed game is Project Sylpheed...
Exactly! Now the part that extends this so that the moderators don't give me another warning:
I dislike multiplayer on that ground. In fact, if you're talking about spastic ADD gaming multiplayer is the worst thing out there. It's usually a handful of the same game modes that people just play over and over. It takes a really revolutionary and fun-to-play multiplayer aspect to keep the crowds from not diverting to Halo.
I think the Bioshock guys learned this lesson when they said something to that effect in the feature for Bioshock Infinite in Game Informer a while back.
My problem is that I have a stellar memory for narrative and plot detail so it's often hard for me to go back and play a game over again, but I don't have high-speed, gaming-caliber internet so... you know what? I'll play my great linear game over again and try to find new stuff. You're probably not going to find new stuff in a standard multiplayer element (maybe if it's one of those aforementioned good ones).
You're preaching to the choir here, mate!
WTB more of Jim singing.
I really liked this episode, as I'm getting to like more and more of his work as he goes along. Yes, at first he came off as a bit of a pompous prick, but you know what? That's mostly just the character, and I like people who can do characters. It's a talent.
EDIT: There's also the fact that the point he makes is... you know, a good one.
Arrogant to the point of nearly being insufferable...but not quite. Because the intelligence in the comments and the general humor make it an enjoyable watch.
Sadly he doesn't have the replayability of the ZP. reviews. terrible. i think Jim needs a multiplayer mode.
Well done Jim. You're no longer coming off as too "hyper-realistic". *Thumbs up*
Good points. I actually get annoyed at some games that add multiple endings when they aren't worth playing twice. Most of them don't change the feel of the game or the gameplay, just the last cutscene. As if they are saying play this 8-20 hour game again and you can go left instead right, get a different cutscene and new achievement. (wish I wasn't such and achievement whore.)
And I miss the suit. Bring it back man.
Metro Last Light will have multiplayer?
Fuck! Why? Why the fuck? How... Just... What.... WHY????? Why does it need multiplayer? *Whimpers*
At first I was pissed off that Jim was a douchebag.
Now I'm pissed off that I'm suddenly into his videos. Stop making good videos, Jim! Not really, of course. Please keep it up.
It's definitely true that a game simply being good is worth playing over and over again. Heck, that's something that games of the past relied on. Games like Sonic and Mario, and pretty much every game before the invention of save states.
Though admittedly giving the player some incentives to play through again and again are always nice. Adding a few options to the player character, having New Game Plus, or having alternative ways to enjoy the game are always welcome. But it's definitely NOT MANDATORY.
Replayability is whenever or not you replay it.
I don't think there's a way to say it without sounding dickish, but you have missed the point. Focus on the "Replayability" aspect of the video.
There are a lot of people who view any single-player game as having no replay value. It has less replay value if the game is story-focused, and even less if it is a linear game. So even though these people might enjoy the game, they think it not worth playing again and therefore not worth buying.
What results from this is games shoehorning in a half-baked multiplayer mode (that may or may not divert attention and resources away from the single-player. That's a debatable point). EA has said things like "Single-player games are finished' ". This kind of talk worries people like me who tend to only play single-player games.
That established, Jim's point is that any experience that you (Not a critic. Not your friends. Just you) really enjoy is replayable. Even though the experience may be almost exactly the same every time you play it, you can still enjoy it just as much as the first time. It's not uncommon for people to see a movie or read a book more than once, but for some reason a lot of people seem to have it in their head that even a great game isn't worth playing more than once.
The point of the video isn't "good games are good" . It's that linearity doesn't kill replayability.
Retarded episode.
So any game has replayability, that is just willing of gamers to play it again? Ok, let it be this way. But then... what games are replayed more times: single or multiplayer? I guess the answer is obvious. And Jim's point of view is screwed again - multiplayer games are replayed more than single ones; so if developers want to make a game, that will be played as many people, as possible for as much times, as possible - they should make multiplayer game. If realy, then they need to make a MMO game - that is what people play for years every day! No any game with just 1 single campaign can beat WoW in replayability.
I agree with you. I loved portal 2 to death, deserves every award conceived and more. But I just can not replay it. I know all the puzzle solutions and funny storyline. If i want to replay a game, I will wait several months so I can forget most of it and have fun with rediscovery.
To me replay value is one of two things:
"I wonder what happens if I...." Try weird combinations of things, try different strategies, this can make the same game fun for a long time for me.
Co-op play. It makes me a sad panda that so many games concentrate on online PVP and neglect the idea of splitscreen co-op for the entire single-player campaign. I buy games I can play with my husband. If it's fun to try a new strategy by yourself, it's even more interesting when you add the variable of another player. I get so frustrated when I'm told "no, it doesn't have co-op, but it does have multiplayer". Yay? I like PVE, sometimes I want to team up within the comforts of my house without having to deal with online players.
The best thing in the world to me is Halo Reach's Firefight mode. It's so customizable, we can co-op forever with grueling custom mob and layout combinations and have a ton of fun without ever signing on to XBL. (Dirty secret? At the moment I don't even *have* XBL, right now I can't afford it. So a replayable co-oppable game? Is manna from heaven.)
It was a good enough video before he started singing "The Sign"... and then it just became a unique breed of wonderful.
Things I don't like about this show:
Things I like:
Maybe if he told his jokes or funny sentences really fast with drawn semi-animated representations of himself and what he's saying, I would enjoy it a lot more.
Seriously. I said that I was focusing on something other than the main point of the video. In the part that you quoted, no less. The criticism I made, in brief: Jim's examples are by and large trite. For those of us who both enjoy playing classic single-player games and understand that contemporary titles that boast 'replayability' often do so at the cost of story or even gameplay, the video was just time wasted. To make it more worth the time, Jim could at least bring up some interesting examples we might not have thought of. That is the criticism. To say nothing of working a little harder at making jokes rather than just trying to be edgy.
In fact, it could even give some replay value to Jim's own videos to do either of these things.
Great Ep...I'm a bit old school so yeah, replayability used to be something unique to single player games. Nintendo power and Gamepro used to rate the replayability factor of the single player experience. (I think Link to the Past still holds one of the highest scores for it.) After beating Portal 2, I didn't go online to check out the multiplayer, I played the single player again because it was sooooooooo well put together. Too many games these days aren't even worth one play through let alone containing replay value. screw modern games and screw modern gaming if it's not going to realize that while the internet offers an infinite range of possibilities, they should not be mandatory certainties.
I do hate idea that single player games can't be replayed, and the shoehorning of multiplayer into games that don't need it.
I played Halo: CE countless times, Dragon Age 8 times, Mass Effect about 10-ish times, Half-Life 2 series many times, etc...
A good single player experience has always beat a generic MP experience, IMO.
Moar singing!!!
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by Pat Kaufman
An estimated 60,500 inmates — 4.5 percent of the Nation's prisoners — report experiencing sexual violence ranging from unwanted touching to nonconsensual sex, according to a recent Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey of Federal and State inmates.[1] A separate BJS survey found that more than 6,500 official allegations of prison sexual violence were reported to correctional officials in 2006.[2]
The two BJS studies offer different data that contribute to our understanding of the prevalence of prison sexual violence. For years, there were limited data on the topic, and the few researchers who ventured into this complex and controversial area were confronted with a host of obstacles, including:
All that began to change in 2003 when the U.S. Congress crafted a wide-ranging legislative response. The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), passed unanimously by the House and the Senate, established a "zero-tolerance standard" for prison rape and mandated that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) "make the prevention of prison rape a top priority in each prison system."[4]
One of the goals of PREA was to increase the data and information on the incidence of prison rape to help improve management and administration in regard to sexual violence in correctional facilities. The law also created an independent National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, which was charged with studying the impact of sexual assault in correction and detention facilities and developing national standards to address the problem.[5]
Today, 4 years after PREA became law, we have a more complete picture of sexual violence in prisons, providing prison officials and policymakers with the information and assistance they need to address this complex problem.
When Federal lawmakers wrote PREA, they cited concerns of inadequate training of prison staff, under-reporting by victims, threats to prison security, and the danger to public safety posed by abused inmates after they are released. The Act's imperative was clear: obtain an accurate understanding of the extent and effects of prison rape in Federal, State, and local institutions.[6]
Taking a multipronged approach, PREA assigned specific responsibilities:
See "Four Years Later: Progress on Many Fronts."
To accomplish these goals, annual appropriations of $60 million for each fiscal year from 2004 through 2010 were authorized. In the Act, the U.S. Congress issued a stern warning to State officials who demonstrated "indifference" to protecting prisoners from sexual assault, stating, "States that do not take basic steps to abate prison rape by adopting standards . . . are not entitled to the same level of Federal benefits as other States."[8]
NIJ's work under PREA has yielded important research-based evidence to improve knowledge, practice, and policy to address sexual violence in prisons. Three major research efforts are discussed below.
In 2006, James Austin, Ph.D., and his associates at the JFA Institute issued findings regarding sexual violence in the Texas prison system,[9] the third largest prison system in the Nation. The researchers chose this system because it had the highest rate of alleged incidents (550 alleged incidents, for a rate of 3.95 per 1,000 prisoners); on the other hand, it also has one of the lowest substantiation rates (less than 3 percent). In studying the number and nature of sexual assault allegations in this system from 2002 to 2005, they assembled "lessons learned" to help reduce sexual assaults across all correctional systems.
Among their findings in
Sexual Violence in the Texas Prison System:
The researchers made several recommendations, including that officials provide more structured opportunities to report sexual assault and that prisoners who have been implicated in such incidents be closely monitored. The researchers also recommended that a better system of categorizing victims and assailants be considered and provided a characteristics checklist for correctional officials to use to help identify potential victims and assailants.
In another NIJ-funded project, researchers under the direction of Mark Fleisher, Ph.D., of Case Western Reserve University and Jessie Krienert, Ph.D., of Illinois State University conducted a sociocultural study of prison sexual violence in men's and women's high-security prisons across the United States.[10] The investigators interviewed a large cross section of inmates (408 males and 156 females in 30 prisons across 10 States) and allowed them to express their perceptions on prison sexual violence. In their report
The Culture of Prison Sexual Violence, the investigators identified major attitudes and beliefs that inmates have about prison sexual assault, including:
The researchers offered approaches for observing and supervising inmates that would help correctional officers identify sexual aggressors and preempt violent encounters—such as having officials observe who prisoners spend time with and which prisoners appear fearful of using the shower—to gain direct input on potential pairings of sexual aggressors and victims. They also recommended orientation for new inmates that provides a balanced account of sexual and other types of violence and improved mechanisms for victims to report rape.
In 2006, Janine Zweig, Ph.D., of the Urban Institute, Rebecca Naser, Ph.D., of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., John Blackmore of the Association of State Correctional Administrators, and Megan Schaffer of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice issued the report
Addressing Sexual Violence in Prisons: A National Snapshot of Approaches and Highlights of Innovative Strategies.[11] This wide-ranging study provided a national snapshot of U.S. Department of Corrections (DOC) initiatives to address prison sexual violence and identified specific practices that are particularly promising or innovative in nature.
The NIJ-funded research consisted of written surveys and telephone interviews with DOC officials in 45 States and site visits to selected facilities from November 2004 to September 2005 to gain insight into States' overall approaches to prison sexual violence. At the time of the survey and interviews—just over a year after PREA became law—33 of the 45 State departments had prison sexual violence policies in place. Twenty-three departments had comprehensive policies addressing prevention and detection of prison sexual violence, response to incidents, training, and services for victims; 10 other States had policies relating to most of these issues. Meanwhile, nine additional States were actively developing comprehensive prison sexual violence policies. Since this study was completed, many States have created, enhanced, or changed their policies in response to PREA.
Many States share a common theme in their new policies and procedures: a commitment at the most senior levels to change the correctional culture, thereby affecting the attitudes of staff and inmates. The researchers highlighted several States with promising practices, such as Oregon, which mandates training for all staff on inappropriate sexual conduct and sexual violence and offers inmate education on reporting mechanisms and services for victims. But the researchers also found a familiar litany of barriers to the effective investigation and prosecution of prison sexual violence in many States, including inmate unwillingness to report victimization, staff fear of false allegations, lack of staff training, and delayed reporting of incidents.
Correctional authorities continue to address this complex problem, participating in training offered by NIC and working together with Federal agencies on research and program development. With the implementation of PREA and the active engagement of correctional officials, a multifaceted effort to understand the extent of prison sexual violence and to identify solutions for reducing it is well under way.
NIJ Journal No. 259, March 2008NCJ 221505
Pat Kaufman is an attorney and freelance writer with more than 10 years of experience in legal writing and editing, mainly in the areas of drug enforcement, particularly in Fourth Amendment privacy and search and seizure issues; criminal drug testing involving violations of probation and supervised release by drug offenders; and corrections law.
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[note 1] The survey was done via an audio-assisted computer program in which the inmates, using a touch-screen laptop, answered a questionnaire and followed instructions via headphones. Inmates were asked about sexual victimization that occurred at the facility during the last 12 months; those who had served less than 12 months were asked about their experience since they had arrived at the facility. The study looked at a range of sexual victimization by inmates and staff: oral, anal, or vaginal penetration; handjobs; touching of the inmate's buttocks, thighs, penis, breasts, or vagina in a sexual way; and other sexual contacts. See Beck, A.J., and P.M. Harrison,
Sexual Victimization in State and Federal Prisons Reported by Inmates, 2007 , Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, December 2007 (NCJ 219414).
[note 2] Following an investigation, more than half of the allegations (55 percent) were unsubstantiated; more than a quarter (29 percent) were determined not to have occurred. Seventeen percent of the allegations were substantiated. See Beck, A.J., P.M. Harrison, and D.B. Adams,
Sexual Violence Reported by Correctional Authorities, 2006, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, August 2007 (NCJ 218914).
[note 3] Gaes, G.G., and A.L. Goldberg,
Prison Rape: A Critical Review of the Literature (pdf, 71 pages), working paper submitted to the National Institute of Justice, March 2004 (NCJ 213365).
[note 4] Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, Public Law 108-79, 117 Stat. 972, U.S. Congress (108th 1st Session) (pdf, 19 pages), September 2003: Sec. 3, 3.
[note 5] National Prison Rape Elimination Commission Website.
[note 6] Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, Public Law 108-79, 1.
[note 7] Ibid, 1–19.
[note 8] Ibid, Sec. 2, 2.
[note 9] Austin, J., T. Fabelo, A. Gunter, and K. McGinnis, Sexual Violence in the Texas Prison System (pdf, 76 pages) , final report submitted to the National Institute of Justice, September 2006 (NCJ 215774).
[note 10] Fleisher, M.S., and J.L. Krienert,
The Culture of Prison Sexual Violence (pdf, 333 pages ), final report submitted to the National Institute of Justice, November 2006 (NCJ 216515).
[note 11] Zweig, J.M., R.L. Naser, J. Blackmore, and M. Schaffer,
Addressing Sexual Violence in Prisons: A National Snapshot of Approaches and Highlights of Innovative Strategies, Final Report (pdf, 187 pages) , final report submitted to the National Institute of Justice, January 2007 (NCJ 216856).
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"The King of Quoters, Dexter Gordon, was himself eminently quotable. In a day not unlike our own, when purists issue fiats about what is or isn't valid in jazz, Gordon declared flatly, 'jazz is an octopus'—it will assimilate anything it can use. Drawing closer to home, he spoke of his musical lineage: Coleman Hawkins "was going out farther on the chords, but Lester [Young] leaned to the pretty notes. He had a way of telling a story with everything he played/' Young's story was sure, intrepid, daring, erotic, cryptic. A generation of saxophonists found itself in his music, as an earlier generation had found itself in Hawkins's rococo virtuosity. …
Gordon's appeal was to be found not only in his Promethean sound and nonstop invention, his impregnable authority combined with a steady and knowing wit, but also in a spirit born in the crucible of jam sessions. He was the most formidable of battlers, undefeated in numerous contests, and never more engaging than in his kindred flare-ups with the princely Wardell Gray, a perfect Lestorian foil, gently lyrical but no less swinging and sure. …
Gordon was an honest and genuinely original artist of deep and abiding humor and of tremendous personal charm. He imparted his personal characteristics to his music—size, radiance, kindness, a genius for discontinuous logic. Consider his trademark musical quotations—snippets from other songs woven into the songs he is playing. Some, surely, were calculated. But not all and probably not many, for they are too subtle and too supple. They fold into his solos like spectral glimpses of an alternative universe in which all of Tin Pan Alley is one infinite song. That so many of the quotations seem verbally relevant I attribute to Gordon's reflexive stream-of-consciousness and prodigious memory for lyrics. I cannot imagine him planning apposite quotations."
- Gary Giddins
"Chuck Berg: There's one thing that especially impressed Sonny Rollins and which has always intrigued me. That is the way you lay back on the melody or phrase just a bit behind the beat. Instead of being right on top of the beat with a metrical approach like Sonny Stitt and a lot of the great white tenor players, you just pull back. In the process there are interesting tensions that develop in your music. How did that come about?
Dexter Gordon: Yeah. I've been told that I do that. I'm not really that conscious of it. I think I more or less got it from Lester because I didn't play right on top. He was always a little back, I think. That's the way I felt it, you know, and so it just happened that way. These things are not really thought out. It's what you hear and the way you hear it."
I've been listening to and playing Jazz for over fifty years and if there is a universal constant about this ever-changing music that I've heard in all that time, it is the love and admiration that every tenor saxophonist feels for Dexter Gordon.
I remember sitting around the musicians union hall one day back when the world was young with three, aspiring Jazz tenor saxophone players.
The inevitable "Who is your favorite tenor saxophone player" question was asked and one of the tenor saxophonist replied: "You mean, I can only have just one." Then he turned toward the other, two tenor sax players and all three of them said at the same time: "Dexter Gordon."
Granted that this anecdote happened at a time when tenor saxophonist John Coltrane was still in his ascendancy, but as another of the young saxophonists commented about Dexter: "What's not to like? He's got it all: technique, ideas, he swings like mad and that sound – so big, open and full of juice."
Like the tune name after one of his main idols – Lester Young – Dexter left town.
As he explains in the following interview with Chuck Berg which appeared in the
10, 1977 issue of Downbeat magazine, a variety of factors
came together in the early 1960s which influenced him to leave the for USA Europe where Dexter ultimately took up residence
in . Copenhagen
And like Jazz, Dexter quietly passed from the scene for the remainder of the 1960s and for much of the 1970s.
But Dexter Gordon's return 15 years later was a triumphant one – and deservedly so!
Dexter Gordon was one of the greatest tenor saxophonists in the history of modern Jazz and I was delighted that he finally received the acclaim and the accolades he deserved during the last decade of his life.
© -Chuck Berg/Downbeat, copyright protected; all rights reserved.
"The October return of Dexter Gordon was one of the events of 1976.
SRO crowds greeted him with thunderous
applause at George Wein's Storyville. Music biz insiders packed an RCA studio
control room to savor each passage as Dex and a cast of all-stars set down tracks
for Don Schlitten's Xanadu label. Long lines of fans snaked up the stairs of
Max Gordon's Village Vanguard waiting their chance to share Dexter's musical
magic. The reaction to the master saxophonist's stopover was nothing short of phenomenal. New York
There was also an avalanche of newsprint, spearheaded by Gary Giddins' perceptive piece for the Village Voice and Bob Palmer's appreciative overview in the New York Times. More significant, perhaps, was the genuine enthusiasm in the street. The standard conversational opener was, "Have you seen Dex?" The reviews corroborated these ebullient responses and certified Dex's return as one of the great musical triumphs of recent times.
At 53 Dexter Gordon is one of the legitimate giants on the scene. His credits include tours of duty with Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker and a wide range of small groups under his own leadership. Influenced by Lester Young, Gordon in turn became an important model for tenor greats Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Today, he stands as a beacon of musical integrity and excellence.
I met Dexter at his suite of rooms at the
near South Gate Towers . During our three-hour conversation,
Dexter revealed the warmth, encyclopedic memory and playfulness that have
emerged as major facets of his music. The recollections and stories, intoned by
his smoky basso voice and punctuated with a broad spectrum of laughs, rolled
out effortlessly over the coffee and cigarette smoke. Madison Square Garden
Berg: On your album The Apartment (Inner City 1025), you quote the opening phrase of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." Last night at the Village Vanguard there were more borrowings from "Santa Claus." Do you celebrate Christmas all around the year?
Gordon: Just call me Kris Kringle. You know, things like that just happen. But I dig the tune. It sits nice. Actually, when those quotes pop out I'm usually not thinking about them. Of course if it's Christmas time, I'm more apt to be thinking about something like that. Usually it's just something that happens. It's kind of built in, built into the subconscious.
Berg: Dex, how does it feel to be back in the Apple with the kind of reception that you've been getting?
Gordon: It's great to be back. Of course I've been going out to the West Coast for years, which has been very nice. But I had forgotten how fantastic and exciting
is. There's no place like this in the
world. This is it, you know. It's always been that way. This time, for me, it's
been overwhelming because from the minute we got off the plane everything has
been fantastic, unbelievable. I really wasn't prepared for this kind of a
reaction, "the return of the conquering hero" and all that. New York
Berg: The crowds have been absolutely ecstatic. Last night, for example, there were a couple of phrases in "Wee Dot" where you started at the bottom of the horn. Then, as you went up and up, one could feel the audience going right up there with you to the high F and beyond. It was a collective sharing that was quite unusual.
Gordon: It's been like that from the first note. The opening night at the Vanguard on Tuesday was sold out. And when I walked into the room from the kitchen, working my way around to the bandstand, I got an ovation.
Berg: I noticed the same thing last night. It was beautiful.
Gordon: I hadn't played a note. I just walked into the room, you know, and they applauded.
Berg: Well, you are a commanding presence. And the people appreciate the opportunity to hear your music.
Gordon: It was really something.
Berg: Let me ask you about the recording for Don Schlitten's Xanadu label. I caught two hours of the session and it sounded great. Barry Harris, Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, Al Cohn, Blue Mitchell, Sam Noto and Dexter Gordon... that's quite a lineup.
Gordon: Yeah. That was an all-star date. It was all beautiful. All the cats, you know, are just beautiful.
Berg: When can we expect that on the street?
Gordon: I don't know. I haven't really talked to Don about it. But this week we'll probably have dinner or lunch and talk about it. He's an old friend of mine, you know. An old tenor freak.
Berg: He is?
Gordon: Yeah. For Don, bebop's the greatest. We've done a lot of things together. He was my man at Prestige when I signed.
Berg: Dex, let me ask you about a rumor that's been running around town involving you recording for
. The story has it that a group of Columbia
executives were so impressed by performance at Storyville last week that
they've set up a record date with you, Woody Shaw, Louis Hayes, Ronnie Matthews
and Stafford James. Is that correct? Columbia
Gordon: Apparently so.
Berg: Will it be a live date?
Gordon: Yeah. It should be something else. It will be the second week in December at the Village Vanguard. That's a good time because I'll have the first week of December free. I'll be able to get to a piano to work some things out so we can do something new, something fresh. We have a whole week at the Vanguard: The first couple of days we'll put it together, iron it out, and then the rest of the week we'll record.
Berg: Dexter Gordon with the Woody Shaw-Louis Hayes Band... that should be a landmark!... In view of the tremendous welcome you've received, have you had second thoughts about moving back to the States? Are you tempted to set up a base of operation here and commute between
and, say, Copenhagen ? New York
Gordon: Well, all those things have occurred to me. But basically
is home. We have a nice house and a garden.
It's ideal, really. Nothing special, but very comfortable. Of course, if I'm
going to be commuting as much as it seems, maybe a place here is necessary.
But, as I said, basically Copenhagen is home. So I don't visualize moving
permanently to the States. Of course, you never know. Copenhagen
Berg: Let me ask a question for all the saxophone freaks out there. You play a Selmer Mark VI with an Otto Link metal mouthpiece. For all of us who have tried getting that big, full-bodied Dexter Gordon sound, what kind of setup do you use?
Gordon: A #8 facing and a #3 Rico reed.
Berg: I'll try it... There are a lot of younger musicians who don't know that much about your background. Therefore, I'd like to ask you about some of your early influences, who they were and what, specifically, you picked up from them.
Gordon: Well, I started listening at a very early age, before I even started playing, in my hometown,
. We're talking about the '30s now because I was born in 1923. When
I was nine and 10 years old I was listening the bands on the radio on my own. Prior
to that my father used to take me to the theaters in town to dig the bands and
the artists. He was a doctor and knew a lot of them: Duke, Lionel Hampton,
Marshall Royal, Ethel Waters. They'd come by for dinner. And I'd go see them
backstage, things like that. It was just part of my cultural upbringing. On the
radio I was picking up the late night shots, air shots from the East: Los
Angeles 's Grand Terrace, Roseland Ballroom, you
know, and people like "Fatha" Hines, Fletcher Henderson and Roy
Eldridge. So when my father gave me a clarinet when I was 13,I had done a lot
of listening. Chicago
Berg: Clarinet, then, was your first instrument.
Gordon: Oh, yeah. Benny Goodman, Buster Bailey, Barney Bigard... I used to dig them all. My first teacher was a clarinetist from
, John Sturdevant. He was one of the local
guys in New Orleans and a very nice cat who had that big fat
clarinet sound like Bigard's. I remember asking him about that, which knocked
him out I said, "How ya get that sound, man?" Almost all of those L.A. clarinet players—Irving Fazola, Albert
Nicholas, Bigard—have that. New Orleans
When I started playing I had some kind of idea about music, about jazz, because I was into everybody. I used to make money cutting lawns in the neighborhood, which I spent on secondhand records from jukebox companies because a lot of the jazz things they'd never used. I'd get them for 15 cents. I had quite a nice collection when I was 12, 13 years old.
So I was listening to people like Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, who is one of my all-time favorites, and Scoops Carry, who played alto with Roy's little band. I also
like Pete Brown. Of course I heard
Chu , and Dick Wilson, who played tenor with
Andy Kirk, and Ben Webster. I first heard Ben on a record he made with Duke called
"Truckin'." He was shoutin' on that. But then I got my first Basic
record and that was it. I fell in love with that band— Lester, Herschel Evans,
the whole band. Duke was just fantastic, but the Basic band really hit me. Berry
After a couple of years I got an alto and started playing it with the school band and in a dance band with a lot of the neighborhood kids. Before that, though, we had what you'd call a jug band where the kids had homemade instruments.
Berg: What were you playing then?
Gordon: Well, I was the only one with an instrument.
Berg: You were the legitimate player.
Gordon: Yeah. The other kids were all trying to play something. The guy playing drums had a drum made out of a washtub, and pie pans for cymbals and something else for a snare.
Berg: Did you guys ever record? That would be a treasure.
Gordon: I don't know about that, man. Some of the cats had kazoos. Someone even stuck a trumpet mouthpiece into a kazoo. We played some amateur shows around the neighborhood, but then when I got the alto I started playing with different young browns around town. I started gigging, too. Playing weekends in sailor joints for a dollar and a half a night and the kitty. So I started like that and kept going to better, more organized bands. Then when I was 17 I got the tenor.
Berg: When you got the tenor was it love at first sight, or rather love at first breath?
Gordon: Yeah.
Berg: Did you instinctively know that the tenor was it?
Gordon: It was really after hearing Lester that I knew. And Herschel Evans and, like I said, Dick Wilson.
's playing with Andy Kirk was beautiful. He was lead tenorist with
the Kirk band when Mary Lou Williams was there. Mary Lou used to write lead
parts for Wilson . She was about the first one I ever heard
using the tenor to lead the section. They had a big hit called "Until the
Real Thing Comes Along" and Wilson played lead on that. Just beautiful. Wilson
I listened to everybody. There were also some cats around town who had a lot of influence on me. Another teacher, a man named Lloyd Reese, was a multi-instrumentalist who was best known for his trumpet playing. He used to work with Les Hite. He was very popular in the neighborhood, a very good teacher. Many of the cats studied with him: Mingus, Buddy Collette, me. We also had a rehearsal band that met on Sunday mornings at the old colored local, Local 767.
Berg: Was that something that Reese organized?
Gordon: Yeah, for his students, plus other cats who were just beginning to write charts.
In the high school I went to we had a swing band plus the regular orchestra and marching band. There were a lot of people that came out of that band: Chico Hamilton, Melba Liston, Bill Douglass, Jackie Kelso, a very fine clarinetist, Vernon Slater, Lammar Wright Jr., Vi Redd, Ernie Royal. At another school in the neighborhood there was Mingus and Buddy Collette. So there was a lot of activity. Then when I was just getting ready to finish school, I joined
's band. Hampton
Berg: That must have been quite a transition.
Gordon: Yeah, it was. Hamp had just left Benny Goodman, which was one of the bands, you know. His association with the Goodman band, quartet and trio made him very popular. So he left Benny and formed his big band out on the coast.
Berg: That was the first big-time gig for you?
Gordon: Oh, yeah. That was really my first professional gig. The other things were just more or less on a school level. When I joined the band the musicians in town said: "Dexter who? Dexter Gordon? Who's that?" I used to go around all over the place and talk to all the cats, you know, but they didn't know who I was. I was just another young player.
I started making the rounds when I was 15 because I've been this tall since that time. I could usually get into places without anybody saying anything. I had a baby face, of course, but being so big, people didn't bother me. I also used to get into dances because I'd talk to the cats. There would always be somebody who would let me carry his instrument case in. So I'd walk in with the band. It was a funny thing because later on I'd let the young cats walk in with me, you know, people like Jackie McLean and Sonny Rollins.
So anytime there was music in
I was there. I even went by some of the places I couldn't
go in. I'd just have to go stand outside and when the door would open I'd hear
a little bit. There were some good musicians in Los Angeles , most of them from the Southwest. Los Angeles
I remember a good band led by Floyd Ray that was like a territory band. They had a lot of good young cats that I used to hang out with. One of the alto players, Shirley Green, used to show me some shit. They were good guys. But when I joined Hamp that was really a great leap forward.
Berg: How did the gig come about?
Gordon: Marshall Royal had called me one afternoon after school and said, "This is
." I didn't believe him. I thought it
was one of the cats playing a trick. Finally he made me believe him and he
asked me about joining the band. I still don't know why he called me. I'll have
to ask him next time we get together. Why the hell did he call me? I don't
understand. Anyway, we went down to Hamp's house for a little session. There
was Sir Charles Thompson, Irving Ashby on guitar, Lee Young on drums, Marshall
and Hamp. We just jammed two or three tunes and Hamp said, "Would you like
to come into the band?" I said yeah. Marshall
Berg: That was your audition.
Gordon: Right. So three days later we were on the bus. Before that, though, I went home and told Mom and she said, "Well, what about school?" I said, "Mom, I can do it later." She knew there was no point in saying no or trying to put up a barricade. So on December 23 during Christmas vacation we set out for our first date at
, in a rickety old bus that was all right
for Fort Worth, Texas . When we got to California , though, the weather changed. It started
getting winter and this was strictly a New Mexico bus. California
Berg: A
Southern California bus.
Gordon: Yeah, a
Southern California bus. So by the time we got to there was a revolution on the bus: "We're
not going no further!" We had one of those band managers who was cutting
all the corners. But he straightened things out so that we got a real bus in El Paso . We finally got to the Fort Worth Hotel
the day after Christmas. I'd had no rehearsal or anything. In fact I didn't
even have a uniform. They gave me a jacket with sleeves that stopped at the
elbows. El Paso
The first couple of gigs, I didn't play a right note all night because I wasn't ready or used to his arrangements. I expected him to send me home every night. Fortunately, about three days later in
we had a rehearsal, my first. So I kinda got it together. It
started happening then, you know. But I still felt the cats were going to send
me home or something. But they stayed with me, so in a month or so it was all
right. I was very lucky because the band was on its way to Dallas . New York
We then opened at the Grand Terrace in
around the end of January. The band hit instantly. We went in
there for two weeks and stayed six months. Hamp was with Joe Glaser and Joe was
connected with the Chicago scene. I think this was the gangster scene, you know, Capone and
all that shit. They had all the joints. The Grand Terrace was the home of
Fletcher Henderson and Earl Hines. The club was in trouble, but when we came,
bang, it happened. And we sat there for six months. I think we worked every
night playing shows for acts, chorus lines, everything. Chicago
Berg: So you got a heavy dose of showbiz right from the start.
Gordon: Right, man. The whole thing. I don't know why, but my timing has been just fantastic at each stage of my career. I've been in the right place at the right time. I've been lucky. Anyway, the Grand Terrace was fantastic. In six months the band put it all together. We made a couple of replacements, Shadow Wilson on drums and Joe Newman on trumpet. Joe was going to school at
and we heard him on the way to Alabama State . I kept bugging Hamp, "Get that
cat." So first chance we got, we sent for him. It was a fantastic band.
All the first men were unbelievable — Marshall Royal playing lead alto, a cat
named Fred Beckett playing lead trombone, who we called Black Dorsey, and a
first trumpet player named Carl George, who later played with Kenton and who
had a crystal-clear sound like Charlie Spivak. So the first chairs were all
perfect. For saxophones we had Marshall Royal, Illinois Jacquet and Ray Perry
on alto and electric violin. He played violin like Stuff Smith but never really
got the recognition because he died too early. Ernie Royal, Joe Newman and Carl
George were the trumpets. All the cats were great. New York
It was really my school. I learned so much.
stayed on my ass all the time. He'd say,
"Hold that note down, hold that note down." It was something else,
you know, because we were holding phrases of four, five, six bars and breathing
in specific places together. Marshall forced me to learn about crescendo,
decrescendo, piano, forte and all those things I didn't know anything about
when I was in high school. Marshall
Berg: So,
was the section leader. Marshall
Gordon: Yeah. He thought he was the concert master for the band, too, but he was my immediate supervisor. I used to get so mad because it seemed like it would never be right, but later I told him thanks a mil. He taught me so much.
Unbelievable. And, yeah, I learned a lot of shit from Jacquet, too. He was also young, a few years older than me, but he was already playing, already a soloist, with his shit together. A lot of people don't seem to understand that Jacquet's a hell of a tenor player. We used to sit next to each other, which was great, and we used to do a two-tenor number called "Porkchops." It wasn't extensive, you know, but we played a few choruses together. I forget what the format was but it was nice.
Berg: Did you and
ever sit down together and play or talk
about improvisation? Illinois
Gordon: Constantly. Every day, man. On the bus, off the bus, in the hotel, on the stand. We talked about what we wanted to do, who we liked. And he showed me a lot of shit like altissimo fingerings, playing over the high F.
Berg: How long were you with Hamp?
Gordon: I was with him until 1943, about three years.
Berg: Where did you go from there?
Gordon: Back to
to gig around town. I worked in a band
that Lee Young had at a place called Club A La Grand. There was a place around
the corner called the Ritz that was an after-hours joint where we used to jam.
This was when I ran into Art Pepper. He used to come around and we used to jam
together. I then got him a gig in Lee's band working at A La Grand. I also
worked with Jessie Price, the drummer from L.A. who had been with Basic. Oh yeah, Fletcher
Henderson came out with a nucleus of a big band and picked up four or five cats
in Kansas City to fill it out. I worked with him for about
a month. L.A.
Berg: How was that?
Gordon: Great, man. His brother Horace was with the band and we worked in a nightclub called The Plantation. There's even a record on it that we did for the Armed Forces Jubilee show that was originally recorded on one of those big V-discs. I'm featured in the band with Fletcher. Can you believe that? I grew up listening to those cats. Fletcher used to write in the sharp keys, you know, to give the band a more brilliant sound. But I don't really like playing in the sharp keys. I like flat keys. For instance, I've always dug D-flat because that's a beautiful key for tenor. It puts you in the key of E-flat and your 5th is on the bottom.
Berg: Speaking of the bottom of the horn, I noticed a couple of low A's last night
Gordon: Yeah. I grew up with this guy named James Nelson, and he lived right around the corner from me. He was a couple of years older, so naturally when he moved into the neighborhood I was right on him. His brother played the piano, so I was there all the time. Anyway, James is the one that showed me that low A with the knee covering the bell. He used to take me around a lot, too. When you speak of influences, there are so many people that I've been fortunate enough to learn from.
Berg: What came after Fletcher?
Gordon: All during this time Nat Cole had his trio out at a place called the 331 Club. It was very popular for quite some time. On Mondays, our off-nights, they'd have sessions, and the guy promoting the sessions was Norman Granz, who was a student at one of the city colleges. So I used to go out there and play with Nat. During this time we also made some records. We played "I Found a New Baby" and "Rosetta." I was very Lester-ish at the time.
Berg: In Jazz Masters of The Forties,
Ira Gitler talks about your role as one of the first
players to adapt Charlie Parker's innovations to the tenor saxophone. When did
you start listening to Bird?
Gordon: Well, the first time I heard Bird was in 1941. When I was with Hamp's band, Parker was with Jay McShann. It was here in
at the New York when they would have two or three bands.
We played at the Savoy opposite Jay McShann. They had that Savoy sound, and the alto player was playing his
ass off. Beautiful. That's when I first met Bird. I had heard the recordings he
made with McShann with Walter Brown singing "Moody Blues" and
"Jumping the Blues." It was a rough band but the ingredients were
there. Bird was just singing through all that shit. The other alto player was
beautiful, too, a cat named John Jackson who I later worked with in Eckstine's
band. Anyway, the next year Bird went with Earl Hines. Then when Eckstine left
Earl's band he took half the guys with him, including Bird. So during that time
I often ran into Bird in Kansas City or Boston . New York
Bird and Lester both come from
, and Bird was very influenced by Lester. So the Lester
influence is part of the natural evolution for him and for me. Because I heard
him right away, there were similar feelings, you know. Also, Bird had other
influences. There was a cat called Prof. Smith, an alto player around Kansas City who was important. Then Jimmy Dorsey. A
lot of cats don't know that, but Bird loved Jimmy Dorsey. I loved him, too. He
was a helluva saxophonist, a lot of feeling Bird dug Pete Brown, too. When
Lester came out he played very melodic. Everything he played you could sing. He
was always telling a story, and Bird did the same thing. That kind of musical
philosophy is what I try to do because telling a story is, I think, where it's
at. Kansas City
In the '30s, cats were playing harmonically, basically straight tonic chords and 7th chords. Lester was the first one I heard that played 6th chords. He was playing the 6th and the 9th. He stretched it a little by using the some color tones used by Debussy and Ravel, those real soft tones. Lester was doing all that. Then Bird extended that to 11ths and l3ths, like Diz, and to altered notes like the fiat 5th and flat 9th. So this was harmonically some of what had happened.
Like I said, I was just lucky. I was already in that direction, so when I heard Bird it was just a natural evolution. Fortunately. I worked with him and we used to hang out together and jam together around
. It just happened for me that it was the
correct path. New York
Berg: What was your gig with Louis Armstrong like?
Gordon: I joined Louis in
. I was working at the time with Jessie Price, and one night after
the set somebody says to me. "Hey cat, sure like that tone you're getting"
I looked up and it was Pops. The next night Teddy McRae, the tenor player who
was the straw boss in Pop's band, came in. I had met Teddy before when he was
with Chick Webb. Also, I think he took my chair in Hamp's band. Anyway, he
asked me if I'd like to join the band. I'd been in Los
Angeles long enough and I wanted to check Louis
out. so I joined the band. Los Angeles
The band was part of several major feature films:
(1944) and Pillow to Post
(1945) with Ida Lupino. It was also nice because I was the major soloist in Atlantic
the band then, other than Pops, I mean.
Berg. How was it working with Louis?
Gordon: Oh, great. Love, love, love. Just beautiful. Always beautiful. It was just a gas being with him. He let me play all the time. He dug me.
Berg: How long were you with Louis?
Gordon: About seven or eight months. Actually, it was a mediocre band. They were just playing Luis Russell arrangements from the '30s, "Ain't Misbehaving" all those things. So nothing was happening. When we got to
I knew that Eckstine had formed a band. In
fact, I had heard some of their records and it was happening, it was the new
sound. So, anyway, when we got to Chicago at the Regal Theatre, Eckstine's good
friend and buddy, a guy named Bob Redcross who Bird later named a tune for
("Redcross"), came backstage and said that Eckstine needed a tenor
player. He had heard me on the air with Pops and wanted to know if I'd join the
band. I said yeah. So two weeks later I joined the band. It was fantastic. It
was a hell of a jump, the difference between night and day. Chicago
Berg: Who was in Eckstine's band at that time?
Gordon: They were all young and unknown at the time, but later it proved to be a million-dollar band. The arrangers were Jerry Valentine, a trombone player from Hines' band, and Tadd Dameron. Diz also had a couple of things in the book. For reeds we had John Jackson on lead, Sonny Stitt on third alto, Gene Amnions and myself on tenor and Leo Parker on baritone. The trombones were Jerry Valentine, Taswell Baird and Chips Outcalt. The trumpets were Dizzy, Shorty McConnel, Gail Brockman and Boonie Hazel. John Malachi played piano, Connie Wainwright, guitar, Tommy Potter, bass, and Art Blakey, drums. And our vocalist was Sarah Vaughan. Unbelievable, huh?
I joined the band in
, at the Washington, D.C. in 1944, and was with the band for the
next couple of years except for a couple of months off at one point. But it was
a fantastic band in a fantastic period, you know. This is when I met Tadd, my
favorite arranger and composer. I did some things with him later. Howard Theatre
Berg: After Eckstine came
and New York 52nd Street. What was that period like?
Gordon: Ahhhhh... every day there was something happening. This new music thing, bebop, was taking shape and becoming recognized, so it was a very exciting period. Every day there was something exciting, something ecstatic, something. And all the cats loved each other and practiced together at Tadd's house, Monk's house, at sessions. Then the street started opening up for the cats. So, it was happening. I worked on the street a lot with Bird and Miles. Miles was just coming up then. He was still eating jelly beans at that time. Do you believe that? Malted milks and jelly beans. I worked with Bird at a place called the Spotlight with my sextet, with Miles and Bird, Stan Levey, Bud Powell, Curly Russell and Baby Lawrence, the dancer.
was the show, but really he was part of the band. Lawrence
Berg: How did playing with a dancer work out?
Gordon: Good. He danced bebop. The way those cats danced, man, was just like a drummer. He was doing everything that the other cats were doing and maybe more. Blowing eights, fours and trading off. He just answered to the music. There were several cats on that level, but he was the boss. Baby
. Fantastic. He used to do some
unbelievable things. Lawrence
Dancing in those days was a big part of the musical environment, you know. Everybody was dancing to the music, to whatever they wanted, different dances and everything. Just as music was growing, dancing was growing. Like I said, we used to play with all those shows, chorus lines and all that. To me it was great. I loved it.
Berg: That's quite interesting because I've gotten the feeling that musicians have generally resented backing up dancers, singers, whatever.
Gordon: No. I never have. Especially if it's good.
Berg: Many people have mentioned your influence on 'Trane. Did you know 'TVane?
Gordon: Not really. I knew him, but not well. He was from Philly. He was younger, of course, but I had met him here and there. Philly Joe reminded me recently, a few months ago when we were on tour together in
Europe, of the time that Miles' band came out to . 'Trane was playing his shit, but it
wasn't projecting, he didn't have the sound. So one day we were talking and I
said, "Man, you play fantastic, but you have to develop that sound, get
that projection." I gave him a mouthpiece I had that I wasn't using. I
laid that on him and that was it. That made the difference. Hollywood
Berg: That's incredible because there are many things in 'Trane's sound that are reminiscent of your sound.
Gordon: He was playing my mouthpiece, man! Again, it's the same line— Lester to Bird to Dexter to 'Trane. There was evolution, of course, but really the same line.
Berg: Let me ask you about Sonny Rollins. I talked to Sonny about a month ago and your name came up as an important influence. He speaks of you with great warmth. What was your relationship like?
Gordon: Well, Sonny and Jackie McLean were the young cats coming up in the late '40s, early '50s, you know. I wasn't really around them too much because as they were beginning to mature I was out on the coast. But again, it's the same story.
They came up in the same line. Of course, they have their own things, which is natural because we all learn and are influenced by different people and situations.
Berg: There's one thing that especially impressed Sonny and which has always intrigued me. That is the way you lay back on the melody or phrase just a bit behind the beat. Instead of being right on top of the beat with a metrical approach like Sonny Stitt and a lot of the great white tenor players, you just pull back. In the process there are interesting tensions that develop in your music. How did that come about?
Gordon: Yeah. I've been told that I do that. I'm not really that conscious of it. I think I more or less got it from Lester because I didn't play right on top. He was always a little back, I think. That's the way I felt it, you know, and so it just happened that way. These things are not really thought out. It's what you hear and the way you hear it.
Berg: What happened after
52nd Street? I know you moved to in 1962, but my knowledge of your
activities during the '50s is sketchy. Denmark
Gordon: Well, during the '50s things got a little tough because like everybody else I had a habit. I was paying the dues. So my career was very spasmodic. Thankfully, I was one of the lucky ones who got pulled out and started putting it back together again. I did do a few things during that time but not a great amount of work. There were some nice recordings with
. And in the early '50s Wardell Gray and I
were doing our thing, you know, the chase with a quintet. Bethlehem
Berg: When you moved to
, what was in your mind? Why did you make
that decision? Denmark
Gordon: There wasn't any decision. In 1960 I started commuting to
because I had signed with Blue Note. So I
was coming here to record. Then, in 1962 I moved to New York and was here for six or seven months. I
met Ronnie Scott at a musician's bar called Charlie's, and he introduced
himself and asked if I'd come to New York . I said, "Yeah, sure." So I gave
him my address and he said he'd be in touch. London
A couple of months later he offered me a month's work in his club and a couple weeks touring around
. He said maybe he could get me a few
things on the Continent. So after I left England I went to London to the Copenhagen Montmartre. It developed into a love affair and
before I knew it I'd been over there a couple of years.
I was reading DownBeat one day back then, and
Ira Gitler referred to me as an expatriate. That's
true, you know, but at the time I hadn't really made up my mind to live there,
so I came back here in 1965 for about six months, mostly out on the coast. But
with all the political and social strife during that time and the Beatles
thing, I didn't really dig it. So I went back and lived in for a couple of years. But the last nine
or 10 years I've lived steadily in Paris . Copenhagen
Berg: What does the future hold for Dexter Gordon at this point?
Gordon: Well, it looks like I'm about to take a great leap forward.
Berg: Here, here!
Gordon: So, you know, it's moving. I'm very optimistic. About the future, and about music. These last five years, I think, have been good. All over
Europe and here there has been a renaissance in
music, and jazz in particular. And that's what we're talking about, jazz. I
like the word "jazz." That word has been my whole life. I understand
the cats when they take exception to the name, you know. But to me that's my
Fortunately, we will be able to hear more of Dex in 1977. On wax, there will be the all-star date on Xanadu. There will also be the live session at the Village Vanguard with Woody Shaw, Louis Hayes, Ronnie Matthews and Stafford James on
. Dex with be returning for an extended
tour of the States under the auspices of Ms. Management in Columbia . All this represents a new plateau in
Dex's career and, for us, the opportunity to share in the workings of one of the
great hearts and minds in contemporary music." New York