Dexter Gordon - Live at the Playboy Jazz Festival

In 1982, Dexter returned home to play the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl with his working rhythm section of Kirk Lightsey, David Eubanks and Eddie Gladden, and featuring Woody Shaw as the set’s guest artist, as well as surprise guest Milt Jackson. Michael Cuscuna, Dexter’s producer at the time, was so enamored with the set that he wanted to put the music out in its entirety as Dex’s third album for Elektra. Milt Jackson was signed to Pablo Records and the 2 songs that he played on were not allowed to be issued. Instead, 2 songs were issued in 1984 as a various artists collection titled Live in Performance at The Playboy Jazz Festival in heavily edited form. Fast forward to 2018, Michael Cuscuna happened to stumble across the original analog tapes of the set while cleaning out his storage room. With his invaluable assistance we found the entire set on those reels that includes two completely unissued tracks in “Bag’s Groove” and “The Blues” featuring Milt Jackson and the full unedited versions of “Fried Bananas” and “You’ve Changed” from the ‘84 release.

Track Listing:
     Side A
Introduction
Fried Bananas
Bag’s Groove
     Side B
You’ve Changed
The Blues

NEW SEALED Limited Edition LP