Dexter Gordon was on a roll in 1962 when he recorded
A Swingin' Affair. Two days earlier he and this same quartet recorded his classic album
Go!; the band included pianist
Sonny Clark, bassist
Butch Warren, and drummer
Billy Higgins.
Gordon wrote two of the set's six tunes, the first of which, the Afro-Cuban-flavored "Soy Califa," is a burner.
Higgins' drumming double-times the band as
Gordon lays out the melody -- even his solo doesn't stray far from it and he returns to it repetitively.
Clark vamps with beautiful minor-key chords that he then adds to his own solo, moving all around the lyric with his right hand. And
Higgins and
Warren are truly wonderful on this one. There are also three standards here.
Gordon was always a master of them because his own approach to improvisation was essentially one of melodic invention. "Don't Explain" is ushered in by
Clark stating the changes;
Gordon's low and slow playing is romantic and sensual. On "You Stepped Out of a Dream,"
Gordon and
Clark take the melody and invert it in the bridge; they turn it into a kind of groove as
Higgins plays Latin-tinged rhythms throughout.
Warren's "The Backbone" is a hard bop groover with a bossa nova flavor, as he and
Gordon twin on the tune's head before
Dex moves off into his solo. It's easily the best thing here. This is a hot hard bop band, playing a program that's relaxed and mostly upbeat; they even manage to stretch a bit. The
Rudy Van Gelder Edition features fine sound but no bonus material. ~ Thom Jurek