Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923?April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. He is considered one of the first bebop tenor players. A famous [LINK: http://www.andrewsmithgallery.com/exhibitions/hermanleonard/hl_1007.html] photograph by Herman Leonard of Gordon smoking a cigarette during a set at the Royal Roost in New York City in 1948 is one of the more iconic images in the history of jazz. Gordon's height was 6 feet 5 inches, and so consequently he was also known as 'Long Tall Dexter'. Life and works Gordon was born and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a doctor who counted Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton among his patients. He played clarinet from the age of 13, before switching to saxophone (initially alto, then tenor) at 15. While still at school, he was playing in bandswith such contemporaries as Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette. Joop Viss

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