Dexter Gordon – A Swingin’ Affair (XRCD24)

In 1962, saxophonist Dexter Gordon was on a creative roll. Just two days after recording his classic „Go!”, he and his quartet – pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins – recorded an album with six more tracks. „A Swingin’ Affair” opens with the fiery Afro-Cuban „Soy Califa” and features real hard bop with „McSplivens”, a composition by Butch Warren with „The Backbone” and three standards with „You Stepped Out of a Dream”, „Until the Real Thing Comes Along” and „Don’t Explain”. Often overlooked in the wake of „Go!”, „A Swingin’ Affair” is in no way inferior to its predecessor.

This is one of a series of XRCD24 reissues from the Blue Note catalogue, remastered from the analogue stereo tapes at Oceanway Studios in Hollywood by Alan Yoshida, one of the inventors of the XRCD process. The sound quality of the XRCDs, newly released under the Audio Wave label, goes far beyond previous digitisations and in some cases sounds considerably better than the original LPs. The XRCD comes with a lavishly designed booklet with excellent photography.

We recommend the use of „L’Art du Son” CD/DVD conditioner for even more sonic improvement.

Lista pieselor

1. Soy Califa

2. Don’t Explain

3. You Stepped Out of a Dream

4. The Backbone

5. Until the Real Thing Comes Along

6. McSplivens