From France via USA to Germany

Dexter Gordon - Our Man in Paris
May 23, 1963
“Our Man in Paris (BST84146)” is one of the nine studio-sessions (within this count are “Clubhouse” and “Landslide”), tenor saxophonist Gordon cut for Blue Note in the 60’s during his second renaissance, I might say and is a special recording in two ways.
After his disappearance from the jazz-scene in the 50’s he made his comeback on the Blue Note label while he was staying in Copenhagen, Denmark and Paris, France from 1962 until 1977 and these recording became his most known work, although he was really underrated during that time, because of his European residence.
So one speciality about this record is, that it was recorded in Paris – as the name might suggest – with Claude Ermelin as the recording engineer. (I can only remember Clarke & Boland – The golden 8 BN4092 as the only other record of the classic Blue Notes, that was not recorded by Van Gelder)
The other speciality is the band, who was working with Dexter Gordon on this LP:
Bud Powell (p), Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). These musicians were all living in Paris, even if they were US-natives besides Michelot who was a Frenchmen and had some recording and playing experience with Miles Davis (“Lift to the scaffold”) or Dizzy Gillespie. This trio formed the band “The Three Bosses” in 1959, so they knew each other and were ready to play, as well as Powell and Clarke did already play with Dex as well.

Comparing to the other Blue Notes, Gordon has made in the 60’s, I cannot fully understand the high rating of this record. The playing is inspiring and you can feel, that the musicians are equally connected, but somehow there is a little bit of strength, I’m missing and I guess this comes from the selection of tunes. On all other LP’s, there is at least one tune, that stays remarkably in my mind, like “Cheesecake” on “Go”, “Tanya” on “One flight up” or “Manha de Carneval” on my favourite record, “Getting’ around”. “Our Man in Paris” has not really a highlight in my opinion, so it’s not really shining for me, I guess.
As I’ve already mentioned, the accompanists play really fine, especially Clarke who is always in the neck of the other musicians, or Michelot who is working under all other instruments and does a really good job, ‘cause you can hear him buzzing and humming all the time, like on “Broadway” or “A night in Tunisia”, for example.
I guess, my real stumbling block is Powell, who indeed is a wonderful pianist, but I guess he wasn’t very comfortable on this setting, while he stays in his Bebop-tradition, whereas the other musicians do their playing in a more hard-boppish manner. That’s not really an antipode, but I guess there’s not a really deep connection, at least on the faster pieces, as it would have been possible. But Powell can really shine on the ballad “Stairway to the stars” while he is stretching out in the background or just at the beautiful beginning, laying down a wonderful introduction to the piece.
The music is well worth collecting, and anybody should give it a listen, even if there are better recordings, in my opinion.

Because of Gordon’s underestimation and the high rating of “Our Man in Paris”, this LP is really sought after.
My copy came as a solid blue label Liberty-pressing in EX condition, with “van gelder” in the dead wax, which is a bit curious, because – as I’ve mentioned – Ermelin was the recording engineer. I guess Van Gelder had his hands on this reissue.
The jacket is in beautiful shape, aside from some small seam splits, and has the Liberty note on top left of the back cover and “43 West 61st”-address.
This is still something I’m wondering myself: Some of these Liberty jackets do have this address on the back and some others don’t!
And I really like the Reid Miles cover with this great Francis Wolff-shot a lot.