Preserving A Legacy

In 2013, Maxine Gordon, widow and former manager and producer of Dexter Gordon, jazz scholar, archivist, oral historian, and Co-Founder and President of The Dexter Gordon Society, announced her plan to publish the biography of her late husband after signing of a book contract with University of California Press. Published in 2018, the biography, entitled Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, was be the first official biography to chronicle Dexter Gordon’s musical and personal life, drawing upon more than 25 years of socio-historical, biographical, and cultural research, and over 50 years of memorabilia and private collections owned and acquired by Dexter Gordon (1923 - 1990) throughout his life. Visit www.maxinegordon.com.

That same year (2013), a new program, Dex@90, was established to honor Dexter Gordon's 90th birthday. This program featured live musical performances and humanities events. Entitled The Music of Dexter Gordon: A Celebration, the tribute spanned four nights at Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) in New York City. The success of the event (all four nights were sold out) led to the formation of an annual series of tribute concerts at JALC's Dizzy's Coca Cola Club.
Learn more about Dex@90.

In 2014, the Royal Musical Instruments Museum of Belgium inducted Dexter Gordon’s tenor saxophone into the bicentennial exhibit of Adolphe Sax — inventor of the saxophone (www.sax200.be). Dexter's tenor saxophone was showcased at the museum in Brussels, Belgium from February 10th, 2014 to January 11, 2015. The saxophone had been formerly owned by jazz saxophone legend Ben Webster (one of Dexter Gordon's heroes) and was used in Dexter Gordon's Academy Award-nominated performance in the film Round Midnight.

It was within this series of celebratory events and commemorative projects that the impetus for
The Dexter Gordon Society was first born, and that our federal 501c3 nonprofit charitable status was acquired and received.