DEXTER GORDON — The Other Side of Round Midnight (review)

DEXTER GORDON — The Other Side of Round Midnight album cover Album · 1986 · Jazz Related Soundtracks Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
js
“The Other Side of Round Midnight” is a collection of songs that didn’t appear in the famous movie, “Round Midnight”, or on the very successful soundtrack to that movie. These are the castaways, and they probably would not have been released except for the fact that the movie and it’s soundtrack ended up being way more successful than people thought, so possibly this album was one more attempt to squeeze a little more money out of one of the best movies about the jazz scene ever produced. These are songs that didn’t make the cut, except for one, but there are some real gems on here. The one song that did make the movie was a remake of “Tivoli”, and its just a segment of the tune made to fill a certain space in the movie. I would imagine if they knew they were going to be putting out this second album, they would have recorded the entire performance instead of fading it out after a couple minutes.

If you know anything about the movie, then you can guess that the main stars on here are Dexter Gordon and Herbie Hancock, but there are so many other talents on here, including Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins and many more. As mentioned earlier, there are some good tracks, including “Society Red”, a funky hard bop number and “Berangere’s Nighmare 2”, an energetic fusion jam featuring Hubbard and Tony Williams. The real gems though are two different versions of “Round Midnight”. This is a song we have all heard many times by many different artists, so it is a challenge to come up with a creative version that gives the song new life. On side one it’s an ensemble piece on which Dexter really shines, he is a genius who keeps you hanging on every note he plays. But the best track is Herbie’s closing version of the song on which he channels, the blues, French composers and the avant-garde. This version could become a contemporary concert hall piece if it was transcribed.

The rest of the album is a mixed bag with two ballads, one featuring Gordon and another featuring vocalist Bobby McFerrin and a casual jam session led by Wayne Shorter that probably would not have appeared on an album except to fill space on this afterthought production and a couple more standards played well, but not particularly inspiring. Despite some very good music here and there, the main problem with this album is that it comes across as something thrown together without any particular forethought.
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