Dexter Gordon Credit: Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL
Jazz composer Chuck Owen was busy last weekend, and this Sunday one of Owen’s Jazz Surge soloists, Jack Wilkins, spends an afternoon paying tribute to late saxophonist (and actor) Dexter Gordon, who died in 1990.

“Cheese Cake” and “Fried Bananas”—highlights from Gordon’s catalog marked by a big, broad sound and conversational solos—are on the menu for this homage to Long Tall Dexter who helped revitalize interest in straight-ahead jazz in the U.S. La Lucha and trumpeter James Suggs are part of the ensemble for this matinee.

Tickets to Tampa Jazz Club’s “Centennial Tribute to Dexter Gordon” with Jack Wilkins happening on Sunday, Jan. 15 at 3 p.m. inside the Mainstage Theatre at Hillsborough Community College in Ybor City are still available for $10-$20.

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This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2023.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...