Dexter Gordon discusses his strength as a player.

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Dexter Gordon discusses his fame in Japan.

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Dexter Gordon discusses musical integrity versus commercial success.

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Q: “The strength that you have, is that something that you’ve always had or did it come with more playing or were you always a strong player?”

A: “Yeah, I think so, yeah, it's always strong. Since with, more or less fundamentally in my mind that, you know, a tenor player should be strong. And since I come from the Los Angeles, which is not too far from Texas, and so many of the Texas tenor players were my inspirations. And they traditionally have big, strong sounds … And I mean, for me, really if a tenor player doesn't have a big sound, he's lacking a little something. Of course, everybody can't be Gene Ammons or somebody, you know, but still it should be of, you know, full tenor sound. “