"Broadway" from Dexter Gordon's 1963 Our Man in Paris album is a swinging medium-tempo performance featuring Gordon's six-chorus tenor saxophone solo at 212 BPM over Henri Woode's AABA standard in B-flat. Gordon's playing epitomizes the relaxed confidence of a master musician completely at home in the swing-to-bop tradition, his phrases long, flowing, and rhythmically inventive. Bud Powell follows with two choruses of piano that demonstrate his enduring command of bebop harmony and rhythm despite the personal difficulties that had begun to affect his playing during this period. The track captures the essence of the Our Man in Paris session: two American jazz legends meeting on European soil with a sympathetic French rhythm section. Gordon's choice of a straightforward swing-era standard provides a canvas for pure, unencumbered blowing, and both he and Powell respond with solos that prioritize melodic storytelling over harmonic complexity. The medium tempo allows Gordon to develop ideas at his preferred pace, his behind-the-beat delivery creating the unmistakable sense of ease that defined his mature style.
