Doin' Allright [LP]

Forget the stylized in-session cover art closeup of the "jazz man at work:" eyes clenched shut, lips pursed around a mouthpiece, dim lighting. On the cover of his Blue Note debut Gordon appears perched in a Central Park carriage in a sharp-looking trench coat, one hand on his horn case, the other waving a cigarette, a big grin on his face. Doin' allright, indeed. And compared to some of his labelmates, Gordon was perhaps something of an already-arrived success, having been on the scene for over twenty years by the time of this 1961 recording. The confidence one would expect therefore, and the sunny disposition implied by the cover, are equally borne out by the music within. Gordon could write, as evidenced by his two fine originals here, "For Regulars Only" and "Society Red," but he enjoyed working with standards as well and made them swing hard. He doubletimes his way through Gershwin's "I Was Doing All Right" with effortless elegance, and coasts over the Styne/Cahn tune "It's You Or No One" with exuberant confidence, buoyed by Al Harewood's cooking cymbal work.