Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was born February 27, 1923. and began his career in 1940 playing with the Lionel Hampton band. He struggled with drug addiction, and left the States for Europe in 1962, where he remained for 15 years where he recorded the Hard Bop classic "Our Man in Paris". He returned to the States in 1976 and in 1986 he starred in the film "Round Midnight" and received an Academy Award nomination. He died on April 25, 1990.