The American tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923 - 1990) was the first important representative of his instrument on the bebop scene around Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell in the 1940s. He began his remarkable career with the orchestra of Lionel Hampton, one of the most popular bands of the time, as a seventeen-year-old, where he played in the saxophone section next to Illinois Jacquet and Marshal Royal.