Joe Henderson - Power to the People (1969)

The late sixties were an exciting time for jazz, although not a lucrative one. Faced with a declining market share due to the popularity of rock music, jazz musicians were forced to find an audience by pursuing new avenues in composition and instrumentation.

Joe Henderson, a much beloved player for the Blue Note label was dropped in the late sixties. Orrin Keepnews, who certainly could recognize great talent when he saw it, signed him to his newly formed Milestone label. This 1969 release finds Henderson with a near perfect rhythm section. It features imaginative compositions that easily make it a highlight of the accomplished musician's career.

Power to the People is an appropriate title for a session filled with the sense of urgency and charisma found here. Henderson took a page from the compositional methods of the Miles Davis quintet from a few years back in that many of the compositions feature the same dark corners and ambiguous chord structures of that famous group. Only "Incognito" harkens back to an earlier time in Henderson's career.

Henderson has, for the most part, abandoned the harsh tone of his earlier releases for a more smoothed over sound, giving up nothing in confidence. Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter are session musicians here, featured both on acoustic and electric instruments.

Jack DeJohnette, another master who would contribute heavily to Miles' electric period, provides skilled drumming in the background. As an added bonus, two selections feature Mike Lawrence, a promising trumpeter who died in 1983.

As part of the Keepnews Collection, the sound on this release is superb. Carter is served especially well—every note is clearly heard. Hancock's electric piano, at times both burbling in the background and providing an acid sting, is also crisp.

While signed to the Blue Note label, Henderson provided seminal releases in the accepted format. On many levels, Power to the People is more satisfying, a neglected gem that showcases an artist reaching for all that he can accomplish. 

By David Rickert in All About Jazz

Styles:

Post-Bop

Fusion

Tracks:

01 - Black Narcissus (04:52)
02 - Afro-Centric (07:05)
03 - Opus One-Point-Five (04:56)
04 - Isotope (04:56)
05 - Power To The People (08:45)
06 - Lazy Afternoon (04:36)
07 - Foresight and Afterthought (07:33)

Line-up:

Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone

Mike Lawrence - trumpet

Herbie Hancock - piano, electric piano

Ron Carter - bass instrument, electric bass

Jack DeJohnette - drum

Larry Young - Unity (1965)

On Unity, jazz organist Larry Young began to display some of the angular drive that made him a natural for the jazz-rock explosion to come barely four years later. While about as far from the groove jazz of Jimmy Smith as you could get, Young hadn't made the complete leap into freeform jazz-rock either. Here he finds himself in very distinguished company: drummer Elvin Jones, trumpeter Woody Shaw, and saxman Joe Henderson. Young was clearly taken by the explorations of saxophonists Coleman and Coltrane, as well as the tonal expressionism put in place by Sonny Rollins and the hard-edged modal music of Miles Davis and his young quintet. But the sound here is all Young: the rhythmic thrusting pulses shoved up against Henderson and Shaw as the framework for a melody that never actually emerges ("Zoltan" -- one of three Shaw tunes here), the skipping chords he uses to supplant the harmony in "Monk's Dream," and also the reiterating of front-line phrases a half step behind the beat to create an echo effect and leave a tonal trace on the soloists as they emerge into the tunes (Henderson's "If" and Shaw's "The Moontrane"). All of these are Young trademarks, displayed when he was still very young, yet enough of a wiseacre to try to drive a group of musicians as seasoned as this -- and he succeeded each and every time. As a soloist, Young is at his best on Shaw's "Beyond All Limits" and the classic nugget "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." In his breaks, Young uses the middle register as a place of departure, staggering arpeggios against chords against harmonic inversions that swing plenty and still comes out at all angles. Unity proved that Young's debut, Into Somethin', was no fluke, and that he could play with the lions. And as an album, it holds up even better than some of the work by his sidemen here.

By Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop
Fusion
Hard-Bop
Jazz Funk
Modal

Tracks:
01 - Zoltan (07:36)
02 - Monk's Dream (05:45)
03 - If (06:42)
04 - The Moontrane (07:18)
05 - Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise (06:20)
06 - Beyond All Limits (06:00)

Line-up:
Larry Young: organ
Woody Shaw: trumpet
Joe Henderson: saxophone
Elvin Jones: drums

Joe Henderson - Page One (1963)

Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson's debut as a leader is a particularly strong and historic effort. With major contributions made by trumpeter Kenny Dorham, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Pete La Roca, Henderson (who already had a strikingly original sound and a viable inside/outside style) performs six generally memorable compositions on this CD reissue. Highlights include the original versions of Dorham's "Blue Bossa" and Henderson's "Recorda Me." It's highly recommended.

by Scott Yanow in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop

Tracks:
01 - Blue Bossa (08:03)
02 - La Mesha (09:10)
03 - Homestretch (04:15)
04 - Recorda Me (06:03)
05 - Jinrikisha (07:24)
06 - Out of the Night (07:23)

Line-up:
Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone
Kenny Dorham – trumpet
Pete La Roca – drums
McCoy Tyner – piano
Butch Warren – double bass

Horace Silver - Song for My Father (1964)

One of Blue Note's greatest mainstream hard bop dates, Song for My Father is Horace Silver's signature LP and the peak of a discography already studded with classics. Silver was always a master at balancing jumping rhythms with complex harmonies for a unique blend of earthiness and sophistication, and Song for My Father has perhaps the most sophisticated air of all his albums. Part of the reason is the faintly exotic tint that comes from Silver's flowering fascination with rhythms and modes from overseas -- the bossa nova beat of the classic "Song for My Father," for example, or the Eastern-flavored theme of "Calcutta Cutie," or the tropical-sounding rhythms of "Que Pasa?" Subtle touches like these alter Silver's core sound just enough to bring out its hidden class, which is why the album has become such a favorite source of upscale ambience. Song for My Father was actually far less focused in its origins than the typical Silver project; it dates from the period when Silver was disbanding his classic quintet and assembling a new group, and it features performances from both bands (and, on the CD reissue with bonus tracks, three different sessions). Still, it hangs together remarkably well, and Silver's writing is at its tightest and catchiest. The title cut became Silver's best-known composition, partly because it provided the musical basis for jazz-rock group Steely Dan's biggest pop hit "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." Another hard bop standard is introduced here in the lone non-Silver tune, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson's "The Kicker," covered often for the challenge of its stuttering phrases and intricate rhythms. Yet somehow it comes off as warm and inviting as the rest of the album, which is necessary for all jazz collections -- mainstream hard bop rarely comes as good as Song for My Father.

by Steve Huey in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop
Soul Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Song for My Father (07:15)
02 - The Natives Are Restless Tonight (06:08)
03 - Calcutta Cutie (08:28)
04 - Que Pasa (07:45)
05 - The Kicker (05:24)
06 - Lonely Woman (07:03)
07 - Sanctimonious Sam (03:52)
08 - Que Pasa (trio version) (05:35)
09 - Sighin' and Cryin' (05:23)
10 - Silver Treads Among My Soul (03:50)

Line-up:
Horace Silver — piano
Carmell Jones — trumpet (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Joe Henderson — tenor saxophone (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Teddy Smith — bass (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Roger Humphries — drums (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Blue Mitchell — trumpet (Tracks 3, 6 – 10)
Junior Cook — tenor saxophone (Tracks 3, 6 – 10)
Gene Taylor — bass (Tracks 3, 6 – 10)
Roy Brooks — drums (Tracks 3, 6 – 10)

Horace Silver - The Cape Verdean Blues (1965)

After the success of Song for My Father and its hit title cut, Horace Silver was moved to pay further tribute to his dad, not to mention connect with some of his roots. Silver's father was born in the island nation of Cape Verde (near West Africa) before emigrating to the United States, and that's the inspiration behind The Cape Verdean Blues. Not all of the tracks are directly influenced by the music of Cape Verde (though some do incorporate Silver's taste for light exoticism); however, there's a spirit of adventure that pervades the entire album, a sense of exploration that wouldn't have been quite the same with Silver's quintet of old. On average, the tracks are longer than usual, and the lineup -- featuring tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson (a holdover from the Song for My Father sessions) and trumpeter Woody Shaw -- is one of the most modernist-leaning Silver ever recorded with. They push Silver into more advanced territory than he was normally accustomed to working, with mild dissonances and (especially in Henderson's case) a rawer edge to the playing. What's more, bop trombone legend J.J. Johnson appears on half of the six tracks, and Silver sounds excited to finally work with a collaborator he'd been pursuing for some time. Johnson ably handles some of the album's most challenging material, like the moody, swelling "Bonita" and the complex, up-tempo rhythms of "Nutville." Most interesting, though, is the lilting title track, which conjures the flavor of the islands with a blend of Latin-tinged rhythms and calypso melodies that nonetheless don't sound quite Caribbean in origin. Also noteworthy are "The African Queen," with its blend of emotional power and drifting hints of freedom, and "Pretty Eyes," Silver's first original waltz. Yet another worthwhile Silver album.

by Steve Huey in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop
Soul Jazz

Tracks:
01 - The Cape Verdean Blues (04:59)
02 - The African Queen (09:36)
03 - Pretty Eyes (07:30)
04 - Nutville (07:15)
05 - Bonita (08:37)
06 - Mo' Joe (05:47)

Line-up:
Horace Silver - piano
Woody Shaw - trumpet
Joe Henderson - tenor sax
J. J. Johnson - trombone
Bob Cranshaw - bass
Roger Humphries -drums

Freddie Hubbard - First Light (1971)

Never one to take lyricism for granted, trumpeter and composer Freddie Hubbard entered Creed Taylor's studio for the third time in 1971 with the express purpose of making a record radically different from anything he'd cut before; he was looking for it to use electricity and to be out of the soul-jazz mold, but was also more ambitious and wanted to push that envelope and himself. Taylor and Hubbard assembled a band that included Herbie Hancock on Rhodes, guitarists Eric Gale and George Benson, bassist Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette on drums, Airto Moreira on percussion, and Richard Wyands on acoustic piano to back him. The band was also supported by the truly ethereal and adventurous string arrangements of Don Sebesky (a first for Hubbard). The result is a masterpiece of textured sound, gorgeously far-flung charts, sweet, tight grooves, a subtle mystic feel, and some of Hubbard's most exciting playing ever. The title track and Hubbard's ingenious read of Paul and Linda McCartney's "Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey," as well as Leonard Bernstein's "Lonely Town," are so in the pocket that they bleed soul. Benson's uncharacteristically edgy guitar playing juxtaposed against Hubbard's warm tone, and Hancock's beautifully modal Rhodes lines that are drenched with big, open, minor chord voicings, are simply made more illustrious and graceful by Sebesky's strings. While Red Clay and Straight Life are both fine albums, First Light is the one that connects on all levels -- and it did with the jazz-buying public as well. A masterpiece.

by Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Style:
Fusion

Tracks:
01 First Light (11:05)
02 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (8:17)
03 Moment to Moment (5:43)
04 Yesterday's Dreams (3:55)
05 Lonely Town [from On the Town] (7:00)
06 Fantasy in D (6:55)
07 First Light [alternate take] (16:04)

Line-up:
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Herbie Hancock - Fender Rhodes piano
Richard Wyands - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Eric Gale - guitar
George Benson - guitar
Airto Moreira - percussion
Don Sebesky - string arrangements

Andrew Hill - Point of Departure (1964)

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalogue -- and with good reason. Hill's complex compositions straddled many lines in the early to mid-1960s and crossed over many. Point of Departure, with its all-star lineup (even then), took jazz and wrote a new book on it, excluding nothing. With Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson on saxophones (Dolphy also played clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute), Richard Davis on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Kenny Dorham on trumpet, this was a cast created for a jazz fire dance. From the opening moments of "Refuge," with its complex minor mode intro that moves headlong via Hill's large, open chords that flat sevenths, ninths, and even 11ths in their striding to move through the mode, into a wellspring of angular hard bop and minor-key blues. Hill's solo is first and it cooks along in the upper middle register, almost all right hand ministrations, creating with his left a virtual counterpoint for Davis and a skittering wash of notes for Williams. The horn solos in are all from the hard bop book, but Dolphy cuts his close to the bone with an edgy tone. "New Monastery," which some mistake for an avant-garde tune, is actually a rewrite of bop minimalism extended by a diminished minor mode and an intervallic sequence that, while clipped, moves very quickly. Dorham solos to connect the dots of the knotty frontline melody and, in his wake, leaves the space open for Dolphy, who blows edgy, blue, and true into the center, as Hill jumps to create a maelstrom by vamping with augmented and suspended chords. Hill chills it out with gorgeous legato phrasing and a left-hand ostinato that cuts through the murk in the harmony. When Henderson takes his break, he just glides into the chromatically elegant space created by Hill, and it's suddenly a new tune. This disc is full of moments like this. In Hill's compositional world, everything is up for grabs. It just has to be taken a piece at a time, and not by leaving your fingerprints all over everything. In "Dedication," where he takes the piano solo further out melodically than on the rest of the album combined, he does so gradually. You cannot remember his starting point, only that there has been a transformation. This is a stellar date, essential for any representative jazz collection, and a record that, in the 21st century, still points the way to the future for jazz.

by Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
01 - Refuge (12:12)
02 - New Monastery (07:00)
03 - Spectrum (09:42)
04 - Flight 19 (04:10)
05 - Dedication (06:40)
06 - New Monastery [Alternate Trake] (06:13)
07 - Flight 19 [Alternate Take] (03:49)
08 - Dedication [Alternate Take] (07:03)

Line-up:
Andrew Hill - piano
Eric Dolphy - alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Richard Davis - bass
Tony Williams - drums
Kenny Dorham - trumpet

Alice Coltrane - Ptah the El Daoud (1970)

Sometimes written off as an also-ran to her more famous husband, Alice Coltrane's work of the late '60s and early '70s shows that she was a strong composer and performer in her own right, with a unique ability to impregnate her music with spirituality and gentleness without losing its edges or depth. Ptah the El Daoud is a truly great album, and listeners who surrender themselves to it emerge on the other side of its 46 minutes transformed. From the purifying catharsis of the first moments of the title track to the last moments of "Mantra," with its disjointed piano dance and passionate ribbons of tenor cast out into the universe, the album resonates with beauty, clarity, and emotion. Coltrane's piano solo on "Turiya and Ramakrishna" is a lush, melancholy, soothing blues, punctuated only by hushed bells and the sandy whisper of Ben Riley's drums and later exchanged for an equally emotive solo by bassist Ron Carter. "Blue Nile" is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; Coltrane's sweeping flourishes on the harp nestle in perfectly with flute solos by Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson to produce a warm cocoon of sound that is colored by evocations of water, greenness, and birds. Perhaps as strong as the writing here, though, are the performances that Coltrane coaxes from her sidemen, especially the horn players. Joe Henderson, who can always be counted on for technical excellence, gives a performance that is simply on a whole other level from much of his other work -- freer, more open, and more fluid here than nearly anywhere else. Pharoah Sanders, who at times with John Coltrane seemed like a magnetic force of entropy, pulling him toward increasing levels of chaos, shows all of the innovation and spiritual energy here that he is known for, with none of the screeching. Overlooked and buried for years in obscurity, this album deserves to be embraced for the gem it is.

by Stacia Proefrock in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop
Avant-Garde
Free-Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Ptah, the El Daoud (14:00)
02 - Turiya and Ramakrishna (08:21)
03 - Blue Nile (07:05)
04 - Mantra (16:35)

Line-up:
Alice Coltrane — harp, piano
Joe Henderson — alto flute, tenor saxophone
Pharoah Sanders — alto flute, tenor saxophone, bells
Ron Carter — bass
Ben Riley — drums

McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy (1967)

Two and a half years after his last recording as a leader for Impulse, pianist McCoy Tyner emerged to start a period on Blue Note that would result in seven albums. Having left John Coltrane's Quartet in late 1965, Tyner was entering a period of struggle, although artistically his playing grew quite a bit in the late '60s. For this release, the pianist is teamed with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Elvin Jones for five of his originals. Highlights of the easily recommended album include "Passion Dance," "Four by Five," and "Blues on the Corner."
by Scott Yanow in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop

Tracks:
01 - Passion Dance (8:44)
02 - Contemplation (9:10)
03 - Four by Five (6:33)
04 - Search for Peace (6:27)
05 - Blues on the Corner (5:58)

Line-up:

McCoy Tyner: piano
Joe Henderson: tenor saxophone
Ron Carter: bass
Elvin Jones: drums

Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay (1970)

This may be Freddie Hubbard's finest moment as a leader, in that it embodies and utilizes all of his strengths as a composer, soloist, and frontman. On Red Clay, Hubbard combines hard bop's glorious blues-out past with the soulful innovations of mainstream jazz in the 1960s, and reads them through the chunky groove innovations of 1970s jazz fusion. This session places the trumpeter in the company of giants such as tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Lenny White. Hubbard's five compositions all come from deep inside blues territory; these shaded notions are grafted onto funky hard bop melodies worthy of Horace Silver's finest tunes, and are layered inside the smoothed-over cadences of shimmering, steaming soul. The 12-minute-plus title track features a 4/4 modal opening and a spare electric piano solo woven through the twin horns of Hubbard and Henderson. It is a fine example of snaky groove music. Henderson even takes his solo outside a bit without ever moving out of the rhythmnatist's pocket. "Delightful" begins as a ballad with slow, clipped trumpet lines against a major key background, and opens onto a mid-tempo groover, then winds back into the dark, steamy heart of bluesy melodicism. The hands-down favorite here, though, is "The Intrepid Fox," with its Miles-like opening of knotty changes and shifting modes, that are all rooted in bop's muscular architecture. It's White and Hancock who shift the track from underneath with large sevenths and triple-timed drums that land deeply inside the clamoring, ever-present riff. Where Hubbard and Henderson are playing against, as well as with one another, the rhythm section, lifted buoyantly by Carter's bridge-building bassline, carries the melody over until Hancock plays an uncharacteristically angular solo before splitting the groove in two and doubling back with a series of striking arpeggiatics. This is a classic, hands down.
by Thom Jurek at All Music Guide.

Styles:
Soul-Jazz
Post-Bop
Jazz-Funk

Tracks:
01 Red Clay
02 Delphia
03 Suite Sioux
04 The Interprid Fox
05 Cold Turquey
06 Red Clay (live version)

Line-up:
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet / horn
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Lenny White - drums

Red Clay live version:
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
George Benson - guitar
Stanley Turrentine - tenor saxophone
Johnny Hammond - organ / electric piano
Ron Carter - bass
Billy Cobham - drums
Airto Moreira - percussion