Joe Henderson Archives - JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

Routes: A Jazz Impressions Podcast – Episode 9

We take flight in Episode 9 with two classic live cuts: Joe Henderson’s ‘Junk Blues’ and Don Pullen & George Adams’ ‘Saturday Night In The Cosmos’. But what’s the best route? Via Italy and Japan? Or as the crow flies? Ornithophobics need not apply. Thanks for all your support in this first year of the podcast and stay tuned for more Routes in the new year. Keep watching the skies!

Also available on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tracklists below (SPOILERS!)

The Horace Silver Quintet – Song For My Father

In October 1963, coinciding with the recent release of his debut album as leader on Blue Note, a young Joe Henderson was scouted by influential pianist Horace Silver to play in a new quintet he was putting together. From the sessions which followed came Song For My Father (1965), Silver’s most famous album and a bona fide Blue Note classic.

Joe Henderson – Jinrikisha

All roads lead to Joe here on Jazz Impressions, as we segue from Pete La Roca’s Basra (1965) to another Blue Note debut as leader, which also features La Roca on drums: Joe Henderson’s Page One (1963).

Pete La Roca – Lazy Afternoon

One of the many attractive qualities of jazz, more than any other musical genre, is how the same song can be interpreted in many different ways. Whether this is Bill Evans and Yusef Lateef offering their personal takes on a classic soundtrack, or Ahmad Jamal and Bobby Hutcherson reworking a Herbie Hancock original, the musical freedom that underpins jazz allows its musicians to constantly reinvent and offer fresh perspectives on popular classics. In his last post, Dan wrote on guitarist Grant Green’s version of the ballad ‘Lazy Afternoon’. Whilst Green’s version is excellent, the definitive version in my opinion of this well known standard is found on drummer Pete La Roca’s album Basra, released in 1965 on Blue Note.

Freddie Hubbard – Red Clay

Holding the world record for the most recording sessions of any jazz bassist in history (2,221 as of 2015), Ron Carter has provided some of the world’s greatest bass lines: Joe Henderson’s ‘Power to the People’ (1969), Alice Coltrane’s ‘Blue Nile’ (1970) and Freddie Hubbard’s ‘Red Clay’ (1970).

Joe Henderson – Power To The People

From two great tenor sax players to another, today’s post focusses on Joe Henderson’s politically titled track ‘Power To The People’ from his album of the same name, released on Milestone in 1969. Mainly compromised of Henderson originals, this album was the first in a string of political albums Henderson released in the late 60s and early 70s which were inspired by an increased awareness of black issues and the Black Power movement which reached its peak at the beginning of the 70s.

Alice Coltrane – Blue Nile

One of the artists mentioned in the previous post was multi-instrumentalist Alice Coltrane who plays both piano and harp on Joe Henderson’s elemental offering ‘Fire’. This wasn’t their first musical collaboration as they had already worked together on her own cosmic masterpiece, Ptah, The El Daoud, recorded at the Coltrane’s home studio in 1970 and released on Impulse! records.

Joe Henderson – Fire

The same year as Pharoah Sanders’ Elevation (1974), saxophonist Joe Henderson enlisted that record’s violinist (Michael White) and percussionist (Kenneth Nash) for an ambitious, conceptual collaboration with the great Alice Coltrane.