Joe Henderson

The State of the Tenor...

I heard Joe Henderson’s tenor in high school, but I wasn’t listening for it.

My brother had a John Mayall album in his collection called Jazz Blues Fusion, which included Blue Mitchell on trumpet - there he is in the upper left corner on the back cover:

I loved this album - what a killer band with Clifford Solomon on saxophones and Freddy Robinson on guitar. It even has Canned Heat’s Larry Taylor on bass.

After I graduated from high school in the spring of 1980, I spent a fair amount of time browsing the stock at local used record stores. On one occasion, I ran across this album:

Hey, that’s Blue Mitchell! When I listened to it, I was also hearing Joe Henderson’s tenor. I have to admit, at the time, I wasn’t all that interested in the album. The songs were recorded in 1963 and that kind of jazz hadn’t found a place in my heart yet. That was the last album I bought before I joined the military.

The first time I heard Joe Henderson’s tenor was in Germany in 1987. The song Loose Change was playing on a BBC station I picked up from the British army garrison near Bergen in Niedersachsen. It was on his The State of the Tenor Vol 1, released by Blue Note in 1986.

That song was the start of a long journey following Joe Henderson’s trail.

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Joe Henderson grew up in Lima, Ohio. It was his older brother James who got him interested in jazz. In a 1975 Interview, Henderson recalled:

He’d play these Lester Young and Ben Webster records…. When I picked up the saxophone I had an idea of how it could be played as far as bebop style was concerned…. My intellectual pilgrimage began at Kentucky State College in the mid-fifties. I was there about a year, then I moved to Detroit and was there for about five years, until 1960. I studied composition, strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion and began to develop an intellectual appreciation of orchestral forms. At the time, jazz wasn’t in the schools – you had to learn it in the clubs.

When Henderson got to Detroit, as the new kid in town, he made the rounds sitting in with local bands. One of his first regular jobs was with Hindal Butt’s quartet at Denny’s Show Bar in 1957. He also played at the Blue Bird Inn:

In 1958, the only jazz club in Detroit that presented modern jazz was Blue Bird Inn. The house band was the International Jazz Quartet, led by bassist Ernie Farrow. It included altoist Sonny Red, pianist Hugh Lawton, and drummer Oliver Jackson. Henderson was an occasional member of Farrow’s group, which also played at the Café Bohemian. By the end of 1959, Henderson was leading his own quartet at the Blue Bird with Kirk Lightsey on piano, Ernie Farrow on bass, and Roy Brooks on drums.

In 1960, Henderson joined the army for a two-year stint. When he got out, he settled in New York City. Before long he met Kenny Dorham, who invited him to a party at his friend Junior Cook’s house. In April 1963, Dorham invited Henderson to play on his Blue Note album Una Mas. It didn’t take long for him to break into the New York City jazz scene.

1963 was a breakthrough year for Henderson. He recorded on Grant Green’s Am I Blue in May. The following month, he made his debut as a leader on Blue Note with Page One:

In September, he recorded Our Thing, his second album as a leader, which included Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Andrew Hill on piano, Pete La Roca on drums, and Eddie Khan on bass.

A couple of years ago I wrote about the underrated Eddie Khan, and you can read about him here:

Eddie Khan

Our Thing is also significant for the Blue Note debut of Chicagoan Andrew Hill.

Although it was Hill’s Blue Note debut, he had already been recording in Chicago for the short-lived Ping label. Ping was an interesting independent label founded in October 1956 by Frank Evans. He owned a record store at 4648 South Cottage Grove on the South Side of Chicago and ran the business from the back of the store. The label lasted for less than a year. Ping’s first release was the doo-wop group De’Bonairs, which included the unusually distinguished Andrew Hill Combo, with Sun Ra’s Pat Patrick on baritone, Von Freeman on tenor sax, and Malachi Favors on bass. Hill’s Combo was also able to release four of their own sides, like this one featuring Patrick’s baritone:

Then in 1959, Hill recorded So In Love for the Warwick label before moving to New York City signing with Blue Note, making his debut on Henderson’s Our Thing.

In November, Henderson recorded on Hill’s Black Fire.

Finally, in December, he recorded on Lee Morgan’s seminal Sidewinder:

However, it was in May 1965 that Henderson recorded one of my favorite albums Pete La Roca’s underground classic Basra:

Basra was the first of two albums La Roca recorded as a leader. The other was Turkish Women at the Bath, released by Douglas Records in 1967, which included John Gilmore in a rare appearance outside Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Here’s the title track from La Roca’s Barsa:

In January 1966, Henderson recorded Mode For Joe, which I find his most compelling Blue Note release. This is a masterpiece. He used a larger group than he had been recording with and highlighted Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, who played on another classic Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond.

After Henderson recorded Mode For Joe, he left Blue Note and signed with Milestone Records. Henderson’s Milestone output is by all accounts more adventurous. A strong Milestone album is Tetragon, released in 1968. Here’s the title track:

In 1971, Joe Henderson moved to San Francisco and continued to record with Milestone, which had moved to San Francisco after it was bought by Fantasy Records. In 1986, Blue Note released The State Of The Tenor, Vols. 1 & 2, his two excellent live recordings at the Village Vanguard with Ron Carter on bass and Al Foster on drums. Henderson spent the remainder of his career with Verve until he passed away in 2001. He was 64 years old.

Here’s one more for the road. In 1973, Henderson recorded Multiple, which I find his best Milestone release. It includes Larry Willis on electric piano - it was Willis who played piano on Carla Bley’s beautiful composition Lawns, which I featured last week. From this album here is Bwaata. If you listen to only one track from this week’s journey, listen to this one:

Joe Henderson’s tenor entered my life without my knowing it in 1980 and has stayed with me for 43 years. He’s been gone now for over twenty years, but it seems like yesterday that I was listening to his trio at Yoshi’s in San Francisco or down at the Kummbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. Time passes so quickly, but his music is timeless.

Next week, on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in and explore the world of Conjunto Tejano - Mexican-American border music.

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Until then, keep on walking….