Joe Henderson Page One (Blue Note)

Page One

Joe Henderson, tenor sax; Kenny Dorham, trumpet; McCoy Tyner, piano;
Butch Warren, bass; Pete LaRoca, drums.

"I'd like to dedicate this first album of mine to my mother and father," Joe Henderson told me, "for being so understanding and tolerant during my formative years. Also, my older brother James T. encouraged me to go to college to cultivate the talent he thought I had."

Blue Bossa--a mystic Kenny Dorham original with an authentic feeling of melancholy and buoyancy, and easy structure to follow, has one of the best of Joe Henderson's solos.

La Mesha--a 16 bar ballad named after my three year old daughter. The saxophonist deviates from the melody gradually in his second chorus, and is completely uninhibited in the third chorus. There's a long ad lib piano intro in the beginning, with the tempo only suggested in the piano's last few bars.

Homestretch--up tempo, 12 bar b-flat blues line of the type which jazz men play when coming off the stand, concluding a set or evening. Nothing more than a blues--lively and invigorating, horizontal improvising, concluding with a repetition of the original "double play" of the first 12 bars.

Recorda-Me--which in Portuguese means "remember me," is a 16 plus 16 bar composition which was written by Joe Henderson in 1955 right after he came out of school. it is a Bossa Nova tune using jazz techniques in design with maintain the Brazilian feeling and buoyancy.

Jinrikisha--is a Chinese cart used to pull people along. It is, in places, oriental in sound, and might make one think of the "Dragon Lady." Joe, the young demon of the saxophone, really gives this one a workout and displays a different angle of vertical improvisation.

Out of the Night--written in 1957, is a twelve bar funky minor blues with a tag on the end. It has a mystic chorus to it where its "pedal points" (or points of rest) are a major 7th half diminished chords, except for at the end where there is that dark minor chord reminiscent of "blue notes" or "night."

Pete LaRoca, out of New York City, has played with Getz, Slide, Rollins, Coltrane and myself. He is at some of his very best on this album. Butch Warren of Washington D.C., recently recorded Una Mas with the Kenny Dorham Quintet on Blue Note. He is the very best bassist I know of, in his age bracket. McCoy Tyner of Philadelphia, while only 18 years old, was recommended to Max Roach while Max was working at the Showboat. Just listen. Surely one of the greatest your pianists in jazz.

Joe Henderson is his name. Playing saxophone is his game. After a double listen to this one, the writer is convinced that year for year, this is undubitably one of the most musical young saxophonists to show since Charlie Parker.

--KENNY DORHAM, from the liner notes.

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