Saxguy's Full Review: Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn by Joe Hen...
Clearly, Joe Henderson was one of the all time masters of the tenor sax. Born in 1937, his first credited recording as leader was in 1962. He also was in one of Horace Silver’s early quintets and provided the tenor solo on the famous version of Song For My Father. His credits also include a brief stint in Blood, Sweat and Tears. He passed in 2001.
I listened to Joe’s recordings in high school and college. He had great technique, a fluid tone on which Lester Young had some influence and a rare ability to play meaningfully inside and outside the changes. Most players at the time favored one or the other, but Joe was versatile enough so he was comfortable in either of the settings. Joe was also a great composer in terms of quality. He didn’t pen a lot of tunes, but songs such as Recorda Me, Inner Urge and The Kicker are regarded as classics.
He recorded several recording for Blue Note in the 60’s, including the classics, Page One and Inner Urge, then faded to obscurity for an extended period. He was touring actively, but not recording much. Then he signed a record deal with Verve, a major label, in the early 90’s and this concept album of Billy Strayhorn’s compositions was one of the first albums that resulted. I still remember, in a Good Morning America episode, Charles Gibson talking about Joe’s career and recent success and Joe cheerfully observing that he was now “the new kid on the block”.
More about this album. It was built using Billy Strayhorn’s compositions, he having composed for the Duke Ellington Orchestra off and on for nearly 30 years. The songs included range form the widely recorded (Take The A Train) to the obscure (A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing. In addition to using the Strayhorn compositions, Henderson chose to amass a quintet of solid players and then shuffling the various musicians on the pieces. For example, the ten cuts include 3 quintet pieces, 3 duo pieces, one each with the sax and piano, bass and drums, two trio pieces (one with bass and drums, the other with piano and bass) a solo piece and a quartet piece. The other musicians include Wynton Marsalis on Trumpet, Stephen Scott on piano, Christian McBride on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums.
There’s a nice mix of tempos on this CD from bouncy to deliberate to ballad. The musicians are all attuned to each other, particularly considering the shifting instrumentation on the cuts. Particularly interesting is the Sax/drum duo, Take The A Train. It’s tough enough to take a few solo choruses without any harmony instruments, That has been done infrequently in the past. However, it takes incredible skill to play an entire 7 minute cut with no harmony instrument, to play it in good time and rhythm and to outline the chords during the solo so that the listener can follow. The cut is just tremendous. The solo piece, Lush Life, is a ballad where Henderson moves deftly in and out of tempo as he explores the melody and harmony of this lovely composition. The other cuts feature tremendous playing as well. Henderson is more of an “inside” player on this recording, but he sounds great.
I recommend this highly to all fans of jazz played by the tenor saxophone.
Cut list:
Isfahan (sax, bass)
Johnny Come Lately (sax, trumpet, piano, bass, drums)
Blood Count (sax, piano, bass, drums)
Rain Check (sax, bass, drums)
Lotus Blossom (sax, piano)
A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing (sax, trumpet, piano, bass, drums)
Take The “A” Train (sax, drums)
Drawing Room Blues (sax, piano, bass)
U.M.M.C (sax, trumpet, piano, bass, drums)
Lush Life (sax)
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