Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Joe Henderson / Power to the People (1969)



This isn’t the discordant, noisy melee I expected from an album made during the earlier, exploratory phase of Joe Henderson’s career. It's fits in easily with other works of the new jazz being played in 1969 (Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis, etc.) but the seven originals are surprisingly chill compared to Henderson’s work for the Blue Note label. On the opener “Black Narcissus,” Henderson sketches out a haunting melody, showcasing its intrinsic beauty with a reflective and provocative performance that recalls a tone poem. His voice on the tenor is unique and expressive, working in matched phrases that intertwine with the ever searching and inventive electric piano by Herbie Hancock. Improvised sections are engaging and fun to listen to, especially the suite “Foresight and Afterthought.” Therein, keep your ears peeled for a particularly gratifying eruption of emotive force, a primal ejaculation of the blues, demonstrating that this group may be playing modern jazz but they haven’t forgotten their roots. With Ron Carter on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums, it’s probably the best rhythm section to release an album in 1969. The audio quality is superb, too, doing justice to each band member equally. I frequently find myself in the car and panning the sound to the left channel to sit with Herbie and enjoy his licks in near-isolation.

No comments:

Post a Comment