One of my favorite jazz bootlegs is a tape I have of Joe Henderson with special guest, John Scofield (a personal favorite and one of my biggest guitar influences), plus George Mraz and Al Foster, at the Blue Note in 1994.
“Beatrice”, “Ask Me Now”, “Invitation” and “Serenity” are all there as well as two
other Henderson standards: “Isotope”, “Recorda Me”; and some Ellington/Strayhorn: “A-Train”, “Isfahan” and “Lush Life”.
I’ve also got a Scofield bootleg of him in the late 80s at Fat Tuesday in NYC, with Eddie Gomez and Al Foster, just playing standards; another gem!
I got to see Henderson and Foster with George Mraz on bass at Town Hall in 1997 — they were part of a Verve Records package tour along with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and the Kansas City Big Band (an all-star unit assembled to score Robert Altman's movie). A great show.
not to overshadow the recordings with joe henderson, but i got to see al foster live once in new york in 1983 with red garland and george mraz... of course the show was fantastic, and as a drummer i have always been impressed with al foster - an amazing drummer!
I too love the record with Charlie. In a sax trio the bass player has to shoulder a lot of extra responsibility. And Charlie was the king. No wonder it’s a great album . Rest in Peace , all three
When Joe's regular bassist couldn't make a Newark Jazz Festival gig in the 90's, the trio (Joe, Al) added Charnett Moffet, who brought along a whole electronic set of additions to his acoustic bass, really shaking up Joe and Al.
Huh, that would be an interesting listen! I have to say, with ample and obvious caveats -- Moffett is obviously insanely talented, individual mileage may vary, etc -- I am somewhat skeptical about the fit. With all due respect, I saw Moffett a number of times at Yoshi's back in the day (generally during one of the regular McCoy Tyner + friends runs), and found him exhausting. Too many of his solos felt like he put the music on pause to proffer a succession of disconnected technique displays; to me, it felt like whatever group mood and cohesion had been achieved was sidelined while he grandstanded. The playing of Haden, Carter, Reid, Mraz with Henderson is miles away from that approach, to say the least. Given the musicianship involved, I wouldn't be shocked to hear the Henderson with Moffett shows and find that it was a great fit, but, based on my own experience, I'm trepidatious.
A great Joe Henderson-Al Foster collaboration is the album Joe Henderson Standards. Joe, Al Foster and Rufus Reid on bass. Joe's time is so deep and steady, almost Sonny Rollins-like. Al and Rufus work together beautifully. It's an album I go back to many times.
yes Fred himself told me just today that he was in that band with JoHen, Ron, and Al, but also he thought they sounded just terrific without a piano player
I love that you talk about this album. I remember Scofield calling it “his bible” in an interview. I started my collaboration with Joe because of this album, and I kept telling him it was “better” than the State of the Tenor albums. Joe had never heard it in full, except bits and pieces of what he called “5th generation cassette copies”. He came to my apartment in Copenhagen in the spring of 1990 and I played it for him in full on a great stereo I owned. After that Joe’s comment about me calling it better than the State of the Tenor was “now I know what you are talking about”. He didn’t render any further judgment which was very much who Joe was.
When I was in college I was already listening almost daily to the Sonny Rollins live at the Vanguard trios already, then the State of the Tenor albums came out and totally blew me away again. I wore those LPs out and even copped some of Ron's stuff and used to play along with the records. When I got a chance to play with Joe in 1990 I told him those were two of my favorite records. He didn't say a lot, but clearly there was a lot of tension between him and Ron that week at the Vanguard. I was surprised to read what you said about the repertoire for those albums because one thing Joe did say was, "He [Ron] wanted to call all the tunes."
I'm a fan of Joe's work - especially his tone - but when listening years ago sometimes felt like he was straying into more out-there licks and harmonies than the tune being played necessarily called for - and I'm talking about albums where he was a sideman. I'd feel like "C'mon now Joe, calm down a little!" And I think some of your comments point to that too. Still, he's up there on my list of all-time favorite tenormen. Thanks for the post, I'm going to check out An Evening with Joe.
Sonny Rollins trio? Some of his stuff live in the late 60s is way out - there’s a performance on YouTube from 1965 with Art Taylor on drums, Sonny gets real out. Maybe that’s what Joe is calling back to…
One of my favorite jazz bootlegs is a tape I have of Joe Henderson with special guest, John Scofield (a personal favorite and one of my biggest guitar influences), plus George Mraz and Al Foster, at the Blue Note in 1994.
“Beatrice”, “Ask Me Now”, “Invitation” and “Serenity” are all there as well as two
other Henderson standards: “Isotope”, “Recorda Me”; and some Ellington/Strayhorn: “A-Train”, “Isfahan” and “Lush Life”.
I’ve also got a Scofield bootleg of him in the late 80s at Fat Tuesday in NYC, with Eddie Gomez and Al Foster, just playing standards; another gem!
sounds like sensational stuff! I love Sco also!
I can share these with you if you’d like since they are all digital “in the cloud”.
I got to see Henderson and Foster with George Mraz on bass at Town Hall in 1997 — they were part of a Verve Records package tour along with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and the Kansas City Big Band (an all-star unit assembled to score Robert Altman's movie). A great show.
not to overshadow the recordings with joe henderson, but i got to see al foster live once in new york in 1983 with red garland and george mraz... of course the show was fantastic, and as a drummer i have always been impressed with al foster - an amazing drummer!
I too love the record with Charlie. In a sax trio the bass player has to shoulder a lot of extra responsibility. And Charlie was the king. No wonder it’s a great album . Rest in Peace , all three
I've always loved So Near, So Far
When Joe's regular bassist couldn't make a Newark Jazz Festival gig in the 90's, the trio (Joe, Al) added Charnett Moffet, who brought along a whole electronic set of additions to his acoustic bass, really shaking up Joe and Al.
Huh, that would be an interesting listen! I have to say, with ample and obvious caveats -- Moffett is obviously insanely talented, individual mileage may vary, etc -- I am somewhat skeptical about the fit. With all due respect, I saw Moffett a number of times at Yoshi's back in the day (generally during one of the regular McCoy Tyner + friends runs), and found him exhausting. Too many of his solos felt like he put the music on pause to proffer a succession of disconnected technique displays; to me, it felt like whatever group mood and cohesion had been achieved was sidelined while he grandstanded. The playing of Haden, Carter, Reid, Mraz with Henderson is miles away from that approach, to say the least. Given the musicianship involved, I wouldn't be shocked to hear the Henderson with Moffett shows and find that it was a great fit, but, based on my own experience, I'm trepidatious.
I saw & heard Charnett Moffett play the history of music in one solo (without electronics) with his family at the old Yoshi’s in Oakland.
A great Joe Henderson-Al Foster collaboration is the album Joe Henderson Standards. Joe, Al Foster and Rufus Reid on bass. Joe's time is so deep and steady, almost Sonny Rollins-like. Al and Rufus work together beautifully. It's an album I go back to many times.
Thanks for the tip, Ethan... just purchased 'An Evening with...' via bandcamp!
Great piece, Mr. Iverson. Am I crazy (be nice) but wasn’t Fred Hersch in that gig, and sat out at the suggestion of the label?
yes Fred himself told me just today that he was in that band with JoHen, Ron, and Al, but also he thought they sounded just terrific without a piano player
Nice one. I should look for AN EVENING WITH on vinyl. I've heard people complain about the sonic fidelity but I think it's fine
I love that you talk about this album. I remember Scofield calling it “his bible” in an interview. I started my collaboration with Joe because of this album, and I kept telling him it was “better” than the State of the Tenor albums. Joe had never heard it in full, except bits and pieces of what he called “5th generation cassette copies”. He came to my apartment in Copenhagen in the spring of 1990 and I played it for him in full on a great stereo I owned. After that Joe’s comment about me calling it better than the State of the Tenor was “now I know what you are talking about”. He didn’t render any further judgment which was very much who Joe was.
When I was in college I was already listening almost daily to the Sonny Rollins live at the Vanguard trios already, then the State of the Tenor albums came out and totally blew me away again. I wore those LPs out and even copped some of Ron's stuff and used to play along with the records. When I got a chance to play with Joe in 1990 I told him those were two of my favorite records. He didn't say a lot, but clearly there was a lot of tension between him and Ron that week at the Vanguard. I was surprised to read what you said about the repertoire for those albums because one thing Joe did say was, "He [Ron] wanted to call all the tunes."
I'm a fan of Joe's work - especially his tone - but when listening years ago sometimes felt like he was straying into more out-there licks and harmonies than the tune being played necessarily called for - and I'm talking about albums where he was a sideman. I'd feel like "C'mon now Joe, calm down a little!" And I think some of your comments point to that too. Still, he's up there on my list of all-time favorite tenormen. Thanks for the post, I'm going to check out An Evening with Joe.
Sonny Rollins trio? Some of his stuff live in the late 60s is way out - there’s a performance on YouTube from 1965 with Art Taylor on drums, Sonny gets real out. Maybe that’s what Joe is calling back to…