Joe Henderson: Sudden Sensation After 30 Years

By BILL KOHLHAASE

Oct. 16, 1993 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

There are those who would claim that he’s been there for 30 years. But today, there’s no disputing that Joe Henderson sits at the top of the tenor sax heap.

Since the release of his first two recordings for the Verve label--a tribute to Billy Strayhorn called “Lush Life” last year and the recent tribute to Miles Davis, “So Near, So Far”--Henderson has enjoyed healthy sales and has been showered with accolades: a Grammy for best jazz instrumental solo and citations for jazz artist, tenor saxophonist and album of the year in Down Beat’s International Critic’s Poll.

“There’s a great view from up here,” Henderson, 57, said this week, on the phone from his home in San Francisco. “I’ve had a good year, a good couple of years, and it just seems to get better every day. You’re even apt to find me traveling in first class now and then,” he said with a laugh.

Still, Henderson--who plays Sunday at the Orange County Register Jazz & Blues festival at UC Irvine--says he feels the attention is coming a bit late. “A guy at the Grammys came up,” he recalled, “and told me, ‘You’ve done any number of albums that were of Grammy quality,’ and it made an indelible mark on my brain. I’ve had so much fun making records that I never thought of the PR work that should go into a project to get the proper exposure. I was just into playing my horn and making documents.”

Indeed, he has been making important statements since the release of his first recording, “Page One” for Blue Note in 1963. Its cover shows him as a tall, somewhat skinny kid with a serious look and oversized glasses.

While most saxophonists of the day were wrestling with the overwhelming influences of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, the wiry initiate brought a fresh sound, strong in emotional expression and almost literate in its narrative quality.

In a series of albums--”Inner Urge,” “In ‘n Out,” “Mode for Joe”--and a host of appearances as a sideman with such Blue Note mates as trumpeter Lee Morgan and pianists Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill and Horace Silver, he carved out a place among sax masters that is uniquely his.

Henderson, born in Lima, Ohio, studied at Wayne State College in Detroit, where he worked with fellow saxophonist Yusef Lateef, pianist Barry Harris, trumpeter Donald Byrd and trombonist Curtis Fuller.

“Talk about getting your craft together. That hallowed institution known as the jam session took place nightly in Detroit in those days. It was like going to General Motors to learn how to build cars.”

He spent time in the Army band in the early ‘60s and while enlisted traveled to Paris, where he met pianist Bud Powell and drummer Kenny Clarke. As legend has it, he was out of the service less than 24 hours before he was jamming with Dexter Gordon in New York City.

Henderson became close friends in New York with trumpeter Kenny Dorham and made his first recorded appearance on Dorham’s classic “Una Mas” album. “Kenny was my mentor in the beginning. We were as serious about the music as Einstein was about his theories. But then Kenny cut the umbilical cord, and I was on my own.”

In the late ‘60s, Henderson joined Miles Davis’ band for a brief stint. “The band was going through a transitional period at the time. Miles, (soprano saxophonist) Wayne Shorter and I were the only ones who showed up every night. The rhythm section was always changing.”

He also flirted briefly with rock as a member of Blood, Sweat & Tears but left when he found there was too little for him to do in the group.

After recording a number of politically inspired albums for Milestone in the early ‘70s (“Power to the People,” “In Search of Blackness”), Henderson drifted among labels until he realigned with Blue Note in the mid-’80s. The resulting recording, modestly titled “The State of the Tenor” (in two volumes), is a moving manifesto that extended the expressive possibilities of the instrument.

With all the attention he has been getting recently, “it almost seems as if the media is apologizing for not recognizing me earlier,” he said. “I’ve made records every year since 1962, been in their faces all that time. I’ve been involved in the art form and pushing the parameters of the music all this time but generally went unrecognized. So maybe it is the fault of the people who write about music and performance; possibly they’ve been derelict in their duty.”

He sees such dereliction continuing today as the media focuses on the current crop of young players while ignoring the mid-generation of musicians that are his peers.

“For the life of me, I just can’t understand this trend to push these not-so-prepared youths who are out there. A lot of times it’s just packaging. ‘Here, hold this trumpet the right way, put a nice picture on the cover, and it’ll sell millions.’ The things that Bird (Charlie Parker) and Bud (Powell) worked out took a lifetime. Now somebody can learn it in six months and then convince the world that it started with them.

“Those are the people who are getting the lion’s share of the print, and it’s to the exclusion of a lot of important musicians who are my age. But I think the concept is beginning to explode in the record companies’ faces. The fans who have listened to Bird, Miles, Bill Evans and all the greats know better. And they’re beginning to assert themselves.”

Henderson, however, was quick to point out a number of young players he admires. “(Bassist) Christian McBride was 18 when I started working with him, but he understands the creative process and plays well beyond his years. And I’ve known (pianist) Benny Green since he was 14, and he’s a very good musician, interested in doing his homework rather than getting his name into print.”

As he has with the Strayhorn and Davis projects, Henderson said he will continue to pay tribute to the greats on future albums. “We originally mapped out four or five albums, tributes to Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, others. I haven’t nailed down which one I’ll do next, but we’ll be doing it soon.” He has also recorded four of his own compositions with a big band for yet another album.

Obviously, he’s in for the long term. “When I look at people like (86-year-old saxophonist) Benny Carter and the way he plays and gets around--when he shakes your hand he has a bone-crushing grip--it’s very inspiring to me. I don’t take this profession and what it means to be a musician lightly. I’m a person who lives in the laboratory constantly, trying to get the tune right, the chords right, the succession of notes right. That’s the craft of an improvising musician: constant experimentation.”

JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL

Today, noon to 10 p.m.:

* Porcupine

* Smokey Wilson

* The Rob Mullins Band

* Marcos Ariel

* Cedar Walton

* Freddie Ravel

* Everette Harp

* Fleet of Trucks

* The Billy G. Watts Blues Band

Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.: