JOE HENDERSON — Our Thing (review)

JOE HENDERSON — Our Thing album cover Album · 1964 · Hard Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Abraxas
One of the best tenor saxophonists that came after the hard bop wave, with leading forces being guys like Coltrane, Rollins and Dexter Gordon, was Joe Henderson. Although, like any saxophonist from the time, he was influenced by Trane's sheets-of-sound and spiritual powder, Joe became a force of his own.

However, he wasn't uniquely brilliant in such an early stage, neither on his debut(Page One) nor on this, Our Thing, you hear something completely fresh. It's hard bop alright. But what makes this hard bop session different is mainly Andrew Hill, the pianist which I think helped Joe to reach his own voice. Hill is known for being one of the most interesting jazz pianists to come out in the 60s, driven by atonal chords and visceral melodism, so having him playing rather straight-forward energetic hard bop is interesting, don't you think?

Did Andrew adapt? Yes and no, he sometimes feels forced to play common back-up lines like in any hard bop session, but in compositions like 'Teeter Totter', you can really listen to him being him. I'm not really sure of this, but he makes me think of Thelonious Monk playing in a straightforward jazz band, were there's a kind of antagonism, which thankfully works.

Must I insist that this is a hard bop release? Three of the five compositions were written by Kenny Dorham, a veteran in comparison with the rest, who is a master in catchy hard bop (check his album Una Mas, also with Joe). Mind you, the rhythm section of Pete La Roca and Eddie Khan, are a bit more sophisticated than your usual hard bop rhythm, but they're not really in the standards of Carter and Williams or Garrison and Jones, for example.

Henderson, himself, is playing energetically, not necessarily repeating phrases from his influences, but he's yet to deliver something truly fantastic, which would be the following year, with In N' Out.

Great musicians getting in better shape for future releases, that is what Our Thing is. Fans of hard bop will enjoy this, but for its time, 1963, this is not exactly fresh, like I stated at the beginning, that's why I rate it with 3 stars. If you're looking for a place to start with Joe, get In N' Out, and then move on forward, counting his work as sideman, like Unity by Larry Young and The Real McCoy by Tyner.
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