PRACTICE PORTAL

The two solos presented here are from saxophonist Ralph Bowen’s recording, SOUL PROPRIETOR. on it, he gathers a group of top notch players: Sam Yahel on B3 organ, drummer Brian Blade, Peter Bernstein on guitar and trumpeter John Swana. i remember first hearing Bowen’s playing when he was with the group OTB many, many moons ago. he’s always impressed me with his great sound and rock solid technique, displayed to great advantage on this record. however, i chose to transcribe the solos of two of the other members of the band. John Swana and Peter Berstein both deliver really nice solos on the Joe Henderson classic, “Inner Urge”.

JOHN SWANA AND PETER BERNSTEIN- INNER URGE (mp3)

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UNITY, recorded under the leadrship of Larry Young for Blue Note records is one of those genuinely unique records that doesn’t quite fit into a niche. it’s an organ record that, to my knowledge, has no stylistic precedent. the music is a wide detour from Jimmy Smith organ school that was so dominant, instead drawing influences from more open-ended post bop concepts. yet the whole record is very funky in its own quirky way, and the loose, rowdy vibe never lets up mainly because Young and Elvin Jones create such exciting rhythmic friction and generate a wide, flexible beat that allows Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw dig in or float. the horns blend well and they exhibit great empathy. on “ZOLTAN”, the Shaw composition featured here, the transitions that Jones and Young make from straight eighth note grooves into swing are forceful and satisfying. ZOLTAN, which starts off the record, begins with an eight bar march rhythm by Jones. he’s then joined by the rest of the band. Shaw and Henderson play a unison pattern while Young plays a two note bass line under his right hand chords. the groove then switches to latin as Jones and Young set up the melody. the horns enter with the main melody, an eight measure unison riff built on a succession of second intervals. the horns repeat the riff and go into the bridge, where the feel switches to swing. the horns play long notes, bending the pitches with each other. the first melody is played once again before the soloing starts. the solos are blown over the 32 bar form of the tune. i couldn’t resist making the mp3 a little longer to include the blowing… check it out.

ZOLTAN (mp3)

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My method of gathering material for these posts has been pretty haphazard. often, while i’m transcribing a solo, another version of the song i’m listening to will come to mind. such was the case when i was transcribing Eddie Harris’ solo from “Love For Sale” for the last post. i started hearing pieces of a Joe Henderson solo from Grant Green’s record, SOLID from the Blue Note label. the session features lots of extended blowing from the likes of Green, Henderson, James Spaulding, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Bob Cranshaw. the song “Ezz-Thetic” was written by George Russell and uses a progression that is similar to “Love For Sale” but the A sections are in a minor tonality and the progression is sparser. the feel of this recording, with 2/3rds of the classic Coltrane rhythm section on hand, is pretty loose and open ended, allowing the soloists to stretch out. Henderson grabs on to Spaulding’s last couple of notes and jumps right into the fray, incorporating all those devices that made him such a versatile and convincing soloist: a wealth of melodic material, rhythmic variety, a flexible, hard swinging beat, an ability to reference the harmonic contour of a song but not be imprisoned by it, and of course, that SOUND. check it out…

JOE HENDERSON- “EZZ-THETIC” (mp3)

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I can still remember the first time i heard Joe Henderson’s playing. Some 20 years ago when i was a college student living a dormitory, i was in my room listening to some music. i won’t mention what it was- i’ll just say that it was music that many college musicians considered contemporary and hip in 1987 Los Angeles. one of my neighbors, a trombonist named Dan Fox. handed me a cassette tape and said something to the effect of, “you need to be checking THIS out.” the tape was Canyon Lady, by Joe Henderson, and I was blown away by his sound, melodic lines and his ability to move between a hard- swinging eight note line, long, sweeping melodic flurries, funk- drenched syncopated riffing and gutteral multiphonic shrieks. he had the tools of the blues players, the be-boppers and the more avant-guard saxophonists and he combined them in a way that was distinctly Joe. i immediately became a disciple. from Canyon Lady, i went on to listen to Page One, his classic Blue Note side with Kenny Dorham, Pete La Rocca, McCoy Tyner and Butch Warren, and Mode For Joe featuring Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, Bobby Hutcherson, Curtis Fuller, Ron Carter and Joe Chambers. many of the characteristics of his playing i heard on Canyon Lady were already apparent on these earlier sides. it seems to me as if Joe Henderson was more or less fully formed by the time he started to gain public recognition. i am also very moved by his many smart, sophisticated compositions. a few that immediately come to mind are “A Shade Of Jade”, “Black Narcissus”, “Punjab”, “Tetragon”, “Afro-Centric”, “In-n-Out”, “Inner Urge”, “The Kicker”, “Mo’ Joe”- the list goes on and on. Henderson was a participant in quite a few of the great 60′s Blue Note sessions . Larry Young’s Unity, along with Andrew Hill’s Black Fire and Point Of Departure and of course his own dates, Our Thing, Inner Urge, etc. are essential documents of 60′s post-bop saxophone. as the influence of funk, rock and other styles became more prevalent, he was able to adapt and still remain completely himself. Red Clay and Straight Life by the late trumpeter, Freddie Hubbard feature Henderson’s powerful blowing. the majority of his work as a leader on the Milestone record label is also great. his later output- records from the Verve catalogue, are not as appealing to me only because the sound of his saxophone and his bands had lost a bit of the edge that attracted me to his music in the first place. they are beautiful albums; he’s of course an undisputed master but to my ear, they don’t have the aura of urgent exploration and that feeling of trying to decipher some unresolved dissonance that his earlier recordings do- but that’s not what this post is about. the solo that i’m posting is from So Near, So Far (Musings For Miles) which features John Scofield, Al Foster and Dave Holland. “Joshua”, written by Victor Feldman and Miles Davis is an uptempo composition with an AABA form. the A sections are 12 bars long, in the key of D minor. they are in 4/4 time with a repeating bass figure. the B section begins in 3/4 time, moving through a descending cycle of II-V’s for 4 bars and then switching back to 4/4 for 4 more bars. the solo section is longer because the B section is played 2 additional times. Henderson’s unique lines can be heard throughout his improvisation. he reminds me of Sonny Rollins in that he intersperses his familiar motifs with bursts of finely wrought melodic invention. Al Foster, a musical collaborator on many of Henderson’s later projects displays such an empathy, commenting, sometimes arguing with and in the end, reinforcing Henderson’s statements.

JOE HENDERSON- “JOSHUA” (mp3)

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