LARRY YOUNG W/ WOODY SHAW- “ZOLTAN”
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
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.
WOODY SHAW
ZOLTAN (mp3)
MIRROR MIRROR
although MIRROR MIRROR isn’t usually considered among the strongest material by Joe Henderson, the song “Keystone” is pretty incredible and the CD is well worth the price on the strength of it alone. it’s a 24 bar blues head with a repeating riff, played by Henderson and Corea, that is answered by Carter and Higgins. the song is straightforward and the solos are great but the really fantastic thing about this piece is the dynamic interaction between the drums and the bass. Carter maintains a two feel virtually throughout the blowing, playing very melodically and functioning kind of like a second soloist (and playing great lines), while Higgins plays with a lively, very danceable four feel. this creates a rhythmic dissonance that a listener assumes will be resolved by the bass eventually walking a four feel. but Carter never does. Higgins, for his part, implies a regular ride pattern and constantly peppers his rhythms with fills on the toms and snare. the feel is pulled in two directions at once, the result being a friction that permeates the improvisations. i imagine a kite flying in a stiff wind; Carter’s earthy, funky groove is like a tether that keeps Higgins’ darting, jabbing rhythm from floating off into the atmosphere. i let the mp3 clip run past the melody a bit to give you a little taste. great music. check ‘em out below…
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, 
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 