Two Milestone albums from Joe Henderson get the BGP BIG value treatment. 71's "In Pursuit Of Blackness" features a young Stanley Clarke
Now acknowledged as one of the great tenor saxophonists on today's jazz scene, Joe Henderson's work really began to flower with the albums he cut for Milestone in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Tetragon, If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You're Part Of The Problem, In Pursuit Of Blackness, Live In Japan, Black Narcissus and Power To The People all brought to maturity the musical seedlings planted earlier in Joe's recordings for Blue Note. Tetragon was made in 1968 and features pianists Don Friedman and Kenny Barren, bassist Ron Carter and drummers Jack De Johnette and Louis Hayes. The music ranges from the hard swinging rendition of Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin to the propelled abstraction of The Bead Game. In Pursuit Of Blackness, likewise If You're Not Part Of The... was recorded at The Lighthouse Cafe in 1970 and 1971 and finds Joe on tremendous form backed by two groups featuring, among others, bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Lenny White (both to go on to international success with Return To Forever), pianist George Cables, trumpeter Woody Shaw and bassist Ron McClure. Gazelle is a pulsing, hypnotic performance and No Me Esqueca deserves to be heard even more in the clubs (a great piece of Latin jazz). On Mind Over Matter, Joe returns to the free mood format he explored in The Bead Game. Both albums are produced by legendary jazz producer Orrin Keepnews. Out of print for a long time, their return to catalogue, on a great value 2 LPs-on-1 CD release, is great news tor jazz fans. Please note: because of the long playing times of the original albums, we have had to omit the second version of Invitation originally included on In Pursuit Of Blackness.
