Joe Henderson Quintet - If You're Not Part of the Solution, You're Part of the Problem. 1970 USA-New York

I'm not familiar at all with Joe Henderson's extensive catalog. He was a fixture on the Blue Note jazz scene of the 1960s and persevered through the 70s, continuing to remake himself for the times. His quintet's concert at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach captures the ethos of the year 1970 perfectly. The political turmoil of the late 60s was transitioning into a more militant early 70s and ultimately softened to good times, party disco later in the decade. There are two originals from Henderson, and I swear each were written in 27/29 meter, or something that insane. Woody Shaw is the star of 'Caribbean Fire Dance', as he proves to be a real trumpeter's trumpeter. Even Miles Davis acknowledged that. Henderson provides the smoky sax session on the noirish 'Round Midnight'. 'Mode For Joe' is a look back to Henderson's formative years as a hard bopper. 'Blue Bossa' is another crowd pleaser that brings in the easy-on-the-ears Bossa Nova sound to soothe the nerves and close out the album. But the absolute killer here is the title track, another one of those tricky meter jobs written by Henderson. It's here that bassist Ron McClure and drummer Lenny White really shine. McClure trades in the spinning big bass for electric, and in sync with White, create an intense hypnotic groove. Perhaps the inspiration for Jannick Top and Christian Vander some years later. Eleven and a half minutes of pure intensity. Rounding out the ensemble is George Cables on electric piano (if only Larry Young was onsite with his organ - whoo-boy) and Tony Waters on conga drums. My kind of jazz. Need to get more of this.

I'm starting to notice that live albums that have drapes in the background are all fantastic. We need to bring back drapes. With smoke stains embedded.

Ownership: LP: 1970 Milestone. This was part of that thrift shop jazz find I spoke of a few weeks ago that included Pat Martino, Yusef Lateef, etc... The older (non reissue) originals all needed a good cleaning, and many are still in that stack. The cover is pretty rough (not even as good as the Discogs stock photo shown here), but the vinyl was well preserved. Finding albums like this in the wilds is hard, but every once in awhile, a break comes your way.