Joe Henderson’s tenor saxophone solo on his reharmonized version of Cole Porter’s “Night & Day” (downloadable transcription below), was recorded for the Blue Note label at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio (where else!) in Engewood Cliffs, NJ on Nov. 30th, 1964, ten days before John Coltrane recorded “A Love Supreme” in the same studio. “Night & Day” would be the final track on the “B” side of the original vinyl LP “Inner Urge”, Henderson’s fourth as a leader for Blue Note; and featured then current Coltrane Quartet members McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones on piano and drums respectively; as well as … Read More
Category Archives: History
This transcription of the first chorus of John Coltrane’s tenor solo on Duke Ellington’s “In a Mellow Tone”, was taken from a live (possibly radio) recording from sometime in mid 1954, when ‘Trane was on the road with Johnny Hodges’ septet. The band included Hodges’ fellow Ellingtonians, Harold “Shorty” Baker – trumpet, and Lawrence Brown on trombone. This version of “Mellotone” was originally released, to my knowledge, in on a “bootleg” vinyl in the 1970’s on the “Enigma” label. A friend of mine had it and I promptly copied it to cassette (remember those?…..OK, maybe not). Then as now, ‘Trane’s … Read More
It’s Joe Henderson time again, ladies and gents! Joe, as you should know, was one of the music’s more stylistically unique and influential tenor saxophonists and improvisers, as well as the composer of a healthy number of classic originals. His influence and legacy live on in his many recordings, made both as leader and sideman, during a career which spanned nearly four decades. Henderson’s tenor saxophone solo on one of those original compositions, an uptempo C Minor Blues entitled “Granted” (dedicated to the renowned NYC Jazz Radio personality and promoter, Alan Grant, who recently passed away at 93), is the … Read More
I recently received a comment on one of my posts from last summer entitled “Sonny Stitt – “How Many Keys on the Saxophone?” from a well informed gentleman by the name of Leo Cluesmann. In my post, I detailed the experience of my encounter in 1980 with the jazz legend, saxophonist Sonny Stitt, believing, correctly as I found out, that many people who are still around had their own Stitt stories. It is obvious, using Mr. Cluesmann’s comment as an example, that even more than thirty years after his death, Stitt still elicits some strong emotions from folks. I’ll include … Read More
From the mid 1970’s until the early ’80’s I lived in Munich, Germany. Aside from being a beautiful, culturally oriented city lying at the foothills of the Alps, Munich hosted (somewhat unceremoniously, it seems in retrospect) one of Europe’s premier jazz venues at the time, known as the “Domicile” The “Domicile” was on par with Ronnie Scott’s in London, the Montmartre in Copenhagen, and several other major European clubs. It was part of “the circuit”, so one got to see all the major jazz legends who came over from the States (plus some of the top European musicians), on a … Read More
Part 1 Part 2 When “Midnight Love” finally hit the streets in the autumn of 1982, it marked the triumphant return of Marvin Gaye. I first got wind of it when, half asleep in the back seat of a car riding through Belgium on a November afternoon, en route to a gig in Luxembourg, I heard this tenor saxophone coming over the radio and, in my half conscious state, thought it sounded like Michael Brecker on one of his top forty disco type solos of that era. … Read More
After seemingly scoring some points with Marvin (Gaye) and Harvey (Fuqua) with a brief tenor solo on “‘Til Tomorrow” (see Part 1), I talked my way into having them invite me back for some more fun the next day. When I found out they were going to be recording in Munich for a few more days, before Marvin headed back over to Ostend, Belgium, I had to try to convince them I could still be useful; and while I don’t consider myself one of those individuals born with the gift of gab, whatever I told them worked. … Read More
It was a typical Munich summer’s afternoon in 1982 when I got back to my apartment and found a message, that I was to call Arco Studios back about a “Marvin Gaye Session”. I had been doing a modest amount of studio work in those days, mostly as a tenor saxophone soloist, as saxophone solos were common on many pop recordings of the ’70’s & ’80’s. Munich, as far as Europe went, was a pretty major recording town. It was a center of the “Disco” boom of the ’70’s, and the city boasted several film music recording studios, hosting rooms … Read More
Riding the wave of innovation pioneered by Jimmy Smith and the resulting popularity of the Hammond B-3 electric organ, B-3 organ groups soon sprang up like mushrooms in bars and lounges all across urban America during the late 1950’s and throughout the next decade. By the early 1960’s, as organ / tenor saxophone groups were approaching the peak of their popularity, the best of the rest of these groups was the one led by the husband & wife team of tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and organist Shirley Scott. … Read More
Miles Don’t Play Dat! I’d been thinking about doing this post for about a month now, since I happened upon this YouTube vid. It’s an interview with Miles Davis by TV producer Bill Boggs from ca. 1990, for what I’m guessing was a local Philadelphia daytime talk show. The reason I had reservations about posting it is because as a new blogger trying to gain some cred, I thought this might verge on silliness. Well, after giving it some thought, I remembered that “I.B. Silly” just so happens to be one of my multiple personalities, and in the words of … Read More