Joe Henderson - The Milestone Years 8 CD Box Set [Box set]

Joe Henderson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 1, 1994)
• Original Release Date: August 12, 1994
• Number of Discs: 8
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Milestone
• ASIN: B000000XRM
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,908 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This eight-CD package covers the period between 1967 and 1976 when tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson was under contract to Milestone records. Henderson made a dozen records under his own name during this period and appeared on many sessions as a sideman. The 84 tracks culled from the period offer an exhaustive account of Henderson's activities. The compilation begins with the complete sextet session that made up The Kicker, then goes on to cover the pared-down quartet version of the same band that cut Tetragon. Quintet and quartet sides with Herbie Hancock from Power to the People follow. Live material from a sextet featuring Woody Shaw on trumpet, recorded at the Lighthouse, includes some previously unreleased material. "Canyon Lady," "The Elements," "Black Narcissus," and "Black Miracle" complete the Henderson tracks, but he also appears as a sideman on material from The Lee Konitz Duets, Nat Adderley's The Scavenger, and several Flora Purim sessions. --John Swenson

Product Description

TRACK LIST: Mamacita Kicker, The Chelsea Bridge If Nardis Without A Song Mo' Joe O Amor Em Paz :: Once I Loved Tetragon First Trip I've Got You Under My Skin Invitation R.J. Waltz For Zweetie Bead Game, The You Don't Know What Love Is Unilateral Scavenger, The But Not For Me Power To The People Afro-Centric Black Narcissus Isotope Opus One-Point-Five Lazy Afternoon Foresight And Afterthought Caribbean Fire Dance Recorda-Me - (previously unreleased) Shade Of Jade, A - (previously unreleased) Isotope - (previously unreleased) Round Midnight Mode For Joe If You're Not Part Of The Solution You're Part Of The Problem Blue Bossa Closing Theme Gazelle Invitation Mind Over Matter No Me Esqueca Shade Of Jade, A Round Midnight Out 'N In Blue Bossa Junk Blues Terra Firma Vis-A-Vis Foregone Conclusion Black Is The Color (Of My True Love's Mind) Current Events Tress-Cun-Deo-La Turned Around Song For Sinners Me Among Others Bwaata Tres Palabras All Things Considered Canyon Lady Las Palmas In The Beginning There Was Africa - (previously unreleased) Air Water Fire Earth Butterfly Dreams Light As A Feather Love Reborn Summer Nights Black Narcissus Hindsight And Forethought Power To The People Other Side Of Right, The Good Morning, Heartache Amoeba Gazelle My Cherie Amour Old Slippers Immaculate Deception Soulution Black Miracle Black Narcissus What Can I Say? Windows ALBUM REVIEWS: Q (12/94, p.165) - 3 Stars - Good - "...[A] fan's dream....The package itself deserves fulsome praise: assiduous remastering, information-packed liner notes and intelligent track selection including influential appearances as a sideman..." Down Beat (12/94, p.60) - 5 Stars - Excellent - "...inspired solo and collective blowing--on hard-bop lines, standard songs, funk vamps, freely intuited forms, diverse East and West Coast and Brazilian themes, nominally political, meditative and/or programmatic suites....Joe's reach stretches out and on..." Vibe (2/95, p.92) - "...The sense of mission, discipline, and passion jazz musicians brought to their work in the '70s is always in evidence..." Jazziz (2/95, p.91) - "...his "overnight success" should have occured 25 years ago..." ALBUM NOTES: Personnel includes: Joe Henderson, Nat Adderley, Lee Konitz, Flora Purim, Herbie Hancock, Alice Coltrane, Woody Shaw, Joe Zawinul, Kenny Barron, George Cables, George Duke, Larry Willis, MIke Lawrence, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Stanley Clarke, J.F. Jenny Clark, Louis Hayes, Jack DeJohnette, Lenny White, Harvey Mason, Airto, Grachan Moncur, Jeremy Steig, Ichikawa-Inaba-Hino, James "Blood" Ulmer, Luis Gasca, Michael White, Patrick Gleeson, Lee Ritenour, Ernie Watts. Recorded between 1967 and 1976.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for fans, but handle with care!, January 12, 2000

By 

Gerhard Auer (Leoben, Steiermark Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Henderson - The Milestone Years 8 CD Box Set (Audio CD)

Take the star rating with a grain of salt; this box contains much of the best and some of the worst Henderson ever. - THE KICKER (Disc 1, tracks 1-8), an excellent recording (although is doesn't match the astounding quality of his best Blue Note albums), is easily surpassed by TETRAGON (Disc 1, tracks 9-14 / Disc 2, track 1) - similar, but more exciting and fully satisfying. - The LIGHTHOUSE concert with Woody Shaw on trumpet (Disc 3) is a revelation. The tunes range from old warhorses like 'Blue Bossa' to the almost-fusion 'If You're Not Part Of The Solution...'; superb playing by all involved, and the omnipresent and somewhat anticlimactic electric piano does no harm to the intensity of most of the music. - The IN JAPAN session (Disc 4, tracks 6-8 / Disc 5, track 1) is even better. The VERY Japanese rhythm section (if you know what I mean) provides for a hard driving background for some of Henderson's most outside and most inspired playing; 'Out 'n In' (the title says it all) and especially the scorching 'Junk Blues' scream for the replay button, and there's an interesting version of 'Round Midnight' which reaches a short climax in the middle of the performance. - On IN PURSUIT OF BLACKNESS (Disc 4, tracks 1-5) Henderson flirts with jazz rock again (he doesn't completely cross the line yet), but his hypnotic solos always make up for the change of pace. - BLACK IS THE COLOR (Disc 5, tracks 2-6) and MULTIPLE (Disc 5, tracks 7-9 / Disc 6, tracks 1-2), both featuring Jack de Johnette on drums, mark the real beginning of Henderson's fusion phase. The tunes are less challenging than before, but Henderson sounds absolutely comfortable with them, adapting his playing to the more simple chord changes (by using many arpeggios) but never really surrendering his familiar style. A glance at commercialization, yes, but, apart from some oddities (like some strange, pseudo-experimental soundscapes on BITC), very listenable and never lacking a spark of genius. - The tracks with Flora Purim (Disc 7, tracks 4-7 / Disc 8, tracks 10-12) are a different matter: If you like this kind of music, you'll love these tunes, but Henderson just acts as a session musician here (one of the highest order, though). - The rest of the program ranges from so-so (CANYON LADY: Disc 6, tracks 3-7) or kind of weird but rewarding (ELEMENTS, the encounter with Alice Coltrane: Disc 6, track 8 / Disc 7, tracks 1-3) to utterly unlistenable (BLACK MIRACLE: Disc 8, tracks 4-9). Henderson is let down by his rhythm sections (which were obviously not selected for their suitability but for marketing reasons) more and more; he's arguably the most adaptable saxophonist around, but even he cannot cope with a situation when he has to (?) play with uninspired or incompatible fellow musicians. - - All in all, about one or two of the CDs are seriously flawed, but the first and better half of the material is nothing short of breathtaking; much of the best stuff can't be found anywhere else, and for me much of the jazz rock was a very pleasant surprise. You'll have to decide by yourself whether you want to invest in a highly priced but somewhat uneven collection like this one, but if you want to hear the real apexes of Joe Henderson's output, it comes close to a necessity, at least for the time being.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great box set includes all of Joe's Milestone recordings, November 1, 1999

By 

Weather_guy "[e-mail]" (Monterey, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Henderson - The Milestone Years 8 CD Box Set (Audio CD)

Any fan of tenor great Joe Henderson should enjoy this large box set that collects all of Joe's recordings (1967-1976) for the Milestone label. The music is more wide-ranging in style than his earlier work for Blue Note (mostly 1960s) and his later work on Verve (mostly 1990s). Treasures abound: Chelsea Bridge, Nardis, Isotope, Canyon Lady, live material with Woody Shaw, another live date in Japan, and much more. The collected works of Joe Henderson over the last 35 years are a national musical treasure.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars GREAT SAX, MEDIOCRE FORMATS, March 30, 2010

By 

David Keymer "David Keymer" (Modesto CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joe Henderson - The Milestone Years 8 CD Box Set (Audio CD)

Two four-packs, eight CDs in all, documenting tenor sax player Henderson's years with Milestone Records and Orrin Keepnews. Henderson signed with Milestone in 1967 and recorded with them through 1976. During this time, he -or producer Keepnews--experimented with several formats and never settled on one. These were bad years for jazz -the Beatles were in and young people had moved from cool or hard bop to guitar-based rock. Keepnews and Henderson kept trying to find a successful format. Eventually, they parted ways. Milestone could not afford to keep Henderson and Henderson was frustrated by his failure to reach a larger listening audience. Throughout these eight disks, Henderson is firstrate: he was then, as later, a modernist with roots, who created compelling solos. His solos told stories, they weren't just strings of notes or a patching together of clichés. And he was adaptable as the cuts on the second CD show, where he is a sideman to the more traditional and funk-oriented Nat Adderley. I wish I liked these albums better because I like Henderson a lot. But much of what is played here seems sadly dated -sessions with George Duke, Alice Coltrane, etc. The truth is that Milestone never figured out how to take advantage of a master saxophonist whose strength was melodic invention and a sophisticated harmonic sense.