Customer Reviews

Joe Henderson - The Milestone Years 8 CD Box Set

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Needless to say you won't find a better bargain out there than this excellent 8 CD set of Henderson's Milestone material. The sheer scope of this Box Set is something to marvel at as it spans the exciting decade of 1967 - 1977. It ranges from swinging bop to soulful blues to free form to fusion, all handled well by the ever tasteful and talented Henderson. The collaboration with Flora Purim yields beautiful results and shows why she was in such demand in the early 1970's (Santana, Chick Corea etc.) Henderson proves once again that he was clearly one of the saxophone giants of his time. If you can pick this up for $30.00 do it, enough said.

Well, I must say that I am not really having much fun with this material. My main criticism regards the ominous presence of either the horrendous 'electric piano', played by not so great hands, or the equally dreadful 'electric bass', played by either Ron Carter or Dave Holland - a real waste of talent, in other words. Whereas Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and some very few others did record some great fusion albums, in my opinion this is not the case with Henderson. The 69-70 live sessions - Lighthouse/Japan - still very much within the jazz idiom, are particularly marred by the electric piano - they really deserved better...

As for the rest of the sessions, they sometimes have their 'bright moments', but in the average they are quite mediocre. Bad fusion, period.

So, if you ask me: was it worth paying U$30 for 8 cds full of Joe Henderson material? I'd have to scrath my head and say: well, not really. In a sense, it is a real bargain, but in another it is a real letdown. So let us remake the question: is it worth paying U$30 for 8 cds ful of Joe Henderson SEVENTIES material? Place your bets, my friends.