Joe Henderson – Earth
Joe Henderson – Fire (Excerpt)
Joe Henderson – Water
I’ve written previously of my love for this period of time in the storied career of Joe Henderson. I’m not entirely sure of it, but I’ve often thought that Henderson’s work with Alice Coltrane on her 1970 album, Ptah, the El Dahoud, shifted his playing into new directions. This was around the same time that he moved to the Bay Area which also must have had an influence on his style. Without question, there is a difference between Henderson’s early material on Milestone (not to mention his previous work for Blue Note and others) and the records he started to cut after 1971.
This album’s concept seems relatively simple. The album includes four songs, each named for the classical elements, Fire, Air, Water and Earth. From all appearances these tracks were largely improvised by the players in studio with little written out. These kind of projects didn’t always have stellar results, but when the players include Alice Coltrane, Charlie Haden and Michael White you’re guaranteed that something special is going to occur. All four tracks are lovely to behold, incorporating so many different influences (since there are only 4 tracks on the album, I’ve only included an excerpt of “Fire” which picks up at the midway point after White’s solo and just before Coltrane’s on harp), but the standout is the otherworldly “Earth.” After some blistering tabla work, the song unexpectedly locks into one of the deepest, slowest, spiritual jazz grooves I’ve ever heard, with Coltrane on Tamboura and Leon Chancler on the drums. I’ve always wanted to play this on a big sound system in front of a crowd to see how they would respond to the hypnotic quality of the music, but haven’t gotten the chance to try it (though I might here in the summer…stay tuned).
Charlie Haden isn’t featured on too many tracks that have this heavy of a groove, but his bass is a standout, both in anchoring the rhythm and for the way his unaccompanied solo signals the shift that occurs half-way in the song, where Coltrane shifts back to Harp and Kenneth Nash adds some poetry, before the groove comes back slower and heavier than before. “Earth” is simply one of the most engrossing musical performances I’ve ever known.
Cheers,
Michael