Joe Henderson - In 'N Out (Blue Note 80 Series Vinyl LP)

Joe Henderson - In 'N Out | Vinyl LP - Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue (BST 84166, mastered by Kevin Gray, 180g)

Joe Henderson recorded The Sidewinder with Lee Morgan in December 1963 and Idle Moments with Grant Green in November 1963. Four months later he brought his own quintet to Van Gelder Studio and made In 'N Out, the album that shows what he was hearing in his own time. The difference is the rhythm section. McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones were Coltrane's pianist and drummer, and their presence on a Henderson session transforms the music: Tyner's quartal voicings and Jones's polyrhythmic drumming push Henderson's compositions into a modal, harmonically open space that the Sidewinder and Idle Moments rhythm sections didn't inhabit. Kenny Dorham plays trumpet. Dorham was a generation older than Henderson, a hard bop veteran who'd co-led the Jazz Messengers before Clifford Brown and who brought a lyrical warmth to everything he played. Richard Davis, one of the most versatile bassists in New York, holds the centre between Dorham's melodicism and the Tyner/Jones intensity.

All five compositions are Henderson's. "In 'N Out" and "Punjab" on side A are the most rhythmically complex, built on shifting metres and modal structures. "Serenity" opens side B as a ballad that lives up to its name. "Short Story" and "Brown's Town" close the album with writing that moves between post-bop harmony and blues. Don Heckman wrote the liner notes. 

This is the Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series pressing (BST 84166 / 0802773), mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed at Optimal Media on 180g vinyl.