Joe Henderson - Page One (Blue Note Classic Vinyl 180g LP)

Joe Henderson - Page One | Vinyl LP - Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series, all-analog 180g reissue (Kevin Gray mastering)

Page One is Joe Henderson's first album as a leader, cut for Blue Note in June 1963 when he was still a newcomer. The trumpeter Kenny Dorham had taken the young tenor player under his wing and brought him to the label's attention, and he plays on the date, wrote the liner notes and contributed two tunes. The rhythm section is first-rate: McCoy Tyner, briefly on loan from John Coltrane's quartet, on piano, with Butch Warren on bass and Pete La Roca on drums. The record catches the moment the bossa nova wave was breaking over American jazz, and two of its tunes became standards that every young player still learns: Dorham's "Blue Bossa" and Henderson's own "Recorda-Me". Around them, Henderson's writing on "Homestretch" and "Jinrikisha" shows a tougher, more angular side, and his tenor already has the grainy, questing tone that would make him one of the instrument's greats.

Henderson went on to become one of the defining tenor saxophonists of his generation, and Page One remains the perfect introduction, an album with two standards on it and not a weak track anywhere. This is the Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition, the label's all-analog reissue line: mastered by Kevin Gray from the original tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal in Germany.