Jazz Alley

Posted by Rick W (B) on March 28, 2021 at 12:03:29

In Reply to: RE: Joe Henderson.... posted by andy evans on March 28, 2021 at 01:09:13

Think the first time I heard Henderson live was in the '60's at a Left Bank Jazz Society concert in Baltimore. It was Joe's gig and he had Woody Shaw in the group. Killer concert! IIRC I also heard him in the '60's w/Horace Silver at Bohemian Caverns in D.C. Both those times what I heard was his sound via mic/PA system. Judging from those live performances and records I thought Joe had a big powerful sound. Didn't sound "hard" to my ears.

I never got a chance to hear him close up sans mic until the '80's. I sat around 5 ft. away from him at the old 7th Ave. South club in Manhattan. A few times he veered away from the mic and I heard his acoustic sound. As oldmkvi mentioned, it was actually a pretty small/soft and rounded sound.

Its true that his sound on a lot of his earlier recordings is different than recordings from State Of The Tenor on, but there's no way to tell why. Different mic, recording techniques/eq, different m'piece and/or reeds, different horn could all account for it - as well as just Joe deciding to go for a mellower sound.

Henderson certainly isn't the only saxophone player whose sound changed. Rollins, 'Trane, Mike Brecker, Bob Berg, Wayne Shorter are among quite a few guys whose sound changed somewhat subtly but noticeably when they changed m'pieces. My own sound on both alto and tenor changed due to m'piece changes. At any rate, I've always been knocked out by Henderson's playing and always found his sound(s) attractive and emotive rather than hard.