A new jazz style emerged in the late 1960s that wasn't an extension of hard bop or free jazz. For a brief seven or eight years—following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 and the onset of fusion in the mid-1970s—a new Black power expression wrapped in Pan-Africanism appeared in the works of Black journalists, books on the Black condition by Black intellectuals, folk paintings by Black artists and music by Black jazz artists. [Photo above of Joe Henderson by Chuck Stewart]
During these years, the music by a growing number of leading jazz musicians embraced African culture and the idealism of African countries newly liberated from colonialism. The list of artists included Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Jack DeJohnette, Larry Willis, Bennie Maupin and many others.
Among them was Joe Henderson, whose Power to the People (Milestone) was and remains a landmark album. Recorded in May 1969, the album included Mike Lawrence (tp), Joe Henderson (ts), Herbie Hancock (p,el-p), Ron Carter (b,el-b) and Jack DeJohnette (d).
Five of the seven tracks were by Henderson, one was by Ron Carter (Opus One-Point-Five) and another was the standard Lazy Afternoon.
Most exciting was Hancock's dynamic and sensual piano and electric piano topped by the dry, forceful tone of Henderson's saxophone, and the zig-zagging drums of DeJohnette. You can hear the social restlessness and political energy in the music at a time of enormous political disappointment and upheaval following the assassinations of King and Bobby Kennedy. But you can also hear the embrace of Africa as a promised land through songs of sorrow and hope.
The tracks:
- Black Narcissus
- Afro-Centric
- Opus One-Point-Five
- Isotope
- Power to the People
- Lazy Afternoon
- Foresight and Afterthought (An Impromptu Suite in Three Movements)
Henderson remains a tenor saxophonist who hasn't been given his full due on albums that followed his Blue Note period. Standing out was certainly tough in a decade in which John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter dominated. Yet on Power to the People, we hear the flowering of Henderson's remarkable originality and his purposeful tone. It's breathtaking to hear this group in complete touch with their times.
And hats off to Orrin Keepnews, who produced the recording on Milestone. Orrin co-founded the label with pianist Dick Katz in 1966 following the death of his former partner in Riverside Records, Bill Grauer, and Riverside's subsequent bankruptcy.
Joe Henderson died in 2001 at age 64.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the digital version of Joe Henderson's Power to the People (Milestone) here and on most streaming platforms.
If you want the vinyl format, you're in luck. Earlier this year, Concord's Craft Recordings in cooperation with Jazz Dispensary released the LP here. It's the album’s first reissue in more than 50 years. This Jazz Dispensary release was mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, and comes packaged in a gatefold jacket.
JazzWax clips: Here's Black Narcissus...
And here's Lazy Afternoon...
